Alice, I had been following your picture-a-day before we went away; I love the Etsy setup. I think not only are the items superb attractants, but proved fairly and very tempting. I can see a modest purchase in the future as Christmas draws nearer.

I agree that selling pictures matted is the way to go; I always like to pick my own frame and I often display things in their mats till I come across the right frame. I see that in other homes as well, sometimes with a larger mat (or mats) added to make a small image more important with or without a large frame. You might want to set one up like that just for a picture, and offer that as a custom option on all the smalls. That way you show what you can do, how your work can be used in a large or small format, and save yourself the work involved in doing work not on order.

Now, another idea-- not to devalue your paintings, exactly as they are, but to think about pricing options to bring in bucks... in my tiny budget, it would be worth it to me to have your work in photo form. Because your smalls' faces are what have drawn me. They have a power in paint, and another power on screen and/or in photo form. And you can print a photo to order on the home puder, mat it, sign it, and stick it in an envelope, viola!

Anyway the thing with Etsy (from my DIL's experience) seems to be, post what "can" be done but keep the work itself to a minimum till an order pays the seller to actually do the work.

~Susan