Welcome to the Gallery

Imagine is set in the Suffolk village of Long Melford.
This is an attempt to record the daily trials, tribulation and pleasure of running an art gallery.

Friday 11 June 2010





It's a funny old life running a gallery in a Countryside location.
Because you are not in the centre of London customers tend to think that even though you sell
the same art as Bond Street you are going to sell it for less.
I even had someone telling me this week that he knew what my percentages where so I could
afford to drop the price.
He obviously hadn't taken into consideration that I love what I show and as as a result I didn't expect to make the same money as a London gallery.
Perhaps, unfortunately the art I show here is more for love than excessive gain.
We may indeed sell as much work, and of the same artists as a London gallery, but perhaps mistakenly we are not driven by the same greed.
So it comes as a great surprise and even greater disappointment when you are told
by an "art collector" how much you are making, from the work you sell.

Much of the different art on show here I cherish, and would really love to own for myself,
But as a gallery owner I am very fortunate that I get to see and handle fantastic works.
And.
For just a short space in time they are mine.
Tell me who could want for more?
Sometimes I wished sales were slower, just so that I could enjoy the works for longer.

That is how it has been today, different things have left which have made me richer and poorer,
but what was the most rewarding thing is that they all went to nice people.
Customers that may have taken up a couple of hours of my time, but were really appreciative
and wanting to know more about the art that they had purchased.
These transactions and events are really enjoyable, and even when people don't purchase on the day but just want to talk about the artist/sculptor/potter of certain pieces that they love, then this can lead to the most rewarding of days.
Much better a lover than an investor, although on occasions the pair do combine.

So I suppose I have been thinking about art, collectors and artists all day.
Which of course then had me thinking about what art we have and what we will be expecting.

I have been giving lots of thought about who we might exhibit next year.
I have a mental list that exceeds the amount of months in the year, so now that time is passing too rapidly I am trying to "whittle" down my wish list.
Some artists are "set in stone", such as Lorell Lehman and Lindsey Carr along with the potter
Maureen Minchin, but there are so many artists that I still want to approach.

Artists, potters and sculptors.
I think that it is very likely that we will show the potter John Bedding and the illustrator
Iassen Ghieselev, but there are so many other people that I want to fit in also.
Irish sculptors, Fidelma Massey, Anna Duncan and Christy Keeney are on my mind.
Also English artist Paul Rumsey paired with Jean Fontaine the French sculptor are occupying my thoughts, along with potters, Mike Dodd and Adam Frew and ceramic sculptors like Pierre Williams and Eve Shepherd.
And of course the great artist Michael Parkes will have to feature at sometime.
There are just so many people I admire and so few months to squeeze them all in.
I will have to concentrate, but whoever we show it will only because of the quality of the art they produce, not the price that they are prepared to sell at.

Above are the pots of John Bedding a picture by Michael Parkes and one of Christy Keeney's
sculptures.

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