Did your first gallery ever tell you "your work isn't ready"? How long did you wait to come back?

So I'm mostly a local fair person, but last spring I finally got up the nerve to show a gallery owner my little portfolio of landscapes on my phone (bad idea, I know). She was actually really nice about it, looked through all of them, and said "you're close, but not quite there yet, come back when you have a real body of work." I said thanks and left and then sat in my car for like 20 minutes.

That was a year ago. I have maybe six new pieces since then. I keep telling myself I'll go back in the fall and then I don't.

For the people who got that "not yet" answer: did you go back? How long did you wait, and did you know when you were actually ready or did you just get sick of waiting? Because I genuinely can't tell if I'm being patient or if I'm just scared.

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Lukas Brandt·21h

She was probably right, and that is the good version of that conversation. The bad version is the one where they say yes too early because they need inventory, and you spend three years making work for a room instead of for yourself.

But "come back when you have a real body of work" is not a deadline, it is a standard. Six pieces in a year is not slow. I would not count pieces, I would ask whether the six actually belong to each other. If they do, you already have the body of work and you are just nervous about the door. If they don't, you need another year and that is fine too.

One practical thing: the phone was the real mistake, not the timing. A gallery owner cannot see weight or surface on a screen, and landscape especially dies there. Ten actual pieces or a proper documentation set, then go. And do not announce that you waited a year. Nobody is keeping score but you.

Karen WesselOP·21h

The part about the six pieces belonging to each other stopped me. I honestly hadn't thought about it that way. I've just been counting them like "okay, six, that's more than before." But three of them are from the same stretch of river in different seasons, so those probably do belong together. The other three are a barn, a bowl of lemons, and a sky I did mostly to practice clouds. So maybe I have three and a half pieces and a lot of practice.

That's not nothing though. The bad-version thing you said is going to sit with me. I'd rather be told no than end up making work for a room.

What's the practical thing? You trailed off and I want the rest of it.

Ramesh Jha·21h

I am not a gallery person myself ji, my work goes through cooperatives and craft melas, so I don't know that world. But the "not yet" I understand well. When I was younger my mother would look at my painting and say nothing, only put it aside and give me the paper again. That was her way of saying not ready. It stung every time and it was also correct every time.

One thing I will say from my side. In our tradition the work is not a thing you finish, it is a thing you keep doing, year after year, and the hands learn slowly what the eyes cannot yet see. Six new pieces in one year is not small. But if you are waiting to feel ready, that feeling may not come on its own. Sometimes you have to carry the work to the door and let them be the judge again, even if the answer is same.

Also kindly do not go with the phone next time. Prints or the actual pieces, however small the bundle. It is not only about the work, it is about showing that you took it seriously. That much I have learned from selling since long.

May your hands keep working. The rest will follow. 🙏

Karen WesselOP·20h

The thing about your mother putting the paper back, that got me. My 8 year old does that to me now, she'll hold up something she drew and I'll say "tell me about it" instead of "that's beautiful" and she knows exactly what I mean. Funny how it goes both directions.

The hands learn slowly what the eyes cannot yet see. I'm going to write that on a sticky note and put it on my easel, I'm not even joking.

Six pieces did feel small when I counted them like that. But three of them are the same tree from three different seasons and I didn't even plan it, so maybe I should stop counting and start looking at what I actually made. Thank you for this one.