ways Nigerians enrich their surroundings, including their homes and workplaces. They want the venues where they spend the majority of their time to be visually appealing, particularly art-loving CEOs of a business.
Being an artist can be a profitable business in Nigeria because many people purchase artwork for different purposes. To some, they have it on the walls of an office for creativity. And to others, it’s just a way to express their culture.
There are different categories of art painting. They include; landscape painting, portrait painting, and cultural painting are just three examples.
A painting artist, Adeyemi Austin, claims that, to succeed in this line of work, a person must identify their talent early in life and, more importantly, have people around them to encourage and support them so that they can develop it, which can help one rise to the highest level one can imagine.
Training
The importance of education or learning through an apprenticeship cannot be overstated in terms of attaining anything in life. Education allows one to become enlightened regardless of talent. Until you are educated, you will not be able to compete with talent alone.
Patronage
Everyone knows that artwork is costly. As a result, artists receive patronage from society—people who appreciate the artwork or are celebrating. For example, people who want to show appreciation to their boss but cannot give him or her money come to artist shops for work so they can present it to them.
Profitability
According to Austin, “artwork is profitable across the world and even here in Nigeria. However, you cannot predict how much you can make or sell your artwork. Those who love artwork patronise us, and we also get referrals from them. Aside from selling artwork, we also earned money when people came for apprenticeships at our studio. This usually costs between N50,000 and N65,000 on average.”
Challenges
“There are challenges in this work in terms of marketing because people
love the artwork and appreciate good ones, but unlike other things they rush to, such as music and football, we don’t have that luxury.
“Another major issue we face in this sector is the instability of the exchange rate. We source our materials abroad, and this affects the prices of materials. We are a society that is coming up with ideas as regards the materials for painting work. We do not have all of the materials here and so we import, we can get there because the countries where we import from have been into arts centuries ago,” he pointed out.
Advice
Austin, while advising younger ones, said, “whatever you are doing, do it with all your might and strength. If you want to become someone, you must continue to work; aside from the money, you see it as a lifetime career that must be pursued rigorously, and you are on your way to success.”
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