Selling Watercolor Art: Lightfastness, Prints, and Being Honest With Buyers
Oh boy, so you’ve decided to sell some of your art pieces? Once money enters the chat, the lightfastness of the pigments you select suddenly matters a lot more. If you’re selling watercolor art (especially originals) you don’t need to be a conservation expert. But you do need to understand expectations.
Originals vs prints
The art market is vide and varied, and what an artist sells should be as well. Prints are a great way to add a revenue stream, but originals can fetch more. However, there are some main differenced when it comes to the buyer expectations for each:
Originals: Buyers generally expect these to last decades, maybe even up to 100 years, with proper care
Prints: Longevity depends on paper, ink, and display conditions (I’ll discuss this in a separate blog post), but usually aiming to get about 20 years is fine if you’re pricing them appropriately.
So, knowing the longevity expectations from each, this means that while using fugitive pigments in originals isn’t unethical—but not disclosing it can be.
What disclosure actually looks like
You don’t need a scary disclaimer in your listings, or on your authenticity certificates. It can be as simple as:
“Best displayed out of direct sunlight” - you can add a note about avoiding south facing light as well if you want
“Painted with professional watercolor pigments” - this implies that you are using pigments with a better lightfast raiting
Or, if needed: “Some pigments may soften over time”. - you can add this to works that you painted with more fugitive colors that turned out amazing/have a buyer
Archival expectations (the realistic version)
When selling original artworks ( or even prints) it’s best to add information about the lightfastness of the pigments to the description, and care/preservation information to any materials you add when you ship the piece out. I like to add a “care tag” of sorts when I ship out originals. While not attached to the artwork, it’s an additional card that goes through the following information that a buyer would need to know about owning an original artwork:
Indicate the lightfast pigments (ASTM I–II when possible)
Indicate the paper it was painted on ( ideally acid free and 100% cotton paper)
Suggest UV-protective glass for framining, and hanging away from direct sunlight.
The artist truth
Many of us grew up with student grade watercolor paints, and if your parents hung your originals on the fridge, you may have noticed the color shift over time. Avoiding that as you’re working to sell your art is the goal now, and I’ve made a tool that helps new and seasoned painters make informed decisions about the paint they use and buy, t increasing the transparency between you and the paint companies, and you and your buyers.