At the time when I first joined the Merrill Gallery (which later became the Merrill-Johnson Gallery), John David Phillips was embarking on his fine art career. That is how our paths met. John visited the gallery inquiring about the process to be considered for representation. Valori Merrill had just purchased the gallery, and was not particularly excited about adding new artists.

Among the work that John showed us was an Italian piece picturing an old lady in black walking down a dusty village road. We were both impressed with the painting and decided to send it to a collector in North Carolina, who had been very difficult to please. In fact we had sent her about dozen paintings for her consideration without one sale. This was going to be the last piece we tried. The collector loved it, and it was the only piece she ever purchased from us. Interestingly, it was the only gallery painting of John's that ever showed a figure.

John joined our gallery, and ultimately we sold more of his work than any other artist in the gallery. In fact, I have mentioned in some of my workshops, that John is one of the few artists that I knew who sold well from the beginning of their career.

John and I quickly became friends with weekly racquetball marathons. We don't do the racquetball any more, but John has remained one of my best friends in Colorado. It is always a kick to visit his studio, because his paintings keep on getting stronger and more compelling. It is interesting that someone so good twenty years ago has gotten better every year since. I believe his landscape work is some of the strongest in the state. There are hundreds of landscape painters in Colorado and there are only a few whose work really stands out. John is one of those painters.

Although he is and has been represented by some of finest galleries including Merrill and Total Arts in Taos, I don't feel he has received the recognition that he deserves even though the Denver Art Museum did purchase one of his pieces a few years back. Why he as never been included in the Coors Western Show is a mystery to me. I have on many occasions remarked that if John would have painted 150 years ago, we would be seeing his work in the art history books.

I have re-developed my ArtistsWatch project as an effective an a cost-efficient way to promote your art to galleries. New printing technologies can be used to print limited circulation magazine as a reasonable cost.

The first edition of the ArtistsWatch magazine will be distributed to approximately 90 Colorado galleries, who are potentially open to adding new artists. In addition, we will distribute a online version of the magazine to over 500 galleries nationwide.

The cost is under $100, and you and your art will be included on the searchable ArtistsWatch website for the next twelve months. To see a sample of the publication and more information go to artistswatch.com. Or you can call me direct at 303-751-6910 for more information.

Visit the ArtistsWatch website