Digital representation · CS-PG-001 v3.1
· updated
Plainly: sales infrastructure
We turn how an art business already works into software that sells for it.
For one artist, that meant a website built to do one thing: sell the work, the way she and her galleries already sell it.
- Client
- Sara Paula Hoffman (Paula), visual artist
- Site
- paulagallery.com
- Status
- Live · first gallery show closed, one work sold
One baseline · true relative scale · an inch is an inch on every row
- Act I, Seen But Not Heard · 2003 · Oil and mixed media on panel · 12 × 12 in
- Red Line · 2007 · Graphite and oil on Mylar · 24 × 36 in
- Chris #1 · Plaster cast, encaustic paint · 14 × 8 × 8 in
01 · The problem
You could admire a painting. You could not buy one.
A visitor could admire a painting. They could not buy one. No piece carried a price, there was no way to ask about buying one, and no record was kept of anyone who wanted to.
Her real inventory (titles, sizes, prices) lived in spreadsheets on her own computer, with no connection to the website that was supposed to be selling it. An earlier site under her full name was still online. Her biography and exhibition record were scattered across a university page, Instagram, LinkedIn and several gallery listings, with no single official version for a search engine to trust.
What we built, from how she already works
02 · Eight moves- 01
The work at its real size
Every piece is shown at its true size beside the others. One inch of artwork gets the same space on every row, so a twelve-inch panel looks small next to a thirty-six-inch drawing, the way it would on a wall, and each one casts the shadow its depth would cast when hung. The six portrait heads in Samfundets støtter were photographed turning on a turntable, so you can drag to walk around them.
- 02
A price anyone can check
Paula prices by measurement: linear inches times her rate, plus materials, then a presentation share for framing, placement and stewardship, rounded up to the next hundred. Suspension is 24.5 linear inches at $125 with $40 in materials, so $3,102.50, times 1.35 for presentation, $4,188.38, published as $4,200. Each work page shows the price on one line and keeps the whole working one click below it, under “How this is priced,” so a buyer can follow every step. A work still waiting for its size or price says “On enquiry” rather than guessing.
- 03
An offer, not a shopping cart
At these prices people don’t click “buy.” They make an offer, with the asking price already showing in the field. Every offer goes straight to the studio’s private desk, saved with the price that was on screen when it was made, and an email lets us know it has arrived. Over time that shows what people will pay for which pieces.
- 04
The gallery gets the sale
While a work hangs in a show, its page shows the gallery’s price and sends enquiries to the gallery instead of the studio, with a tagged link so the gallery can see where the visitor came from. When the show closes, the work goes back to its studio price. Galleries are how Paula sells, and the site is built to feed them rather than compete with them.
- 05
A schedule that keeps itself honest
Every show, open call and consignment is one record with its dates, and whether it reads upcoming, on view or past follows from those dates. Every morning a small job reads the gallery’s listing for each work still out on consignment and notices if it has sold, gone on hold, changed price or can no longer be read. It reads the schedule too: a jury result that is overdue, a drop-off coming up, a show that closed with work still out, a consignment or online listing that has ended. Letters to her exhibitions address are collected automatically and likely acceptances are flagged; a person still reads each letter and drafts the listing from it. When something needs deciding it sends an email prompt. It never changes a price on its own, because why two numbers disagree is a question about a relationship, and a person should answer it.
- 06
One catalogue behind everything
Her whole inventory lives in one catalogue. The web pages, the structured data search engines read, a plain-text edition for AI assistants, a written record of every work, the sitemap and the sharing images all come from it, so they can’t drift apart. Every sharing image carries her seal, 宝拉, so work found elsewhere leads back to her.
- 07
Recent work first
The home page opens on Recent work: her newest pieces, each with its size, before any series. A new work does not have to belong to a series to be shown, so a piece can go online the week it is finished.
- 08
A rate she can try
A private page lets Paula try a rate per inch and a gallery’s commission and see a whole series repriced at once: the studio price, the gallery price, and what she keeps from each. It prices a new work from its size and prints the price list she sends a gallery. It reads the same formula the site uses, and changes nothing.
- The series, counted and dated: 14 works, 2013 to 2024.
- Every work at its true size beside the others. An inch of artwork gets the same space on every row.
- One link opens the whole series.
- In her words: portrait studies of hired models, modeled from life and cast in plaster.
- Six heads, each with its own finish and its own base. Each was photographed turning, so you can drag to walk around it.
- The price on one line: $4,200.
- The working, opened: 12 × 12 × 0.5 inches, or 24.5 linear inches, at $125 an inch, $40 in materials, times 1.35 for presentation.
- The subtotal, $4,188.38, rounded up to the next hundred. Nothing says “price on request.”
- The offer form opens with the asking price already in the field.
- Thirteen works from 2024 to 2026 open the site, before any series.
- Each with its medium and size, whether or not it belongs to a series yet.
- One link to enquire.
03 · What runs by itself
Heads you can walk around
All six portrait heads now turn on the site, in a room of their own, Samfundets støtter.
Paula filmed each one at home. A kitchen lazy susan, a plain backdrop curved up behind it, even light, and a phone held still at the head’s own eye level about three feet away, with focus and exposure locked so nothing shifts as it turns. One slow turn takes about thirty seconds, filmed twice in case a hand gets in the way. We pull 23 to 26 frames from each take, even out the light, cut the head from its backdrop, and let every turn come to rest on a chosen frame, so the six read as one composition rather than six turntables.
03 · What runs by itself
Prepare three things. Everything else is generated.
Paula prepares three things: the original photographs, a record of what each work is, and a record of what it costs.
Everything else is built from them. The gallery images and the turns, the pages, a price worked out each time a page is read, a dated price sheet for her galleries, an inventory workbook written back to her own folder, the sharing images, and a record of every work for search engines and AI assistants. The formula lives in one place, and the site and every script use the same one.
It used to be the other way round. Her spreadsheet was the master and kept its own worked-out columns, which were filled in once and never again: 32 of 33 available works had an empty retail price while the site was quoting current ones. Now the spreadsheet is a printout of the record. Each run writes a new dated file, so nothing she has is ever written over.
04 · When something goes wrong
Two works were damaged in shipping
Two assemblages, Manus and Dolls, An Adaptation, were damaged in shipping.
One change to the catalogue took both off sale. Nothing else in the archive moved: every other price, page and listing stayed exactly as it was. That is the quiet benefit of one catalogue. A setback asks for one careful edit, not a dozen hurried ones.
05 · Outcome
Seven things it does now that it couldn’t before
- 01The work at its real sizeEvery work online is shown at its true size beside the others, and the six portrait heads turn.
- 02A price anyone can checkEvery priced work shows its price and exactly how it was reached.
- 03An offer, not a shopping cartEvery offer is saved against the work and the price on screen.
- 04The gallery gets the saleWorks in a gallery show send buyers to the gallery, and one has sold that way.
- 05A schedule that keeps itself honestShows and consignments are tracked by date, with a daily prompt when one needs a decision.
- 06One catalogue behind everythingThe website, search engines and AI assistants all read from one catalogue.
- 07A rate she can tryPaula can try a new rate and print a gallery price list without touching the site.
- Status
- Live
- first gallery show closed, one work sold
- Prices shown
- All
- every priced work carries its working
- Sold through the gallery
- 1
- Thank You, Paid · LeMieux · Vol. 8
- Sales lift
- Pending
- being measured, not yet published
06 · What we don’t know yet
Whether it sells more art, we don’t know yet.
The first gallery show carrying these works closed on 12 September, with one sale through the gallery. One sale is a good day, not a result. We decided in advance how we would tell whether the site is working, and it records every offer and the steps people take on the way to one.
Those numbers get published here when there are enough of them to mean something, including the ones that go against us.
Built with
- SvelteKit 2
- Svelte 5
- sharp
- Playwright
- Python + NumPy
- Neon Postgres
- Resend
- Vercel Cron
- Vercel
Digital representation