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Are ALL galleries like this?

I’ve been searching around again recently for decent galleries to enable me to show my art to a wider audience. But they seem to be sadly lacking………… somehow. I’ve been in two privately owned ones recently, in different but affluent parts of the country (Somerset and Cheshire) where there was a definite pattern to the way the visit went……………

I walked into the large and expensive looking gallery with a companion. Two people, who had made the effort of walking through the door. In both cases the person in the gallery was male, and on his own and not at all busy. Very little eye contact was made by the gallery man, even though I made a point on both occasions of trying to make it. We walked around, looking at the pictures, made comments about some and passed over others very quickly. We had opinions, and made them in an informed way. We were in the gallery for more than ten minutes. And at no point did the gallery man come out from behind his desk, at no point did he walk around with us asking what we were interested in, at no point did he try to start any conversation of any kind with us, at no point did he try to sell anything to us. As we left, and thanked him, he quietly acknowledged us. I walked out, feeling that I hadn’t been given any “service” from him.

Am I missing something here?

Isn’t the gallery there to “sell”? Or at least promote, or to interest people in some way in art?

Why didn’t they make any effort? Are all the people who go into a gallery considered “time wasters”? Was it because I didn’t look like a *buyer*? Do they work on the thought that if anyone wants to buy a painting, they’ll ask?

Was I impressed with each gallery? No. Will I be trying to get my artwork into their gallery? No. Has this increased my faith in galleries? No. Will I still carry on looking at other galleries? Yes. Do I hold out much hope of any success with them? No.

But the day wasn’t wasted – not at all. I finally met one of my all time favourite musicians. Busking! in Chester! The minute I turned the corner, and heard the haunting electric violin, I thought “That sounds like Ed Alleyne-Johnson” and sure enough, on closer inspection, it WAS him! WOWWWWWW! WOW! WOWWWW! We joined the crowd of interested onlookers, a silly grin on my face, to actually hear this violinist in real life. I’ve listened to his music often enough, infact one piece always raises the hairs on the back of my neck – its eerie, and haunting, soaring but with an underlying depth of beat to it – one of my favourite tunes. We stood, and listened and when there was a chance I went up to him and told him I’d been a fan of his for years, he shook my hand and smiled in acknowledgment but had other people clamouring for his attention, so I turned away with a rueful grin, and started back along the street……………………until he started playing again…………………..the piece that I love so much, the haunting melody of Oxford Suite 1. That stopped me dead in my tracks, and as a person pulled by the magic of his music, I returned to hear it in its entirety. Beautiful!!!!! I had a chance then, to go up to him, smile, and gave him my business card and say”Thankyou for that. I’m an Erotic Artist, and if you’re in need of any art, let me know!”. He took the card, and I left it at that. There wasn’t much else to say, but I knew I wanted to make contact with him, I knew as a creative person how much I like it when someone makes the effort to speak to me and say they like my work. So I wanted to do it for someone I admired too.


And, on a final note for the day, here’s the receipt for a meal we had in Chester. It makes me smile everytime I look at it…………can you see why………………………………..:)

6 thoughts on “Are ALL galleries like this?”

  1. It would seem that you had a great weekend, not least because the Watergate Grill does an interesting line in starters! lol Well I hope you enjoyed it!!!

    That is certainly a sad indictment of galleries, and I can certainly see why you were less than complimentary when we have previously talked about them.

    I can only assume the staff/owners get so bored with walking up to people only to be told "I am just looking" of course I am not defending them as that is no excuse for not doing their job. Whilst they may not like this description, they are sales people at the end of the day, and paid handsomely from what you have said so you would think they would jump on anyone that steps foot in the door, so much so that the two of you would think you were having another one of those Watergate Grill starters!!!

    Like you, I would be inclined to walk out even if I had seem something I was keen to buy, simply because I would also view it as that persons job to sell the item to me, rather than me having to find them and start the sales process personally.

    I would find it hard to believe that people can still make a judgement on someone as to whether they think someone is a potential customer or not, as some of the people I deal with look like they don't have a penny to their name, yet they will earn more in a year than I will if I lived (and worked) till 100! Maybe you went wrong by having blue fingers? lol

    That was certainly a nice surprise meeting a hero of your yours, so I am sure that helped to make your weekend! Both music and art have that ability to stop you dead in your tracks and make you stop look and listen as so much in life is unable to do that.

    Lets hope he is in need of an erotic piece of art, perhaps an electric Tarse or something might be rather fitting!?! Right must go, as I need to look at CDs.

  2. Jackie Adshead

    Fitzy – Yes it was certainly the most interesting starter I've ever had!!!! LOL

    And yes, its one of the reasons I have problems with galleries. They are there to SELL and I saw precious little of it in the two galleries I've been in recently. As you quite rightly say, they should have jumped on us very soon after walking through the door, to the point of a selling frenzy of a threesome! 🙂

    I don't think the way I looked had anything to do with the lack of sale technique on the gallerys part – and I didn't have any blue figners that day, not that the gallery man got anywhere close enough to me to notice the state of my fingers anyway!

    Yes, meeting one of my heros certainly helped to make the weekend even more special. And you're right about music and art having the ability to stop you dead in your tracks and talk deeply to your soul.

  3. Sadly it seems there is no real answer as to what you can do about art galleries, and it looks as though you will just have to perceiver until you can find what you believe to be is a good one. Or until you come up with some new and innovative way of selling your art!

    Did anything ever come of the library that hosts art exhibitions?

  4. Jackie Adshead

    Fitzy – Yes, I will carry on working on both those problems!

    Yes it did, I've got an exhibition for two weeks at the library at Burton on Trent (Staffordshire) at the end of June-beginning of July next year. A long wait, but I think it'll be a good experience for me.

  5. 'Mmmmmm… so did you enjoy your 'threesome' Jackie? I had a threesome once, it went tits up,(LITERALLY) but like your gallery search, it was worth the experience!! Keep trying that's all you can do..

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