Posted by Sue N 30th 2008 September
Categories: Uncategorized
This is for general chat and encouragement! Please do add your thoughts and musings.
Best wishes,
Sue
Posted by Sue N 30th 2008 September
Categories: Uncategorized
This is for general chat and encouragement! Please do add your thoughts and musings.
Best wishes,
Sue
September 30th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I have just heard that I have the opportunity to hire a small gallery in Brighton for a week in August next year. It’s on the seafront, so quite good for passing traffic. It costs £225 for the week and the gallery take 10% of profits.
My main concern is having enough work ready to fill the place!
Do any of you have any advice or thoughts on whether I should go ahead?
Please do let me know.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:33 am
How about banding together with 1 or 2 other artists?they can share the financial and work pressure.
I find the cost of some of my ideal venues prohibitive but i approached my local Cathedral and they did everything for free!Some Cathedrals do charge hideous amounts but it might be worth checking your local especially in August when the tourists are pottering.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I am hoping to do that. I belong to a local art group, but I’m not sure any of them are keen enough on selling their work to want to put the time and money in! Any Artisans interested?
Sadly in East Sussex, we are rather lacking in local cathedrals, so that may not be too useful. I will bear it in mind for the future though. Thanks artist71.
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline if you have confidence in your work and time to produce the necessary number of paintings go for it but remember how many you will have to sell to at least break even
October 6th, 2008 at 2:24 am
If you have the money to use for your art I would see it as an investment in two things: 1) you are getting to know how a gallery works and getting some experience with having your art ship shape and 2) you are seeing if it connects with anyone in that area. I would not see it as failure if you didn’t sell anything because you would have gotten some neat exposure.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
To be perfectly honest it is rare (but not unheard of!) for me to sell a painting at my actual exhibition,However often my work will touch people or be interpreted in a way that i could never have sat down and planned to encompass in my art work.It is very hard to not think in monetry terms when thinking of the expense that is required but i do believe that God mean’t you to paint for him and concentrating on that is the important thing. It is uncanny that the people who do by my paintings seem to be exactly the right person and use the paintings in a way that uses the message in it in a way i find humbling and awesome.
You are right to keep costs to a minimal - the times dictate that- but as Dawn says think of it as an investment.What you do when you painting is honouring God, he will use your work in amazing ways.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hi Sue,
sorry haven’t been on for a while, have been suffering with a nasty flu/chest infection for two weeks. I agree with what both artist 71 and Dawn said. I don’t think you can ‘afford’ to miss the opportunity, if you’ll excuse the pun. It sounds as though the Lord has opened a door for you…so just trust Him and walk through it. (If I were closer I’d love to join you, but I think Cambridge is just a little too far off.) He’ll also provide all you need to enable you to fulfill any path He puts you on. On a purely fleshly response…it all sounds really exciting. Go for it. Just remember to enjoy the ride!
Jo
October 11th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Hi I have just finished a ONE day e exhibition in Wimbledon with approx 20 other artists.
Many artists sold nothing.!! (credit crunch fears!!) I was very blessed and sold 2 paintings and quite a lot of cards. Minus the charges and materials etc I have made in money very little.! BUT I was very pleased by the pleasure that my art gave people. ESPECIALLY 2 Christian ladies who bought approx £20 cards and images to frame.One of them I think was decorating her house with the images!!!
A lot of hard work,but worth it!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Dear Everyone,
Sorry I haven’t been back for a while. Time just zooms past!
Thank you all for your interest and thoughts. Since I wrote about the exhibition, circumstances have changed somewhat. The organiser omitted to tell me that they only hire out the gallery for 2 weeks at a time! Double the cost and double the time commitment in actually being there! I had decided to go for it for one week, but this unexpected news made me change my mind. What I have decided though is that I need to arrange an exhibition of my work somewhere next year. There is no point in painting pictures just to sit in a pile in my spare room!
I have also been inspired by Lydia’s upfront attitude to letting people know about her work and have been much more active in handing out my business cards and suggesting that people look at the Veritasse site. It’s easy to get complacent and to think that God will do all the work, when in fact we need to put our share of work in too.
Well done for selling some pieces, Susan.
Maybe we should look out for somewhere we can exhibit our work together- apart form the website!
Best wishes to you all. Sue
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
If you folks have a bit of time, please could you help Jo out by adding some comments and thoughts to the “Creating meaning in artwork” post? She is doing a thesis/dissertation on this. Thank you!
November 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Dear Everyone,
I am starting off a November Chat now, so please don’t add any more comments to this.
See you in November Chat!