Tuesday, March 13, 2012

In The Night Kitchen

Link14x18 oil on linen

Ask Tidewater Gallery about this painting.

Back to promoting some of my available work at my representing galleries. This is a scene from a NYC cupcake shop. It was a rainy evening walking past this yummy storefront where the bakers were probably getting a head start on the morning confections.
You can see all the available inventory on the pages linked at the top of the blog. My website is woefully out of date but Blogger has made their blogs so useful that I can create pages for all my galleries and collectors can easily see what is available where.

I guess I will share here that I've been having difficulties communicating with one of my galleries. They are no longer shown on my links. I asked for my work to be returned to me 4 months ago. They just sent back 2 this week. I am not sure if they sold the others and if I will ever see my portion of the sales. I had to file a complaint with the BBB and threaten legal action for them to just send the work to me. This was after letters, weekly emails and countless phones messages. In all these months, I've only had one email response and once I actually caught one of the owners on the phone. They never answer during business hours. I do not actually know if they are in business or not any longer. Its a very frustrating deal.

Sometimes, no matter how enthusiastic someone is to represent your art, it just doesn't work out well. And sometimes, it goes very badly. Its hard times for galleries as well as artists. And while I might want to just be creative all the time, I know its very important to follow through with people and be a good business person. We need to work together to weather this economy. If they had just communicated with me, we could have worked things out amicably.

My advice for those looking for representation is to always talk to other artists represented in the gallery. Get their feedback about the business owner, the staff, and payment schedule. Always have a written/signed agreement or contract laying out terms of the commissions. Visit the gallery if you can. And keep in touch. Pick up the phone or email regularly to check in. Find out what is selling and what clients are interested in. And if you have any concerns, voice them and act.

Even with these things going for you though, sometimes things just go awry, as in my case. I still don't want to believe they are bad people, maybe just bad at business. I can't reach them to talk about it though...

4 comments:

Linda Roth said...

This is a very interesting post for me. I am considering trying to get representation in a local gallery. I really have no idea how to go about these things or what to look out for.
I will be studying what you wrote.--Do you pay fees to the galleries to hang your work--is just one of my questions.

Studio at the Farm said...

Robin, I am sorry to read about your business dealings with that gallery. It must be so frustrating and discouraging for you.

A Painter's Journal said...

L.W. - usually a gallery will take a commission from the sale of your work that they market for you. Usually its 50%.
A good resource for some articles about business and marketing for artists is artbusiness.com. Check them out and best of luck to you!

Karen Bruson said...

Beautiful blog.

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