Today’s Art Marketing Action newsletter is about creating a body of work. I write, “As a mature exhibiting artist, you need to create enough work to have a couple of solo exhibits simultaneously.” But I know that you want a number.

You’d be happy if I’d say that you’re sitting pretty if you have 20 works in a recognizable style. But I’m not going to do that. (Apologies)

Image (c) Bonnie Hurst, Buffalo Painting #2 (detail)

Some people will tell you to have enough work for two solo exhibits. In her email query to me, Bonnie Hurst noted that Georgia O’Keeffe said three exhibits. Remember back when we used to use slide sheets? We heard that artists needed two pages of slides (40 works) in a recognizable style.

But the answer can’t be the same for every artist. Some artists produce at a much slower rate and the work is grander in scale. They [...]