So you wanna be a full-time artist that’s very admirable. That’s like saying I wanna be a doctor. How they are similar to each other is in their general description of the trade. You could be an artist that paints with oils or that sculpts, you could be a podiatrist or a gynecologist. So when you decide you want to be an artist, you need to have a pretty sharp aim as to what you’re going for. The more specific you are in your goals the easier you will achieve them. I have always wanted to be able to capture someone in my artwork. Not their face or their eyes the person. A very specific feeling you get looking at someone is what I’m after when I paint a portrait. The artist gets so specific in their work they often overlook the idea of selling.

Art sales are the responsibility of a gallery in a traditional sense. The artist creates, & the gallery promotes and sells the creativity of the artist. The Gallery is the pipeline for new art to enter the market. Primary art sales should be the main focus of any gallery you as an artist should involve yourself with. Why would you want to have your artwork featured in a “gallery” that makes money off not selling but other activities. In order for a gallery to succeed as such, they should have many sales and promotion tactics. Too often a gallery owner is reluctant to promote artwork. Promotional work albeit the underlying job of a Gallerist is looked at in a negative way. How do people know about you if you are not promoting your store. While displaying safe work and staying very middle of the road and nondescript seems to be the fashionable thing for galleries these days. It’s a failure for artist, but great for folks who want to get drunk and paint a sunflower with poster paints off a paper plate palette. I am all for the painting parties, but if you’re a gallery don’t present yourself as anything more than a social club or maybe an art club. Im sure some of the Gallery owners are reading this feeling a bit offended, that’s okay I understand you have to make money. As a gallery You should sell artwork it’ll pay better than a room of wine drunk people. Itll also elevate your status in the community. As an art Galley you want to guarantee that you can pay the rent. But it is a gamble anything in life is. Committed efforts will pay off. The safe work doesn’t sell. It moves slowly. When you see something that’s is different you want to look. A gallery knows art that is “different” doesn’t mean sales, It just means different. But say it does well. Then you have other galleries trying to recruit your artists when they get popular. If you have treated them well they may not leave. If you have developed a relationship with the artist and promoted the work you will have secured your place in the upper echelons of the art world. The process of becoming well respected art Gallery has no sip and paint parties as a prerequisite. Sip and paint won’t help you sell artwork, but it won’t hurt either. We all have to make money but if you spend all your time as a Gallerist arranging wine socials are you really just an event planner? We need to get back to basics if we are going to revive the small galleries. The art world is dependent on small galleries. As i mentioned before they are pipeline of art for entering the Market. The small gallery connects the collectors to the artist, introducing the community to artworks that move, inspire, and motivate. Support your local art galleries. Visit often to view new works. Make a purchase to start your collection. Support the local arts community.

~Artist , Mike Packer.