Showing and selling my work

Selling my work as an artist is different than selling my work in the corporate world that I sold in most of my life. Now I need to do the work as well. Of course, that is the best part. But it can be tough putting myself on the line. My work is so much a part of me and who I am. It’s my personality on paper or canvas for all to see, to love, hate or whatever. It’s personal. Each piece is unique unto itself and I’m always evolving. No piece is exactly alike, even if I was to work from the same picture it wouldn’t be exactly the same nor would I want it to be.

No piece is perfect in my mind and yet each piece is perfect. It is perfect for that moment in time. It captures where I am as an artist in that moment. I hope that I am always learning and some of the hardest lessons come from a piece that the client wasn’t happy with. It doesn’t happen often, thank goodness, but every once on a while it does. One happened this holiday season, a commission from Texas, so I didn’t know them personally. She asked for a painting in oil with a few changes of hairlines, etc. She wasn’t happy with the work. I’m still not sure what I did wrong but, in the future, when working in oil, I will always send the sketch first. I guess I was overconfident, things were going so well, and I was so busy, so I skipped this step. My mistake. Perhaps if she had seen the sketch first, she could have made changes or canceled the piece before I spent hours on the painting it. Again my fault so I refunded her money and got the piece back. Lesson learned