THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: If you’re wondering what our collectors are buying now in 2026, the answer might surprise you. Collectors are still buying, but they’re saying yes to very specific kinds of art, and most artists are completely misreading the signals.
Speaker 2: It’s The Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place podcast, an Art World Insider podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Hey, welcome to The Inspiration Place. I’m Miriam Schulman, your curator of inspiration and author of Artpreneur The Step by Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity, and founder of the Artist Incubator Program, where I’ve coached hundreds of artists and many of them over the six figure mark. Now, if you’ve been paying attention to the headlines about the art market, you might be thinking collectors have disappeared. You’ll see articles about auctions, cooling galleries closing, and a lot of hand-wringing about whether the boom years are over. But here’s the thing collectors did not stop buying art, but they did get more selective. And I see this every single week inside my Artist Incubator with artists who are selling work right now. Not blue chip artists, not people with museum shows, artists much closer to you, paintings selling directly from email lists, collectors buying artwork the moment it’s released, and interior designers placing work in homes and offices. So the question isn’t, are people buying art? The question is what kinds of art are collectors actually saying yes to in 2026 and why? And if you like this type of content and you want to make sure you don’t miss out on any of my new videos, make sure you hit subscribe because I don’t want you to miss out on any of these videos that we have coming up this year. So what kind of art are collectors actually saying yes to in 2026 and why? Because the artists who understand that are still selling an artist who don’t are the ones posting on Instagram wondering why nothing is moving.
Miriam Schulman: In this episode, I’m going to break down what collectors are buying right now based on two things. First is the actual market data reports from places like artsy Art Basel and the Art newspaper. And second, what I’m seeing on the ground from working artists who are selling directly to collectors. And you might be surprised by what’s actually working right now. Now, before we dive in, I want you to think about this. If a collector landed on your website today, what’s the easiest piece for them to say yes to. And I don’t mean the cheapest, I mean the one that feels like the most obvious to buy. The one with the least amount of friction. The one with the most clarity. The strongest pull. Hey. And if you like, go ahead and share a link to your art in the comments. I can’t wait to see it. The price range collectors are buying in right now, so let’s start with the part that should actually make most artists feel relieved. Because when you read the headlines about the art market, you might assume collectors are only buying two extremes either million dollar trophy pieces or $200 impulse buys. But the research shows something very different.
Miriam Schulman: Across multiple reports from Art price, the Hiscox Online Art trade report and data from artsy. The strongest and most consistent transaction range is under $10,000, especially between 1000 and 5000. In fact, this report found that 60% of online collectors, 60% purchased artwork under $5,000, and art price is seeing continued growth in transactions under 10,000. So if you’re an artist working in the 1000 to $10,000 range, you are sitting in the sweetest part of the market right now. So here’s the nuance that often gets misunderstood when these reports say collectors are buying smaller works, they don’t mean tiny works. They mean domestic friendly works. Work that fits comfortably in a home, in an apartment, and an office. Art that someone can live with on a daily basis, not something that requires a warehouse or a double height atrium to install. And urban collectors, especially think New York, London, Los Angeles are buying pieces that fit into real living spaces. And yes, gallery walls with multiple focal points are trending. But that doesn’t mean artists should start making postcard sized paintings. For most artists, I would say your smallest work should be 12 by 12. But really, I encourage my clients to consider making their smallest ones 20 by 20 or even 30 by 30, and that’s inches. That’s still substantial enough to feel like a real piece of art. Smaller than that, it starts to feel more like a study rather than a focal point.
Miriam Schulman: And this is what I’m seeing inside my Artist Incubator that mirrors this data perfectly. Artists releasing cohesive series in the 2 to $6000 range are selling consistently. Collectors are saying yes to artwork that’s meaningful, livable and easy to place in a home. Not necessarily cheap, just livable. So let’s look at the art sold recently by Artist Incubator members that fit this category. If you’ve been listening to this over on my podcast as an audio, you’re really missing out because on YouTube you get to see the art that I’m talking about. Make sure you head on over to YouTube. I’m The Inspiration Place over there as well. Hey, if you’re listening to this. So we have both versions and realizing I’ve been making this harder than it needs to. You’re not alone. Most artists are working very hard, but they’re focused on the wrong things Because you have a clarity problem if you don’t know what to say, how to prize, or how to make it easy for a collector to say yes to you. That’s exactly why I created my free masterclass, How to Sell More Art without being Instafamous. I’ll walk you through the exact shifts my clients make to go from posting and hoping to actually selling consistently. You can watch it for free over at SchulmanArt.com/sellmoreart. Paintings are still the comfort food, but here’s the real opportunity.
Miriam Schulman: Now, the next thing you need to understand about what art collectors are buying now in 2026, paintings. Paintings are still the comfort food of the art world, even in more experimental fairs, places where you should see video installation conceptual work. Buyers are still defaulting to paintings, and it’s not because collectors lack sophistication, it’s because paintings are easy. They’re easy to understand. They’re easy to install, they’re easy to place. They’re easy to commit to. There’s very little friction. You don’t need instructions. You don’t need special installation. You don’t need to explain it to your spouse. It just works. Yes, paintings will always have an advantage, but here’s something that artists get completely wrong. They hear this and think, well, I guess if I’m not a painter, I’m at a disadvantage. But that’s not what I’m seeing. Because after talking to countless of our consultants, people who are sourcing art for collectors every single day, I can tell you this, they are actively looking for alternative mediums. So think fiber, textile, mixed media, dimensional work, even photography printed on or digital artwork printed on metal or glass. They want pieces that are fresh. They want pieces that are tactile and differentiated from what everyone else is making. So if you are a fiber artist especially, you should be paying attention right now. This is a big opportunity for you, but you don’t get to rely on your medium.
Miriam Schulman: No matter what you’re creating, to do the work for you. Because the second you step outside of painting, there is a little bit of friction and your job is to remove it. That means you need to show how big is it really the scale placement. Where does this live? In a home installation? How does it hang? How is it installed? Care? Like if it’s fiber, will it last? Shipping is this complicated? Longevity. Is it archival? You have to answer those questions the collector doesn’t even know they have yet, because collectors will absolutely buy nontraditional artwork, but only when it feels just as safe and simple as buying a painting. That’s the bar. That’s the threshold. Okay, so here are additional artworks that fit this category that have sold recently by Artist Incubator members. Make sure you head on over to YouTube. I’m The Inspiration Place. The vibe collectors are buying and what that actually means. Now let’s talk about the vibe because this is where artists get themselves into trouble. If you look at reports on what art collectors are buying now in 2026, you’re going to see a pattern work that feels calming, grounded, connected to nature. A lot of blue Lu Palletes. Organic shapes. Botanical references. Pieces that feel like they belong in a home, not a museum. Some reports are even calling this a shift toward what they describe as domestic ritual art that supports how people want to feel in their everyday lives.
Miriam Schulman: And that makes sense. People are spending more time at home. They’re more conscious of their environment, and they want their space to feel like a sanctuary. So yes, on the surface, this looks like blue art is trending or nature is trending. But this is where you might go off the rails a bit because the takeaway is not go paint blue florals. The takeaway is this collectors are buying emotional outcomes. They’re buying calm. Grounding, Belonging and meaning. Remember, collectors buy meaning, not medium. They’re buying art that helps them regulate how they feel in their space. And if you reduce that to copying a color palette, you completely miss the opportunity. Because this is not a style trend. This isn’t even a color trend. This is positioning insight. It’s about how your work functions in someone’s life. Does it create a sense of peace? Does it feel intentional? Does it give the collector a feeling, a feeling that they want more of? And that’s what’s selling. Not necessarily blue, not necessarily botanical. Although I know my client Sapphire is selling lots of blue botanicals, but these are just symptoms. In other words, surface expressions of something deeper, and the artists who understand that those are the ones who work feels like it was made for the collector. So tell me, what feeling does your work actually give someone when they live with it every day? Not what you intended, but what are your collectors tell you that they’re feeling? What do they experience? All right, so here are the artworks selling by Artist Incubator members that fit that category.
Miriam Schulman: Make sure you head on over to YouTube. I’m The Inspiration Place. Safe money isn’t taste, it’s confidence. This next part is the one that most artists completely miss. They think collectors aren’t buying because my work isn’t their taste. They don’t like my style. I need to change what I’m making. No, no, that’s not what’s happening. What’s actually happening. Is this. Collectors don’t feel safe saying yes to you. And when money feels uncertain, people hesitate. This is what I call the safe money effect. Because when a collector spends 2000, 5000, 10,000 on a piece of art, they don’t want to feel confused. They don’t want to feel awkward. They don’t want to feel like they’re making a mistake. They want to feel certain. And here’s what the data shows. Works with clear pricing sell significantly better online than artwork without prices listed. Not because the art is better, but because the decision is easier. So let me translate what safe money actually means. In practice it means clear price. Not inquire for price, not DM me a number. Clear story. Why does this art matter? What does it represent? Not a vague artist statement, but something the collector can connect to.
Miriam Schulman: Not something that’s going to impress your art school classmates or your professor. Collectors. Clear. Next step. A sudden a button, a link, a way to actually buy it without jumping through hoops. Clear. Proof. Press pass. Collectors. Exhibitions. Signals that say other people trust this artist. So you can too. Because when those things are in place, the collector isn’t asking, do I like this? They’re asking, do I feel good buying this? And that’s a completely different question. This is where artists get it wrong. They think the problem is taste. Sometimes they change their style, sometimes they chase trends. Sometimes they second guess their voice. Sometimes they just say, to heck with the art market. But really, that’s not the problem. The real problem is friction. Too many questions, too much ambiguity, too much work to figure out how to buy it. And friction kills the sale. Not because the collector doesn’t want the art, not because the collector doesn’t like it, but because it doesn’t feel like a safe decision. I think we’ve talked about this, or maybe I’m planning on talking about it. Like, how many times have you not bought something because the checkout page didn’t work or it wasn’t clear and you just like, oh, I guess it’s a sign from the universe. I’m not meant to buy it. If you remove the friction, those are the artists who are selling right now.
Miriam Schulman: They’ve removed all that friction. They’ve made it easy for people to say yes to them. That’s the difference. So where are you creating the most friction right now? Is it your prices? Is it your messaging or the way people actually buy from you? If this last part hits you hard, the confusion, the friction, the why aren’t they buying? This is exactly why you need my luxury positioning checklist. Because once you fix how you present your work, selling becomes a lot simpler. If you want to get your hands on it, just go to SchulmanArt.com/luxury and I’ll show you exactly how to do that. Collectors didn’t disappear, they just changed how they buy. Now, you might hear that the high end of the art market is slowing now. Auction results are softer. Big ticket pieces are taking longer to sell. More deals are happening privately instead of out in the open. And it’s very easy to think, oh well, that doesn’t affect me. I’m not selling million dollar paintings, but it absolutely does, because what happens at the top of the market trickles down into collector behavior at every level. And here’s the shift. Collectors haven’t stopped buying. They’ve just become more intentional. They’re taking their time. They’re asking more questions. They’re comparing options, and they’re waiting until something feels like a clear yes. In other words, they’re not impulse buying.
Miriam Schulman: They’re deciding. And that’s actually reinforces everything that we’ve been talking about in this episode. Because when buyers become more thoughtful, they don’t suddenly need cheaper art. They need more confidence. They need to understand what they’re buying. They need to feel aligned with it. They need to trust the artist. So if your sales have slowed down, it’s not because collectors have disappeared. It’s because the bar for saying yes has gotten higher. And the artists who are still selling, they’re the ones who meet that bar. They’ve made the decision feel obvious. The obvious? Yes, they’ve made the purchase feel safe. They’ve made the collector feel like, yes, this is the one. So tell me in the comments which one of these surprised you the most? Is it the price range, the size, or the psychology? And if this episode has you thinking, okay, I understand what collectors are buying. How do I actually attract them? That’s exactly what we’re diving into next week, because most artists, they’re posting constantly and still attracting only other artists, not buyers. And I’m going to show you the only five types of posts you need to attract real collectors that actually drive sales without relying on social media as your entire strategy. Make sure that you’re subscribed to the show so you don’t miss that one. And I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. Until then, stay inspired. Bye for now.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, at Facebook.com/SchulmanArt, on Instagram at @SchulmanArt and of course, on SchulmanArt.com.
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