Why pay to exhibit your work, when you don't have to?

Nowadays it is imperative for every artist that wants true exposure for their work to have an internet presence whether it be on a website or a blog. However as we all know web-sites have to be designed, hosted and maintained, all of which costs money. Unfortunately not every artist has the funds at their disposal to accomodate these costs and their exposure suffers. As a direct result of this predicament the idea of the online art gallery was born.However I have noticed two general trends on the hundreds (if not thousands) of online gallery sites out there. They are:<ol><li>You have to pay an annual membership to exhibit.</li><li>If you sell any work you have to pay the web-site a crippling commission.</li></ol>Personally I don't feel that it is very fair to expect artist's to shell out a fee with no guarantees and don't even get me started on the commissions that some of these sites charge, some of which are (believe it or not) upwards of 50%.Time for a change don't you think. So if you are a UK based watercolour artist and would like to exhibit your work FREE go to http://www.thewatercolourartist.com/Gallery/watercolour-painting-gallery.html. Its free to join and the commission on sales is only a refreshingly low 10%. Interesting fact: Approx 40% of internet users are between the ages of 40-55. (Source-Mori polls)Coincidentally this demographic are generally the ones that are most likely to buy original art. Hope this is helpful for some of you. All the best.Greg