Of the Harleston & Waveney Art Trail… a quieter weekend to the three week event, but one of the organisers of the Art Trail made a personal house call today – a delightful lady whose comments are always perceptive and insightful. She said that she envisioned my work in more corporate settings – the boardroom or executive suite – how very flattering; I always thought my work rather naturalistic and earthy in appeal and not at all urban contemporary art – perhaps it is the manner in which I have displayed them – a near perfect symmetry.
Perhaps it is also because my current paintings link to some form of primeval memory, a need for a more tranquil engagement – a microcosm of the natural(?) in the less than personal manmade environment. One of things I have learnt about success in business is firstly, know your market. Any prospective entrepreneur should know that their product should be unique, desirable and also meet a genuine need (I have been incubating some novel ideas for the BBC’s Dragon’s Den which, for copyright reasons, I cannot possibly reveal here!!). However, an artist who decides to function purely in this business-like way would most likely fashion their artwork to suit market tastes and trends but many I am uneasy with this concept – because I am quite introspective in the making of my work – and I also lack some business acumen, such as actively making and promoting my work to the right clients – the time spent deliberating on and creating them is sacred enough.
I was recently approached by an arts magazine to purchase a full page advertorial – quite costly but one has to do these things to make ripples in the art world. Although this site goes some way to developing my brand image or identity as a contemporary artist (always a work in progress), I really need an artist’s agent to do the bigger share of the arts marketing!
