Why I pulled out of galleries - Lessons I've learned as a professional artist
I didn't grow up with any tie or connection to the art world. Everything I learned about the art world, such as how to make a living, marketing, networking and exhibiting came from years of trial and error, and sifting through good and bad advice from various sources along the way. While I certainly don't have it all figured out, there are some things I've learned through the years that work well for me. Maybe some of these lessons and thoughts could prove useful to others.
When I first got into galleries, I thought that it was my golden ticket to success as an artist. I was lucky early on to show in some reputable galleries. The fact that they gave me the nod of approval justified my efforts, and my decision to become an artist. When I started to show with galleries they had nothing but praise for my work and promises of big sales, interested collectors and big shows to come my way. It was exciting and validating. It played right into my vanity and made me feel, to some degree in my naïveté, that I had become what I wanted to be. What I didn't realize was how preliminary and potentially fleeting these early successes were.
When I first got into galleries, I thought that it was my golden ticket to success as an artist. I was lucky early on to show in some reputable galleries. The fact that they gave me the nod of approval justified my efforts, and my decision to become an artist. When I started to show with galleries they had nothing but praise for my work and promises of big sales, interested collectors and big shows to come my way. It was exciting and validating. It played right into my vanity and made me feel, to some degree in my naïveté, that I had become what I wanted to be. What I didn't realize was how preliminary and potentially fleeting these early successes were.
   | The first few years of making and selling paintings were pretty spectacular. I wasn’t necessarily making mountains of money, but I was making money by selling my work and that was a great feeling as a young artist. But very quickly, that initial joy started to fade. Although the galleries were selling well, I noticed they kept asking for the same types of paintings. I had done some experimental invented landscapes that were pretty tonal and moody and everybody seemed to love them. I couldn’t make them fast enough. But they became very dissatisfying to make. Initially, I made these invented landscapes to try and prove what I knew about the landscape, and to push my sense of design, composition and color harmony. But after 40 or 50 of them, all I seemed to be proving to myself was how little I knew about the landscape and how narrow my range for invention was. And that made me very uncomfortable. Even though they were selling well, I wasn’t learning anything or advancing my abilities at all by making more. I was just regurgitating the same idea in slightly different ways, and that really bothered me. At the same time, I had a nice article written on me in American Art Collector in which the author labeled me a landscape painter. And, for some reason, I had been thinking I was a figurative painter that also painted landscapes. But when I looked at the work I had produced for the last 2-3 years, very little of it was figurative. I may have been painting a lot of landscapes, but all the while I was thinking of and designing a bunch of figurative work. But I didn’t have time to finish any of it and by default, I had become a landscape painter. |
It was a shocking realization that I was making unsatisfying work that was decorative and meaningless (to me) all for the sake of a sale. Also, I was unwittingly carving out a small niche for myself as a landscape artist. And not just a landscape artist, but a landscape artist who did really particular moody, tonal landscapes. Selling well, however exciting and financially comforting it is, was never my perception of success. I had much larger goals of becoming more perfect in the craft of painting and making my weaknesses strengths. I wanted to be able to paint anything, and paint it really well. No, not really well, masterfully, if that was possible.
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