In 1973 I began my professional art career, creating watercolor paintings; mostly head studies of big cats with a plain white background. The gallery owner wanted me to paint two large watercolor paintings every week. Having no prior gallery representation, I dutifully painted the two paintings every week, and delivered them to his gallery in San Francisco. In order to be represented by a big city gallery and if I wanted to sell art, I had to agree to this intense work schedule. I was in agreement with this plan, since wanted to sell art, and keep painting, so I conformed with this schedule. Despite the fact it was a grueling amount of work, I kept up this painting pace for eight years. Finally, I was able to convince the gallery owner to allow me to create just one original a week. This schedule continued four more years, after which the gallery owner and I went our separate ways.
Here’s the takeaway: Galleries can be very helpful creating exposure and making sales, and are especially valuable for young and emerging artists. On the other hand, artists need to know what to expect from the gallery owners, and what will be expected of them. It is very important to have a clear understanding by both parties from the very beginning of the gallery/artist business relationship. This should help prevent serious problems from occurring in the future.
