Why do oil paintings sell for more than acrylic paintings?

I have been painting abstract art for years. I recently decided it might be fun to start selling paintings online, through websites and stuff like eBay. The problem is; Oil paintings sell for a ton more than acrylic paintings on eBay. Why is this?Why do oil paintings sell for more than acrylic paintings?
Oil is seen as a more ';pro'; type of paint - there really isn't a difference. However I have a few tips for your abstract paintings to go further :D no need to switch to oil, oil + abstract usually turns out crap and wasteful... although i have seen some very beautiful ones...





anyway





you got to PRODUCT your paintings. Make something about it unique and more than just ';acrylic';. For example I know this guy who did acrylic abstract paintings but encased them into plastic to make it look like enamel - a shiny plastic surface effect. His work was a little more commercial too and he sold to hotels...


if you want to really get into selling (and if you havent sold any yet) it might be worthwhile considering your target market and what makes you stand out.Why do oil paintings sell for more than acrylic paintings?
This has been acrylics problem from the time it was invented. No oil painting artist of that time embraced it or would even consider it as alternative as some might today. The arts and craft world however took to it like a duck to water and here lies the perception that acrylic paintings are knock offs, that acrylics are mostly used for decorative painting, or that acrylic painters don't have what it takes to master the techniques required of oils. What ever it is, it's quite obvious which medium people prefer the most in a painting. As a painter who started out with acrylics but now paint exclusively with oils i can tell you there is definitely a noticeable difference between the two and some people will pick up on this. Perhaps it's the romantic notion that an artist painting in oils toils pretty much as his predecessors did, alone with his paints and canvas, burning the midnight oil over many nights working to achieve the impossible. Acrylics on the other hand seems to have that one two punch and it over and done with. Right or wrong i don't think this will change anytime soon.
Yeah, oils do seem do too often seem to command higher prices.





Here is my guess.


More hobbyists and beginners use acrylics over oils because they dry faster, are easier to clean up, and they are less expensive, so this might cheapen the whole realm of acrylics in some people's minds. So this means that purchasers might associate acrylics with being the less professional medium.





It's like beginning drinkers usually start with really sweet drinks, then after they get sick on too many of them they move to dryer drinks , so whenever you hear someone order a Pina colada it does not have the same ';prestige'; as straight scotch. Whenever you hear someone order a straight scotch you just assume they are a more experienced drinker than someone who orders a Pina colada.





With classical music beginners at concerts seem to like the ';lighter'; composers like Chopin better, and they eventually work their way up to composers like Mahler.


';Adoring Mahler'; has more Prestige than liking Chopin because Mahler's music is not as accessible to less experienced ears.





So maybe, even though some sweet drinks are great, and the light composers did some really wonderful stuff, Oils in painting are like Scotch in drinking, and Mahler in music. More prestige.





By the way, I prefer working in acrylics too.





I was just thinking, oils hold more pigment so the colors look a little richer, but acrylics don't fade over time, so there are advantages to each that end up being a wash.





(This is just a guess as to why oils seem to sell for more. I could very well be wrong, but I don't know what else, besides the association with acrylics being regarded a medium for beginners, that makes as much sense.)





Interesting question!
Well, I can tell you, by walking through art stores and hobby stores, that acrylic paint is usually a lot less expensive than oil paints. Add to that the cost of the thinners and mediums and other supplies you need (I'm guessing, since you're using caustic chemicals to clean the brushes, you have to replace those more frequently too), it makes sense that oil paintings would sell for more. I use acrylics to paint ceramic figures, and I know I've only had to wash the brushes with soap and water, and the paints don't dry out or separate nearly as often. I've hardly put any money into my crafts, so I can only guess that cost would be a major factor in figuring out pricing.





Another reason might be the overall look of the finished piece. Oil paintings have a glossy finish that I've never seen with acrylics. They look more professional, I guess would be the word.
Oil paint is indeed more expensive than acrylics, but I think the real reason that oil paintings sell for more is because oil paint takes more time to work with and dry, and requires more effort and materials to clean up and work with.





Learning the ins and outs of oil painting, the mediums, oils, additives, pigments, and solvents takes more time and training than acrylics.





The important thing is that you work with what you love and whatever makes sense for the kind of work you are making. Some of David Hockney's bright, flat, stylized paintings, for example, wouldn't make sense in oil!





Rose


http://effartblog.blogspot.com


http://www.rosebriccetti.com
quality, history, greater depth of chromatic range, refinement of paint to paint interaction, appearance, subtlety, broader range of transparency/opacity balances, beauty, infinite complexity of surface vs dehumanizing appearance of plastic, greater ability to build luminous interaction between layered glazes, etc etc etc
Well for one thing, oil paint costs way more than acrylic. I'd also say that people generally like oil paintings more than acrylic paintings. I personally like the sheen and the transparency that can be achieved with oil paint more so than with acrylic paint.
Oils cost more to produce, they have a classical painterly feel to the casual observer, and acrylics are not seen as the same quality as the oils. I know for myself my oil paintings look more painterly than my acrylics.
I believe it's because oil paints cost more money than acrylics, therefore to gain any profit you would have to price it more than if you were going to sell the exact same painting that was done in acrylics.