I'll go first, because I still wince at mine.

Years ago I brought a set of watercolour studies to a small gallery. The director looked at them for a while and asked, quite reasonably, what the work was. Instead of saying plainly that they were botanical studies in the natural-history tradition, I launched into a lecture about the species, the collection locality, the paper. I watched his eyes glaze over. He was asking a simple question and I answered the wrong one.

What I should have said was three sentences. What it is, why it matters, and who it's for.

So I'm curious. When a gallerist or director asks you to describe your work out loud, what actually comes out of your mouth? Do you have something prepared, or do you improvise and regret it afterward? And has anyone here worked out a version of that sentence that genuinely opens doors rather than closing them?

I'd especially like to hear from people whose work is quiet or technical and hard to make sound exciting in a single breath.