What did the gallery person actually say about your work? I got "very nice" and nothing else.

I showed my sketchbook to a gallery contact last month, mostly old Bangalore houses and the morning light ones. He flipped through the whole thing very slowly and then said "very nice" and handed it back. Not one question about the work itself. I have never felt so politely dismissed in my life.

Tell me I'm reading too much into it. What's the most useful thing a gallery person has actually said to your face? The one line that stayed with you, good or bad. Mine so far is a friend's wife telling me the ink line on one of the roofs was "confident" and I have been dining out on that for weeks.

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Camille Laurent·5d

"Very nice" is a nothing thing to say, but I would not read it as dismissal exactly. A sketchbook is hard to respond to in a gallery context, because what he can sell is not in there. He flips, he sees drawings, he thinks about walls and prices. The slow flipping is actually the respectful part; the empty verdict is just what happens when a dealer has nothing to hang.

The line that stayed with me came from an old painter I trained under, looking at a figure study: "your light is right, your shadow is decoration." Twenty years later I still check my shadows for decoration. Not a compliment, but it gave me something to work with.

Ask him something concrete next time, one painting, one wall, one question. "Very nice" is what you get from a man who was not asked anything.

Niall Doherty·5d

"very nice" is the sound of a man who has nothing to say and knows it, so don't take it as a verdict on the work. a sketchbook is a private thing and he was handed it in a public setting with no wall and no price attached, so what's he going to do, give you a lecture on a housing estate in bangalore? he can't sell a sketchbook, so he goes quiet. that's on the format more than the drawings.

the line that stayed with me wasn't from a gallery at all. a fella running a stall two down from me at the market in Spiddal glanced at a hare I'd spent three nights carving and said "the eye's wrong, it's looking at nothing." i wanted to bury him. then i went home and he was right, the eye was dead, i'd carved the shape of an eye instead of the thing looking out of it. re-carved it, sold the edition, still think about that man. the "very nice" lads never taught me a thing.

your friend's wife is worth more than the gallery contact. "confident" on the ink line is a real observation from someone actually looking. keep her fed and watered and she'll keep telling you the truth.