There is a free app putting artists’ work in front of people who are actively searching for art to buy, and most painters ignore it completely. It is Pinterest. Not the place for memes and wedding mood boards you might picture, but a search engine for your work. If you are relying only on Instagram to get your paintings seen, you are missing a whole group of people who are already looking for exactly what you make.
I first talked about this in a video on Instagram, and I wanted to set the whole thing out properly here. This is how I think about Pinterest for artists, and the five steps to set it up so it works for you.
Is Pinterest actually worth it for artists?
Yes, and the reason comes down to one difference. Instagram shows your art to people who already follow you. Pinterest is a visual search engine, where people go looking for art to buy, to frame, to commission. That is a completely different mindset. Someone scrolling Instagram is being entertained. Someone typing into Pinterest is searching with intent. They want a painting for the space above the sofa, an idea for a gift, a colour palette for a new room.
The second reason is lifespan. On Instagram, a post has a short window before it disappears down the feed. On Pinterest, one pin can send people to your work for years, long after an Instagram post is dead. Every pin you add is another doorway into your work that stays open.
I am not saying leave Instagram. I am saying stop asking one platform to do every job. Instagram is where people get to know you. Pinterest is where strangers find you.
How do I set up Pinterest for my art?
Step one is to make a free business account. It costs nothing, and it unlocks the analytics that show you who is actually finding you and which pieces they are finding. That information is gold. It tells you which paintings people are searching for, which in turn tells you what to pin more of.
When you set it up, treat your profile the way you would treat a shop front:
- Use your artist name, the same one people will find on your website and Instagram.
- Write a short bio that says what you paint, plainly. For example, figurative oil paintings, original works and commissions.
- Add the link to your website or shop, so there is always a clear next step.
- Create boards that are organised the way a buyer thinks, by subject, series or colour, rather than by date.
What kind of images work best on Pinterest?
Step two is to pin your work as tall, high quality images. Vertical images take up more space on the screen and get seen more. A wide landscape crop shrinks to a thin strip in the feed, while a tall image fills the column and stops the scroll.
A few practical things make a real difference here:
- Photograph your paintings in good, even daylight, squared up, with no glare.
- If a painting is landscape format, you can still create a tall pin by showing it hanging on a wall, with some of the room above and below it.
- Pin a close crop of the surface too. Texture and brushwork are things people cannot see on a phone unless you show them.
- Make several pins for the same painting: the full piece, a detail, and the work in a room. Each one is a different doorway.
Showing work in a room matters for a simple reason. Most people searching for art on Pinterest are picturing it in their own home. Help them see it there.
How do I write Pinterest descriptions that buyers find?
Step three is the one most artists get wrong. Write every caption like a search. Not “my latest piece”. Not “new work, so happy with this one”. Nobody types that into a search bar. Write what someone would actually type, for example “large blue abstract painting for a living room”.
Think about the person on the other side of the screen. What are they looking for? They describe size, colour, subject, style and the room it is for. So your title and description should do the same. A simple way to build it:
- Size: large, small, oversized, a pair.
- Colour: the main colours a buyer would notice first.
- Subject and style: figurative oil painting, abstract landscape, botanical still life.
- Where it goes: living room, bedroom, hallway, office.
- What it is: original painting, commission, print.
Put those together and you have a description that reads naturally and matches what a buyer types. This is the same thinking behind a good website or a clear artist statement. You are not trying to sound clever. You are trying to be found.
How do I turn Pinterest views into sales?
Step four: link every pin back to where people can buy your work or contact you. That is the point of all of this, turning a search into a sale. A beautiful pin with no link is a dead end. Someone falls for your painting, and then has nowhere to go.
Be specific with the link. If the pin shows one painting, send it to that painting’s page, not your homepage. Every extra click is a chance for someone to give up. On that page, make sure they can see the size, the price or a way to ask about it, and a simple way to get in touch. If you take commissions, say so clearly, because some people who find a sold piece will want something similar.
If your website is not ready yet, link to wherever people can reach you right now. Something that works today is better than a perfect page you will finish next month.
How often should artists post on Pinterest?
Step five: pin consistently. Five a week beats fifty in a day. Dumping your whole portfolio in one afternoon and then disappearing for three months does far less than showing up steadily.
Here is a simple routine that fits around painting:
- Pick one time each week to prepare your pins, the same way you would prepare a palette.
- Use what you already have. Every painting can become several pins: the whole piece, a detail, a work in progress shot, the work on a wall.
- Schedule them so they go out across the week rather than all at once.
- Once a month, check your business analytics and notice which pins people are finding. Make more of what works.
Do this for a month and you have a second engine bringing people to your art while you sleep, without fighting an algorithm.
Where does Pinterest fit in the bigger picture?
Pinterest is one channel. It works best when everything it points to is ready to receive people: a clear website, a strong body of work, a statement that says what you do in plain words, and an Instagram grid that looks like a portfolio rather than a diary. If you want help with that last part, I have written about how to reorder your Instagram grid so it works as a portfolio.
Getting your work seen on every platform, your site, your statement, the lot, is the whole system I set out in VISIBLE, my field guide for emerging artists. Pinterest is one of the easiest places to start, because it rewards exactly what you already have: good images of your paintings.
So this week, set up the business account, pin five pieces as tall images, write each description like a search and link every pin to where someone can buy. Then keep going. The people looking for your art are already searching. Make sure they can find it.
You do not have to wait to be found.
VISIBLE covers the part nobody teaches: how galleries, open calls, pricing, audience and money actually work, and what to do about each one. 234 pages, with twelve worksheets you fill in and use.
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