undiscoveredartist

I am the type of person who has approached a gallery too fast. The local art council where I lived in Owosso, Michigan was the first place I went to. I was able to sell one painting, and encouraged; forged ahead and created more paintings. I encountered resistance, and was not able to convince them to take another.

Here are some of the problems I had:

1. Disatisfaction with the frames I used

2. Dislike of my composition

3. Dislike of my subject matter

4. An accusation of Plagiary (In other words, they thought I copied it).

Now that I am older and wiser, I would like to offer some advice on how to avoid these pitfalls.

1. Present the gallery with photos or preferrably a cd with your work on it. Those of you who are creative can probably work up a nice presentation in flash or even on the web. If you are not this tech savvy, try a program like Sonic — it actually creates dvd slide shows. Maybe you know someone who is good at this stuff. I have done it before myself, hint, hint (I am available)!

2. Make sure you have a nice little body of work to present of your very best paintings. I am not going to approach a gallery until I get around ten painting I am proud of — right now I only have about three.

3. Find someone professional to mount your paintings for you. Due to budget contraints (yes, I am a starving artist!) I plan on trying my hand at doing it myself. I plan on going to Hobby Lobby in Muskegon, they have a large framing department. I will of course bring coupons from HobbyLobby.com. Sometimes you can get 40% off!

4. Get other’s opinions on your work. For me, I went straight to my painting instructor. She and her husband are serious artists with their own gallery. They actually provided me with my first venue for my work. If you can find someone as wonderful you are truly fortunate since they can provide you with insight!

5. In regard to the plagiary, I think they were just being jerks. Anyways, to avoid any accusation, I recommend getting all permissions for any photo materials that you use, or better yet take your own picture. Even better, get it out of your own head!