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Less admin, more stretching.

Know where every painting is, and who owes you for it. Plya keeps a painter's galleries, shows and collectors in one place, from planning the hang to the gallery's payment after a sale.

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Open calls, fairs and grants for painting

A solo show is a project with its own canvas. Draw the wall and the 57-inch centerline, drop in each painting's photo with a sticky for its title, size and price, and keep the gallery and the show's tasks beside it.

The admin that comes with gallery shows and open studios

A painter's work is spread out. A few canvases hang at two or three galleries on consignment, one is on loan to a museum show, and the rest lean in the studio racks. The money for a sale comes from the gallery weeks later.

  • The painting that went to the fair

    It left with the gallery for a booth in the spring. Whether it sold, and to whom, is still a question in an email thread.

  • The check after the red dot

    Galleries usually pay within 30 days of a sale. The red dot went up beside the painting in March.

  • Thirty frames before the opening

    A plain frame for a 16 × 20 can run past $100, and a show takes thirty of them, plus the crates and the drive to the gallery.

  • The guest book from open studios

    Forty names, a few with notes like "loved the blue one." The advice is to follow up within the week. The book is still on the table by the door.

At the easel

See what each painting needs before the show

A painting for a spring show is a project with its steps as dated tasks: stretch and prime, block in, varnish and frame. Its reference photos and color studies sit on its canvas, and Today lists what's due across every painting in progress.

Hands mixing oil paint on a wooden palette with a palette knife, an easel behind

Know where every painting is

Each painting is a project, with its photo as the cover, its retail price as the value, and the medium, size and inventory number in the description. Rename the statuses to In the studio, At a gallery, On loan and Sold, and the Projects page groups your work by where it is. When a gallery sells one, drag it to Sold and add a task on the gallery's record for the payment, due in 30 days.

How projects work

Follow up with collectors after open studios

The names from the guest book go on a Collectors pipeline, from Identified through Studio visit to Acquired. A week later, ask Ash who still needs a follow-up. Once you've written to them from your own email, Ash logs the follow-ups and sets the next date, and every change it makes shows with Open and Undo.

How outreach works

Tools for the full painter's year

Festival applications, spring shows, summer fairs, fall openings and open studios come around every year. Each one has a place in Plya.

  1. January to February

    Festival applications

    Outdoor art festivals close their applications in winter. Fairs and open calls are listed in Opportunities with their deadlines and entry costs. Mark the ones you've applied to.

  2. March to April

    Spring shows

    Frame, crate, deliver, hang. Each show is a project, and each step is a task with a date, linked to the gallery.

  3. May to June

    Shows come down

    Unsold work comes home and sold work gets paid for. Move each painting from At a gallery to In the studio or Sold.

  4. July to August

    Festival weekends

    A booth weekend ends with a stack of buyers' cards. Each buyer goes in Network, with the painting they asked about and where you met.

  5. September to October

    Fall openings

    The artist statement, the checklist for the gallery and the hanging notes for each show go in one note, linked to the gallery.

  6. November to December

    Open studios and the holidays

    Collectors buy before the holidays. Invoice each sale from the studio, paid online to your own Stripe, and split a larger painting into a few invoices over the winter.

Keep your CV current

Your CV is a note in Plya. Add each show as it opens, then download the note as a PDF for the next application. Your short and long bio sit in the studio kit in Library, and the signed consignment agreement goes in its Contracts and agreements slot.

Sample quotes

“I found two open calls in my first week and applied to both.”
Rosa DelgadoPainter

Made for every kind of studio

Plya for every craft and practice

Spend more time at the easel

Know where every painting is, who owes you for it, and which collectors are waiting on you, and keep the rest of the day for paint.

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