I Didn’t Leave the Gallery System… We Built a New One

 

  

#1 Landscape 16x20 oil on canvas panel

 March 16, 2009 | Private Collection  

Every once in a while, I go back and read something I wrote years ago—not to reminisce, but to check the thinking. This week, one post from 2012 stood out.

This journey started on March 16, 2009—with a small 16 x 20 landscape and a decision made before the paint was dry.

At the time, I was just a few years into painting again, trying to figure out how to make a real career out of it. I approached it the only way I knew how—as a business.

Even then, a few things became very clear:

• Galleries didn’t build your name
• They didn’t control your future
• They didn’t really understand what the artist needed long-term

They showed the work—that was about it.

So I made a decision early on. If I was going to do this professionally, I needed control—over the work, the presentation, and the direction of my career. That thinking never left.

Over time, something else became clear. People don’t buy paintings because of resumes, juried shows, or affiliations. They buy what I came to call “Best Wall Paintings.”

• Work that has presence
• Work that holds a wall
• Work that creates that instant reaction—the “jump factor”

And when that happens, everything else disappears.

Fast forward to today, and I can see the full arc.

I didn’t walk away from the gallery system. I rebuilt it—around the artist.

Instead of relying on a single point of sale, the model became an ecosystem:

• A space for original paintings, experienced in person
• A platform for museum-quality reproductions
• A direct connection to collectors
• A structure for artists to grow and build value
• Control over the work, the brand, and the future

The gallery didn’t go away. It just found its proper place.

This shift changes everything. The artist is no longer dependent on a gallery. The artist becomes part of a system that works with them, not around them.

Looking back, the plan I wrote years ago wasn’t far off. It just took time to build the structure that could support it.

This doesn’t happen overnight:

• Painting by painting
• Decision by decision
• Step by step

Until one day you realize…

You’re not trying to fit into the system anymore. We created one.

“This system continues to evolve—through the work of the artists of SIP, the collectors who choose to live with it, and the space that Stony Point Fashion Park made possible.”

Love, Warmth and the Art of Courtship

 Valentine’s Day tends to amplify the obvious — flowers, cards, celebration.

But I’ve always been more interested in the quieter moments.

Courtship is about that in-between space — when two figures move toward one another, suspended in motion. There’s energy there. Uncertainty. Trust. A willingness to drift closer.

Love unfolds gradually.

Art does too.

Whether an original or a Reborn Original™, what matters most is the feeling it carries into a space. Warmth. Presence. Connection.

Today felt like a good day to share this one.

— Chuck

  

  

 

To build value, ART must speak loud and clear to be noticed.

Shortly, we celebrate Dream Big Artworks’ first year at Stony Point Fashion Park.

Every new business experiences growing pains. Dream Big Artworks is no different. At my age, time is the enemy—though experience helps keep it in check. I’ve always been early to the next sandbox, often before I fully know it’s there. When opportunity presents itself, I respond quickly—sometimes in nanoseconds. Some might call it jumping the gun. I call it the jump factor. You instantly know. You want it, regardless of the cost.

Stony Point was that way for me.

As a designer now artist, I’ve always known that presentation is key to building artist value through gallery sales. How work is shown matters. Where it lives matters. Context matters.

Our Reborn Originals showroom (Suite 115) and the new Dream Big Originals gallery (Suite 145) present SIP artists well—prime locations in a beautifully maintained, upscale mall reinventing itself after the massive buying shifts brought on by COVID. The big retail winner is Amazon, which has now added luxury brands to its lineup.

Stony Point is my kind of project. I like reinvention. That’s where I shine—as a problem solver and designer.

What I loved most about my art career, which began in March of 2009, was that it relied entirely on me. My time was my own. Art became a daily dedication. At 67, painting gave me a reason to continue. This blog is really about that experience.

That singular focus changed in 2016 when coaching entered my fifteen-year plan—not an easy sell at first. SIP Swimming-in-Paint was born organically from artists who wanted steady progress, professional guidance, and time to work things through—not just paint-and-pack-up workshops. SIP isn’t about quick results. It’s about building stronger work, better habits, and the confidence to finish well.

Looking back, it was a natural move. My career had always involved training craftspeople, developing staff, and building a vertical design business. I was doing it again—only this time it was about art.

And more specifically, about a need senior artists have: sharing our art legacy and protecting it, including the seventy-year copyright that survives us.

Presentation remains the foundation of artist value.

Estates can benefit long-term from an art career—even during the artist’s lifetime. An original painting has one lucky owner. The copyright does not transfer with the sale. That reality caught my attention years ago after a solo exhibition when someone asked, “Do you have prints?”

From that moment on, digital capture became two of my favorite words spoken to artists—second only to more paint.

High-quality digital captures allow original work to be reproduced in many ways, creating passive income through licensing and royalties—what someone recently called “free money.” I call it artist dividends. How valuable those dividends become depends on how well we build value as artists. That takes dedication—and finding your place in a very large creative sandbox.

To build value, art must speak loud and clear to be noticed.

 Chuck Larivey OPA

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