Wow, folks, where to start! Had the gallery opening/reception tonight! Multiple people told me they liked my painting the most. A woman from Manhattan said there was more in my painting than most she sees when going to the NYC galleries! I had seen her taking a photo of the painting and the description card and so I approached her and introduced myself. But she and her husband were looking for a large abstract. Mine is 16 x 20. A large painting for Manhattan (Tribeca) real estate. Yikes. She showed me examples on her phone. I told her I have been wanting to go that way with my painting. I honestly am! LOL. She took a business card. I just had them made. "Moo " business cards. You can have your paintings printed on one side. I had fifty cards with 26 different paintings. Pretty cool.
And then I notice an elderly man sitting, asking someone , an assistant?, about my painting. So I tell him I'm the artist and he asks the price. Says he wasn't even looking to buy but was just there meeting with friends but that he found my painting "charming". I ask him if he was an artist and he says no, just a consumer. A few words later and I mention randomly that the painting might be Sagaponack, which is a small town on the east end of LI..
.In July 2015, according to Business Insider, the 11962 ZIP Code encompassing Sagaponack was listed as the most expensive in the U.S., with a median home sale price of $5,125,000, rising to $8,500,000 in the end of the year. I could have said any town out there! The painting was not of any particular place. And then, he says he lives there! and goes off on an eccentric drunk? talk about the history of his three hundred year old house and the original immigrants that settled there etc. I nod and smile. He introduces me to his wife.
So then I'm talking with some friends that came and he calls me over and says he wants to buy my painting! We are both confused about how to proceed from there. Do I take credit cards? Well yes but my credit card reader for my AC business is at home. And I'm not sure how all this works with the gallery. Do they do the transaction? I can't find the director. Well, he says he has my card and will call. The painting needs to stay in the gallery for a month anyway I find out. Then he was gone. So who knows. I'll believe it when it happens but regardless, I'm over the moon happy. Later I find the director and she tells me they take 30%. Would be 50% but I'm a paid member there now. Cool. It seems that it's just on the honor system. I do the transaction and then I give the gallery their cut. It's only a few hundred bucks but selling my first would be very cool.
Sorry for the long post but as you can probably tell, I'm a little giddy.
Things I learned? Have cards ready and also some quick way to take notes, phone numbers etc. Credit card reader. Things move so fast. I'm also not good about ending a conversation. I also should have hovered around my painting more and watched for the interested people. Instead I was wandering around, talking to friends and other artists, popping over to the brewery conveniently located nearby etc.
