I raised my prices 40% this year and lost exactly one client

After a decade of charging what I thought was reasonable, 800€ for a 40x50cm oil, I finally did what my husband's been telling me to do for years and raised them to 1,100€ for the same format. Same canvas, same hours, same me. Just finally stopped apologising for what I ask.

I lost one client. A woman who'd bought three paintings from me over the years, always asked for a small discount, always got one. She sent a polite email saying she couldn't justify the increase. I wrote back, equally polite, that I understood completely. And honestly? The relief of not painting for someone who sees your work as something to bargain over is worth the lost sale.

The other clients didn't blink. One said she'd been waiting for me to raise them. That stung more than the loss, in a good way.

I know the numbers are different for everyone, different city, different medium, different audience. But I wish someone had told me ten years ago that the fear of losing clients is usually worse than the reality. The ones who value what you do will stay. The ones who don't were already costing you more than they paid.

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Giulia Bruno·3w

The interesting thing here isn't the client you lost, it's the one you kept. Or the ones who didn't even flinch. Because what changed wasn't the painting, it was the signal. 800 said "I'm still figuring out what this is worth." 1,100 said "this is what it is." Collectors pick up on that more than we give them credit for. The woman who left was probably responding to the shift in dynamic as much as the number itself. The discount she always got was part of your relationship, and you changed the terms.

I doubled my edition prices a few years ago and lost nobody. Just felt stupid I hadn't done it sooner.

Camille LaurentOP·3w

That bit about the signal, I think you're exactly right. The discount was part of the arrangement, and when I took it away the arrangement didn't make sense to her anymore. Not about 300€. Three hundred euros over three years, spread out, is nothing to someone buying original oil paintings. It was about what the discount meant to her.

The ones who didn't flinch? One of them said "it's about time" and that was that.

Niall Doherty·3w

Ah sure, the one you lost is doing you a favour and doesn't even know it. Three paintings and always angling for the discount, that's not a collector, that's someone who's used to a certain arrangement. And you changed the arrangement. Fair play to you.

The bit that gets me is the relief you mention. That's the thing, isn't it? When you're charging what you half-believe you're worth, the whole transaction has a stoop in it. You're already apologising before you've even mixed the paint. And the client can feel it, they know there's give in you. Raise the price and suddenly the handshake's level. You're not doing them a favour anymore, you're selling them a painting.

Eight hundred to eleven hundred is a good jump, fair play for having the neck. And I'd say the ones who stayed? They're probably delighted. Nobody wants to think their artist is cheaping themselves, it makes the painting feel cheap too. You've done them a favour as much as yourself.

What's the next size up going out at now, if you don't mind me asking?

Camille LaurentOP·3w

Exactly. "A stoop in it", that's it perfectly. I'd never have said it that way but I felt it every time I mixed paint for her. Like I was already bracing for the negotiation before she'd even seen the work.

And you're right that the client feels it. They sense the hesitation the way a horse senses you're afraid of it. Once the price straightened up, the whole dynamic straightened up with it. Funny how much of painting isn't about paint at all.