Every year, Cohan-Petrolino visits close to a hundred BA and MA fine art and design degree shows across London and attends dozens of private views or exhibitions at emerging art galleries each month, looking at the trends in pricing across all of these exhibitions.  To have a clear idea about pricing your work, you need to know what comparable artists are doing.  Your peers could be considered as comparable artists to you right now; artists who are at a similar place in their career to you and whose medium is comparable to yours (i.e. If you paint oil on large canvases do not compare yourself to a sculptor who works in marble or video artist; look for another painter working with similar materials).

This research is important to give you a realistic and relevant view of the market.  If everyone else that you compare yourself to is selling work at between, say £1,500 and £3,000 but you want to sell your work at £5,500, you may want to consider lowering your prices.  Similarly, if you are considering selling your work for around the £400 in this scenario, you might want to increase your prices (and your self-confidence in pricing your work).  In effect, you are ‘benchmarking’ your artworks within a pricing range and giving yourself realistic limits to work within.