“Tomboy” by Nicholas Wilton.
When someone is about to purchase your art they always look at it for a long time. They also look at the small white tag on the wall next to the art to see the title. They are looking for connection with your art. How the work looks offers the primary point of connection for the buyer. The title of the work, however, can also provide another point of connection for a buyer who is undecided, to then go ahead and purchase your work.
Here are 3 key ideas to remember when creating titles that can help sell your art.
1 Don’t be redundant.
Do not try to restate exactly what the painting is already communicating. Think of the title as an additional part of the art that provides something new. For example if you paint a picture of a dog growling at a passerby and you call it “The Mean Dog” then basically both the art and the title are saying the same thing. Instead, choose a title that is more different than your art, not less. You want the title of your artwork to offer a new experience that is refreshingly different.
2 Connect the feeling of the Art to the title
Instead of a title that is a literal retelling of your art, identify the key feeling you experience or want to convey. Then choose words or phrases for a title that conjure up those same feelings in you. For example if your art is showing green grass against a blue sky, instead of the title being “grass” it could be “breeze” which could relate to the feeling of lying in tall grass on a spring day and how that feels. “Breeze” gives the viewer something new in addition to green grass. You just doubled the chance that someone will connect with your art.
3 Make your Title Expansive.
You want the title of your artwork, whether it is literal or abstract, to be as encompassing and expansive as possible. If the title is expansive then there is room for the viewer to have their own interpretation. For example, if your painting is a series of red shapes, instead of titling it “Red Shapes” you called it “Crimson Storm” then most likely there will be more room for interpretation in the second name. Allowing others to find their own meaning in your work is not just generous, but also increases the likelihood that someone will personally interpret and then, as a result, purchase your Art.
Have you found that great titles help sell your Art? Please leave your comments below.
With encouragement, Nicholas
If you would like to subscribe to my blog and monthly newsletter, please click here.
13 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
Good advice. Thank you.
Yep hope it helps you.
Finally someone says something about the importance of painting titles! Great points made…I’m an artist as well as a curator and everyday I hang art with boring titles. Like you said, restating the obvious! I am memory focused when I paint and, though I paint landscapes or florals, I do them more from memory rather than realistic…so as I trail off into my painting universe I think about people and places and things I’ve done and then suddenly I find myself with titles for my paintings. Some are a little odd and others not so obvious. For example, the week my grandfather passed away I was painting a series of purple flowers, so I named the series after memories and thoughts I had of him. One painting was titled “Hello Again Sweet June.” Many would think I am just suggesting the arrival of summer, but in actuality I am referring to him meeting with his wife once again. Titles can be so much fun and so meaningful, and hopefully engaging! How boring would it be if I had titled this series, “Purple Flowers I”, etc.?
Yes- just having an extra layer of meaning- in this case your father–and even though people don’t totally understand-they sense it and that makes it way more richer and deep…
Absolutely.
Well said.
Wonderful advice. My fellow artists and myself recently were in a show and were trying to help each other with titles which we to found to be a challenging process. I will pass along your post to my friends and will keep these ideas in mind the next time we are stumped for a title. Thanks for sharing your ideas, it’s greatly appreciated.
Jackie- one thing I do a lot is – once I identify a feeling and then think of associations with that feeling- I look it up on wikipedia–which gives me TONS more cool words all related to that original feeling.
Thank you for starting this conversation, Nicholas. I find titling my paintings can enhance the experience for viewers, but at other times can inhibit their experience. I don’t always want to title my works, and have even been told by some people to not title them, in order to leave the interpretation and emotional response of the viewer completely up to them. I will continue to title/not title as I feel appropriate for each painting. Your suggestions on how to choose titles are excellent. Thank you!
Yes that is an interesting point–leaving it blank almost like a blank canvas. I tend to direct people or suggest some starting point but that is an interesting point about the title “untitled”
Thanks. Good ideas and common sense, I find, always work,
Faye Gordon-Lewis
Thank you for sharing this article. I so agree with you. I really dislike it, when a painting has a Number as a title. A beautiful word encompassing a feeling is almost as important as the painting itself. I especially liked on of your titles, which was “Siren Song”.
Glad that someone is talking about titles. When I first started, I called my paintings “Scratch Horizon” with a number, starting with 001. This worked for the first twenty five or so paintings. I was working smaller and faster then. Scratch Horizon encompassed all my art was about, the balance of chance and control, chaos and order. I was, and to some extent still am influenced by the seascapes of my home in Brighton UK. The paintings all had a sharp horizontal line or divide (order) which I would attack with fast random scratches (chaos). Total chaos is uncomfortable. Total control is bland. I wanted the work to have a serenity, a stillness. I believed our perception of calm was exactly that, a perception in relation to energy. Scratch Horizon also felt kind of modern and punky.
I then started calling pieces “Untitled” with a number as they were no longer abstractions of seascapes. I didn’t want the title to influence interpretation in any way. But galleries don’t much like this and it was hard keep track of works. Untitled 118? em… which one is that? and I’d be looking through photos to find it. Now I title pieces with an almost jokey ambiguity that may only slightly indicate what the work might be about. I hate reading a title that leaves you looking for it in the painting. Often the title has more to do with the process or the route than the finished piece. I like titling abstract works with abstract titles that viewers hopefully understand are impossible to fathom so won’r try but never the less build an identity. The last piece I sold was called “Return to Lummus” It’s kind of poetic. It was a commission, a reworking of a previous piece that the customer saw but was had already been sold. Hence Return and Lummus an indication that this inspired by a place I know which in fact I’ve never been to and few people seeing it would have heard of it, however the simply implies a that there is a history and meaning for the artist without having to understand or know what that is to enjoy the piece.