Thought I’d add my own two cents into this.
As a professional artist, I can attest to the time and effort it took to become “good at art” (as friends and family tell me). It took even longer, 5 years minimum, to actually start getting people who wanted to commission me for my style of art.
It’s as the saying goes: “It takes me 10 minutes to an hour to draw you a sketch, but it took 5-10 years of my life to be able to get to this point in which you’d WANT to buy a sketch from me.” (Well… that saying is worded differently everywhere, but the point still stands!)
As everyone else said, art is a luxury. It makes life more appealing and can speak with more words than a regular body of text (which, as an author, I can attest to this. (Not saying authors do not have merit. They’re quite astounding in how they formulate words to create a story.)) Both of these art forms took time to perfect. It took a tenacious attitude and constant support from friends and family to become the artist that people know them for.
If you, or anyone else, wants to tell an artist that their hard work is worth LESS than the gold they see it for, then I suggest you look in a mirror and punch the person staring back at you. Clearly, whoever is in that mirror needs to understand common decency, social etiquette, and the basics of human kindness.
Artists are not pitiful lowly creatures that do your bidding. They are living, breathing people who deserve respect for doing something you cannot do, and doing it WELL enough to be paid the price they have their art set at.
FINALLY: Let the artist decide what their art is worth. If they want your opinion, they will ask it. Don’t assume you’re right in your judgement of price, because you can only speak for yourself, and NOBODY else.