Last year the Hospitality department of a significant online art company contacted me. They work with new construction or renovations for businesses and asked about licensing my nature art. I don’t know if I’m at liberty to say who it was, so I’ll err on the side of caution here.

They were specifically interested in two of my creek scene paintings. This was for prints to use as decor in a new lodge being built in Missouri and the owner wanted to use local art, if possible. Again, not sure about whether I can disclose the names, so I won’t.

For Real?

Anyway, at first, I thought surely that email was a from a scam artist. But I did my research and verified that the person reaching out was the person they said they were. I hadn’t written back yet, when that person called me to touch base and assure me that they were indeed ‘real’.

My doubts still persisted, even after going through the process of sending files and cropping the artwork to specifications needed. I had the option of doing my own printing, or sending high-resolution files and they do the printing. I chose the option of them doing the printing, giving them the freedom to adjust the colors to make it work. When I print, I sometimes do need to adjust colors.

Under Contract-Licensing my nature art

A few months, or rather, several months later the contracts arrived and I read them carefully before I signed them. One thing I was very cautious about was the usage rights. This was very specifically spelled out, and what we had agreed to in our previous conversations.

Everything looked legit, but still there was the background skepticism. I emailed the coordinator a couple of times during the wait to see if all was still on schedule, and she assured me it was. She said the timelines are slow for things like this, but all was still on schedule.

Payday!

And then, several months after that – earlier this year, the first phase of the construction and decorating was completed and a check was deposited into my account.

It was legit! And it marked the first time I made income from licensing my nature art. It was exhilarating, especially because sales have been very slow this year and I haven’t been able to attend events to sell in person.

Phase two of the construction project is set to complete by the end of this year, unless there are delays. Another check will be deposited in the same way. This time, I feel much less worry about whether that will actually happen or not. Sooner or later, it should.

Want to License my nature art?

Suffice it to say that I’m open to more of this type of selling! My contact information is below.