As in anything in life, being able to accomplish what you want to do often requires setting a specific plan of attack.
For example, to approach a gallery to show your artwork on consignment you will need a minimum of 10 pieces of original work to show them (suggested is 20-25 original pieces in your completed inventory) plus a portfolio of 20-30 images. The reason they want to see a larger body of work as opposed to 5-10 pieces is to look at the consistency in your painting style and quality and the type of subject matter you tend towards. They want to know you can do that many paintings of a consistent quality and style as it is easier for them to promote your work to collectors and they know they can count on you to continually provide new work of the same caliber.
Keep in mind the images in your portfolio and the original pieces in your inventory should be your best work, not every piece you do. That means you need to figure out how long it will take you to built up the inventory you need. If you know from experience that approximately 30% of your work is of the best and most consistent quality and you do about 50 paintings per year, that means that you will produce about 15 paintings annually that can be included in your portfolio and inventory to approach a gallery, so you know it will take you about 2 years to build up the amount of work you need. If you want to approach a gallery sooner or prefer to take more time to really work on your paintings, then you can adjust the timeline. If it works better for you, you could break it down further into a monthly goal.
Your priorities will also come into play. If you decide your priority is approaching a gallery within a certain time-frame and you know you don’t produce enough paintings to save the inventory you need plus enter art shows throughout the year, then you know you either need to paint more or choose to make saving an inventory of work a priority that year rather than entering shows.
Setting a plan of action and having a timeline in mind is helpful to ensure you keep on track and achieve your goals.
Tags: Setting Goals
