Jeremy Holton Australia/Thailand artist/teacher: Selling art on the Internet

Jeremy Holton has worked as an IT specialist and a professional artist. He combined these skills when he started the Peach Tree Gallery website at the dawn of the Internet in 1996. This was one of the first web galleries in the world and Jeremy believes it is the oldest web gallery still operating after 18 years. The address of the gallery is www.peachtreegallery.com and every year copies of it are included in the Australian National Archives.

Jeremy has a lot of experience in selling paintings over the Internet and in today's tough environment for artists and galleries; he thinks it is the only way to go.

He says that seeing a photo of a painting on a computer screen is not the same as experiencing the real thing so he always assures buyers that they can get a full refund less freight costs if they are not 100% happy with the painting. This is mainly because he doesn't want somebody to own one of his paintings unless they love it. He has sold hundreds of paintings and nobody has ever returned one.

Paint anywhere

Summer evening Cottesloe

One of the advantages for artists selling over the Internet is that you can live anywhere. Jeremy remembers that in 2005 when he was living in a small rural village in NE Thailand he had a commission from a lady living in England for a painting of Cottesloe beach. He did the painting "Summer evening Cottesloe" and sent it to UK without ever setting foot in Australia. He used photos as an aide memoire but says that he has painted Cottesloe so many times he could almost do it from memory.

Pitfalls

There are always pitfalls in selling paintings and Jeremy recounts an experience with a lady in Sydney who bought two of his paintings over the Internet 'Colours of time' and 'Afternoon delight"

Afternoon delight

Colours of time

She asked Jeremy to do some more poppy paintings for her and he did three new ones

Poppy time

Poppy day

Poppy after dark

After viewing these on her screen she decided she wanted a more realistic style so Jeremy painted Perfect poppies for her.

Perfect poppies

Then she decided she couldn't afford another painting and Jeremy was left with four poppy paintings. He says it's not a problem as they will sell eventually.

Success

Fortunately there are many collectors of Jeremy's work. A recent regular buyer has been a retired surgeon in Florida, USA who has been buying paintings of Perth including 'Camelot'