It is not easy running an
art gallery these days and after owning one now for over 35 years I have seen
so many changes.
When I first took a huge
leap of faith way back in 1989 things were very different. For a start there
was far less competition and far fewer galleries. There were far more shoppers
and being in a touristy place there were more holiday makers that used to come
for a whole week or even two and not just for over-night stays. Many visitors
would return year after year and become loyal customers. Now it is very unusual
to get people staying more than a few days and mostly they are just stopping
off for one night, and where I am now in Chagford on the edge of Dartmoor they
are usually on their way to Cornwall.
People used to spend
longer and seemed to actually look, whereas now most of them merely glance,
hardly ever read and usually have their phones in their hands.
Recently backpacks have
become the norm and instead of women carrying handbags they carry everything on
their backs, as do the men, and this is a constant worry for when they turn
round in the narrower parts of my gallery they can swipe these across a piece
of valuable artwork or knock something off a shelf. Unfortunately this can be a
nuisance, for the last thing I want to do is upset someone as soon as they walk
into the gallery by asking them to remove them, however some people are
reluctant to take them off and it is not exactly the welcome I want to give.
There were no mobile phones
back in those days and also no internet, and things were a lot better. I relied
on my shop windows and occasionally articles in magazines and newspapers to
draw people into my gallery and this worked really well.
Now with everyone having access to the internet,
advertising has become very different as most of it is done on social media and
there are so many different platforms for this, but the one thing that they all
have in common is that they are so transient and mostly totally meaning-less as
they just rely on the numbers of clicks and likes which are all too easy for people
to do and are mostly immediately forgotten.
Mobile phones are a huge problem as nearly everyone carries
one and they are distracting. People are often called in the middle of looking
at a painting or something and immediately their interest is gone and they
either leave or I am subjected to listening to a one sided conversation which
can sometimes be quite personal and not anything that I want to hear. Also,
having access to a camera on your phone can be far too tempting and despite
having signs asking politely for no photography people just ignore these and
snap away. We never used to have to put up signs. So half the time when
previously someone might be tempted to buy a piece of art or at least a print
or card they no longer need to as they
have it on their phone and often just leave with a thank you saying ”I just
love your paintings, I could buy everything” !
Carrying phones also gives
people instant access to the internet and it is possible for anyone to Google a
piece of art to see if they can buy it for less elsewhere or go directly to the
artist cutting out the gallery.
On top of all these
difficulties the financial side of running a business is much harder. For
instance we hardly ever see cash anymore; even for the smallest of things
people just flash a card or a phone. The minimum wage has been put up so much
that a lot of small businesses just can’t afford to employ anyone, and where
galleries would have used someone on a part time basis which would have been a help
to them and also to give them a break, this has become no longer possible as
most of the time their hours would not be covered by how much is being taken.
So therefore a good many shops are now closing earlier than they used to and
also closing for one or two days a week to give the owners a break.
On top of this rents have
rocketed and now also business rates, making it very hard for the self-employed
to make a decent profit or even take a wage themselves. The rateable value of
commercial properties went up on the 1st of April 2026. This is
based upon the property rental values which have all gone up considerably. This
has pushed many of the small businesses into a higher level of rates and they
can no longer claim rates relief. Any shop with a rateable value below £12,000
pa can claim 100% relief, then between £12,001 to £15,000 rates relief is on a
sliding scale. Above this businesses have to pay the full amount. For instance on
a property valued at £15,500 pa you would have to pay £7,440 and anything above
this will have to pay more on a sliding scale. So all of this has to be
calculated and comes out of your profit margin which in this difficult time is not
a guaranteed amount and when you are self-employed can vary from year to year
considerably. What is unfair is that the government have not taken this into
consideration and they should have put the rates relief threshold up to help
with this. So if you ever wonder why there are fewer and fewer lovely
independent shops in towns and more and more chains and charity shops then this
is one of the reasons why.
Then let’s not forget VAT.
For artists this is a difficult one as you cannot claim VAT back on hard work,
only on things that you buy in that are VAT registered, and with the VAT limit
now having hardly risen for many years and being £90,000 (which I know sounds a
lot), but when your overheads are so high, this only leaves you with only a
small amount of profit, and this can be a killer, for if you take a tiny amount
over this figure you will have to pay 20% of your income to the government and
may possibly not be able to claim much back or can even afford to do this. It
also makes it extremely hard to be able to save enough to be able to invest in
your own business because you are taxed so highly on your profit and only
allowed to keep £12,500 in Personal Allowance.
So, not only have art
galleries got all these difficulties they also have to contend with today’s
overload of everything. We are blitzed with images on social media and everyone
is constantly taking their own snaps of everything. So now even trying to sell
photographs has become harder. Nearly everything is downloadable and everything
is out there and is far too easy to be copied.
A.I. is also a huge threat
to real art, and it will take away all aspirations and halt inspiration if we
are not careful. It is all very sad and worrying.
I am now really grateful
to anyone who actually takes the time to look at my paintings and do not just
walk around my gallery in a couple of minutes and thank me on their way out.
Annoyingly, I often get groups of women who are on a day out together and they
nearly always chat the whole time and hardly ever look at anything, we have nick-named
them “the women who talk”
I do find in general
Americans are far more interested in Art than the English; they are usually
very polite and actually look at my work for some time and ask me about it.
What I find annoying are people who come in my gallery take a quick look and
when they find out that I am actually the artist who painted everything they
say “Oh, you are prolific”. Another annoying thing is when people ask me if I
paint. I actually have a picture of myself and a short bit of writing for
people to see as they enter the gallery, but as hardly anyone seems to take
time to read now, they do not notice this and quite usually ask me if I am one
of the artists, and on hearing that I am, they look astonished and say
“really?” as if astounded. Or, even more annoying are the local people who
after many, many years of my having the gallery still ask me if I paint.
Actually, very few locals ever venture in to have a look, or have ever done so.
And now, more people have taken to shopping on-line and we are constantly being
annoyed by delivery vans up and down our tiny roads. Fewer and fewer local
people see the need to come and shop locally.
PREMESIS. I have not
mentioned this, but actually finding the right place to show off art is
crucial. A big window or several are good, but if they let in the sun then this
is a big problem. Being somewhere with enough foot fall is necessary, but too
much can be a bad thing. Being off the beaten track is lovely, but then you
rely on signage and advertising and therefore you never know if anyone at all
is going to come and see your beautiful art and you are tied to being there ‘just
in case’.
NEIGHBOURS. These can also
be a good or extremely bad thing as I have written about in my book “Eight
Years in Provence”. I think anyone interested in making a living as an artist
will find this really interesting as it is a great insight into all the
unexpected things I had to contend with in my “dream gallery” in one of the
most beautiful places in the world.
Pop up Shops. These are
now becoming normal and can be a problem if you have to compete with a lot of amateur
artists who sell their paintings at a very low price, not needing to make a
living from doing so, or paying any taxes, and they are just very happy to sell
their art. Most of the public cannot tell if an artist is an amateur or a
professional, and they do not understand why one piece of artwork should be so
much more expensive than another.
Special events such as
craft fairs, street markets etc. can also take your trade away. We are told
these are good for the economy as they bring may people in to shop and spend X
amount into the local economy. However, apart from places selling food and
drink I think most shop owners would agree with me that they actually loose
trade during the time these events are held and it does seem unfair that shop
owners, who struggle to keep their businesses running all year round through
all the very quiet times, then have to share their trade with others who are
only there during the busiest times of the year.
Then there are the
unexpected problems like road closures, building works and the weather! This
can be extremely frustrating as winters now seem to be long and very wet, so
roads are often closed due to flooding and people are warned to stay at home
and not to travel unless it is really necessary. Now we also have the problem
of the summers being excessively hot and yet again people are told to stay at
home and if they do venture forth then the heat can make shopping miserable.
So, our actual trading days can be cut short by all these outside factors that
we have absolutely no control over.
Oh, I must not forget
PARKING! This can be a huge pain, as so many people do not know quite how long
they are going to want to stay in one place, so usually only pay enough for a
fairly short stay and if that includes wanting something to eat as well, then
shopping can become a rushed thing which is not conducive to browsing in an art
gallery. I found this happened a lot when I had my gallery in France; everyone
was in such a rush to get on to the next place and see as much as they could in
a short space of time. Here in England I so often hear “we haven’t got time as
our parking runs out” and funnily enough just as I was writing this a man said
exactly this! I am sure he was genuine, but one never knows if it is just an
excuse or not.
It is difficult when there
are far too many shops all trying to sell similar products all within one small
place and Art Galleries seem to attract others. There can be a dearth of
practical shops in a place and then nearly every other shop is either selling
gifts or art. I really wish there was some rule that could be employed by the
council of each town that prevented too many shops selling the same thing
coming in and setting up next to or near other well established ones. Having
been in this position it is a hard one to get to grips with and I really hate
hearing people pass my window saying “Oh no, not another Gallery” I want to run
out and point out to them that I was actually here long before all the other
galleries came. I also wish that other artists would be more considerate and
not just presume because there is a gallery which appears to be doing well in a
certain place, that they can come in and share that. You can only cut one cake
into so many slices!
I do not think people
think or realise just how hard it is for an artist to survive in this very
difficult world. First we have to have the inspiration and knowledge to create
something that other people will want to buy, we then spend many hours and
weeks creating a piece of art and then framing it beautifully which is quite an
expense. We have to display it well and then try and sell it at a price that
will usually never cover the many hours of work that went into producing it. We
are subject to customers wanting to bargain with us, all the while we are
competing with other shops selling cheap goods that they have bought in from
abroad and that most of the tourists believe are made locally.
Having said all of the
above I must not forget to mention the positive side of being a self-employed
artist. It is a wonderful thing to be able to make a living out of doing
something that you love and are driven to do. It is very satisfying to be able
to meet the people who buy your paintings. To watch someone fall in love with a
piece of your art and want it enough to buy it and take it home to look at
every day for many years ahead and to build up relationships and friendships
with your collectors. To be your own boss and chose your own destiny.
My book ‘Eight Years in
Provence’ which gives a tremendous insight into being an artist and running a
gallery with all the highs and lows involved with this is available through my
website www.paintingsofprovence.com or by contacting me in my Three Hares Gallery in
Chagford in Devon. TQ13 8AB. UK. Tel: 01647 433287. I think many artists and
lovers of Provence will enjoy reading it and seeing some of the many paintings
I did during that time.
With very best wishes
Eleanor
