the pleasure, passion,power and panache of painting

33
unknown painters
where and how do you
exhibit your work?
It is not unnatural for any Artist, especially painters, to want
to show their work in public.
The high street Galleries are the most desired spaces of
course, however, the sheer number of artists wanting to break
into the small world of high street representation is not easy.
Most times ‘getting a show’ is a case of knowing the right
person to recommend ones work
to a specific gallery. In fact a few artists go out
of their way to ‘snuggle-up’ to other
Artists who are already represented
by a gallery, just to gain
a foothold or at the
very least, have their ‘new friend’
put in a good word in the right
direction.
Hence the mass use of social
media- making friends on Face
Book is easy quick and
inexpensive.
Of course the Art needs to be good,
or different, or even perhaps commercial, for a gallery
to even consider giving you a shot, especially if you are
unknown, or haven’t a glowing reference or certification
from an Art institution or a recognised art academy.
The other problem artists (painters) face today is similarity
of work. A good example is the thousands of Landscape
Paintings, most created in a contemporary style, this genre of
art is among the most created by painters in the UK, as are
Abstract Paintings - Not surprisingly, only
a few of these works will ever see the light of
day within a high street gallery, who,
generally try to build a ‘stable’ of artists that have
work which doesn’t compete with each other.
For them it’s good business sense to spread
the type of work they hold, to enable them
to satisfy the different tastes of their collectors,
ones that they have on their mailing list.
“...do you want to live off your Art, or do you want to
live for Art?