My first proper gallery came about through the horticultural society I'd been exhibiting with for years. Their annual show had a small sales room attached, and one of the volunteers there happened to be married to the man who ran the gallery. He came to look at the wall, asked who did the Trillium study, and that was that. No portfolio, no enquiry email. Just a plant show and a lucky marriage.

It has since occurred to me that not one of my gallery relationships began in the conventional way, and I suspect the same is true for most people here. So I'd like to know: how did your first one actually happen? Not the advice version, the true version. Was it a friend of a friend, a stranger at a fair, a shop that sold your work quietly for a year first?

I'll admit I'm partly asking to settle something. I've been telling my students for years that the cold approach rarely works and that you should be visible in the world that interests you instead. I'd be delighted to be told I'm wrong.