I feel bad for neglecting the blog for a little over a month! But I was waiting for my “big announcement.” And that is, I am now being represented by a fairly prestigious online gallery, UGallery. I learned that I was accepted to the gallery a few weeks ago, but it took a while to get everything set up and actually have my art go “live” on the site. I wanted to wait until it was all a done deal before announcing it.
They say that about 10-15% of artists who apply to UGallery get in, so I’m flattered to be among those accepted. But I must take into account that any gallery, anywhere, has an idea of what niches they want to fill, and so if they don’t accept every interested artist, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the rejected artists are “bad.”
My first day on the site was this past Thursday, and I was greeted on the main page with a graphic containing my cat paintings! Squee! Yes, I have no shame, I took a screenshot of it:
To any fellow artists who may have questions about UGallery, I have only been with them for a short time, so I can’t say much yet. Other than they seem to be detail-oriented (that is a good thing), friendly, and attentive to artists.
They say that most artists sell at least something (and if you go through the galleries of all the various artists there, this seems to be the case) but there are no guarantee of sales. However, methods to increase the odds of selling are mostly obvious—be active, update with new paintings periodically, instead of having the same minimum amount of paintings stagnating on your gallery page for ages.
I produced a few new paintings specifically for UGallery. One of these was rejected. The reason they gave was “subject matter.” And looking at the painting, I could see their point. It was a somewhat staid portrait of a fellow artist’s granddaughter. Fine for the family of the young woman, but perhaps not for an art collector who doesn’t even know her! So, that’s a lesson to be learned about any art galleries. Not everything you do will fit into what they have planned for their gallery, but that doesn’t mean that the rejected work is “bad,” just not what they need at the moment.
Here’s another new painting (my first for 2015!) that was accepted and is currently available through my gallery at UGallery.
This will be the first of a planned series of portrait studies, with thoughtful or dramatic poses. I’ve already got a few more in the works. Should be fun!
There are other things going on right now—some art contests I hope to enter, and some commissions that need to be completed.
I’m not much of an art contest person; I have always focused more on studying art, producing work, and selling. But I’m being urged to try doing awards and contests again, because it’s a good thing, professionally, to have a few of them listed in my artist’s bio. And I think that’s fine, as long as I don’t take it too seriously. That’s a good thing to remember for every artist. Awards are good, but in the end they are a matter of opinion. Nice when you win, but not devastating when you don’t win.
In order to stay sane with awards and contests, the secret is to not let the wins go to your head, and don’t fall into a depression over the losses. You can’t have one without the other—you can’t elect to take the wins too much to heart, but dismiss the losses as “just their opinion, man.” Just keep a healthy distance from all of it, and you’ll be fine.
