My first submission (rejection)

On the basis that 100% of the paintings that I don't submit, don't get accepted to exhibitions, I submitted a painting to an exhibition.

Walking up to the submission point I was thinking, "Oh, I hope I don't see anyone I know." So naturally I bump into someone I know. On the plus side I won't be so worried about that next time.

As you might have guessed from the title, my work was rejected. Sadly they don't give anything as useful as feedback, so I am left wondering, was it:

• Just not good enough.
• Not to the selectors' taste (collectively/individually).
• Too like other submissions.
• Poorly presented (stretching, framing etc)
• Was it the composition, brushwork, subject or narrative that were lacking?

Frustrating this, isn't it!

So my mission... to find out, not what those particular selectors thought of my work (I am sure they have better things to do than be pestered by many thousands of disappointed artists) but what and how the selection process works.

My plan... to volunteer to do some art handling at a selection.

[Edit] Size matters! As I just discovered on Katherine Tyrrell's amazingly comprehensive Making a Mark blog. The scale of my submission was something I hadn't considered.

I've been wanting to work larger for a long time but have been a little put off by the expense, logistics and my recent development into oil paints. Clearly it's time to re-examine that thought.