She hadn't factored in the lure of the shore.

"It was slow. A lot of people leave Philly for the summer. I had a couple of sales but nothing significant and I tried not to panic," she recalls.

But New Jersey native Mayer had her vision and she was sticking to it: "I had calculated the rent for one year and that's what I had saved up, so it was either going to go or it wasn't."

A successful show of paintings by local artist Deborah Caiola buoyed Mayer's spirits, and soon things began to click. "I got through the year and signed a very long contract. I'm not moving," she assures. Far from it, the art entrepreneur is expanding, with a recently opened second gallery in New Hope.

SQUARE ROOTS: Mayer opened a New Hope space but Washington Square is home. Photo By: Manuel Dominguez Jr

Both spaces are heavily tilted toward abstract work, whose "intellectual reach" appeals to Mayer. The artist has something in mind ... and you also have the opportunity to bring your own experiences in looking at and understanding it," she explains.

Mayer's own work while majoring in studio art and art history at Bucknell was abstract, "a la Georgia O'Keefe," and though she considered a career as an artist, changed her mind after working for a gallery in SoHo. "I saw it was a huge production to really go for it and be a professional painter. I realized that I enjoyed painting but not on that level. I was more interested in the mechanics of the field than the art making. I enjoyed the business end of it."

You can sense in her voice the excitement Mayer, now 32, feels about the "whole production, from A to Z," which starts two years prior to a show and includes visiting artists in their studios to offer critiques and professional advice.

Tim McFarlane recalls being nervous about a studio visit in preparation for a second show at Bridgette Mayer Gallery. "I had made a big transition, a radical break. My other work was more hard-edged and linear and this was more expressive and looser. I told her I was not sure where the work was going and she said, 'I think you're doing OK, you just need to do more.' And that just freed me up and was a very positive thing. She could have said, 'You sold well in the last show and you should do more of that.'"

Before Mayer, McFarlane managed his own career. He signed with Mayer "because she was very open and exhibited a type of caring for art and artists that I enjoyed. Of course she is a business person, but she wants her artists to succeed financially and she cares about artists being able to live from their art, not just scrape by."

Mayer claims she aims to enable her stable of artists to "get what they want out of their painting career. It's what I think sets me apart, and I know it sounds really simple, but there's a whole responsibility to that."

Neil Anderson, who's been painting for more than three decades, says Mayer is a refreshing change from his past experience, in which certain people proved untrustworthy. "Some galleries make it difficult to get paid," he says. "Bridgette is above board with exceptional integrity." Anderson is impressed with Mayer's energy and enthusiasm, especially with marketing and promotion. "Many dealers just sit and wait for something to happen," he observes.

Mayer works hard at garnering publicity for her gallery and its artists, enough so that she was featured on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 program. She views her role not only as a purveyor but also as an educator, helping both new and old art collectors better understand the work she is presenting. "I never enjoy it when you walk into a gallery and no one will talk to you ... I want to create a connection," she says.

That's one reason why this month she's veering from her regular group to present her Philadelphia gallery's first museum-quality show. "Greetings From Black Mountain College," with pieces by Josef Albers, Elaine de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence and Robert Motherwell among others, illuminates the college's "rich history." It's where some of the best contemporary painters have come out of. I wanted to show a slice of painting art history."

(d_kasrel@citypaper.net)

"Greetings From Black Mountain College," through Aug. 19, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, 709 Walnut St., 215-413-8893; "Colour My World," through Aug. 26, Bridgette Mayer ... New Hope, 3 W. Bridge St., New Hope, 215-413-8893.