Sun, 08 Jul 2007
Notes to self
It is now time to take stock of my first open weekend as part of the Harleston & Waveney Art Trail. I received lots of praise for my paintings and my visitors left very nice comments in my book. I must admit I was not completely prepared on saturday morning - donning marigold gloves (last minute tidying), greeting my first guest on the dot of twelve noon (note to self: successful artists operate as a business, are always on amber alert, there are no sleep-ins or late starts). As a past buyer of my work, my first visitor said I that was an inspiration to her, and yet it is patrons such as her that make what I (try) to do so much more an uplifting and worthwhile venture. Today, I had two more guests arrive shortly after noon. I am deeply ashamed to admit that I was dressed in slumberwear, seated at the kitchen table bagging up and labelling my handmade cards unaware of the time - but one of my idols, the artist Antoni Tapies, painted in his carpet slippers using a house broom as a giant brush - and so I like to see my minor clothing oversight as one of my little artistic idiosyncracies.

Anyhow, as a means for my work to be accessible to more people over the duration of the Art Trail, I had decided to spend an evening creating some very small handmade artist cards (click on image below to view a selection) - the four seasons theme returns - and at £5 each surely they are a knockdown price for original artworks.

I have quite enjoyed working in this manner (small collages), creating within the confines of a small folded square of cream paper, but sometimes it seems too frivolous and easy an activity to be regarded as real art - but if I sell them then I will be encouraged to make more handmade cards in my more whimsical moments (it saves on framing too). However, I feel I must finish off three more paintings for next weekend, since the main two walls downstairs were barren with only two large pieces on show with other smaller works dotted about - and the room in which I work, with all its artistic clutter, did not show the others at their best. However, I have learnt three important things this weekend:
Make more time for preparation - cards, invites, price labels, hanging pictures!
Provide visitors with as much related information as possible (as above) - they may be unsure what questions to ask and are greatly helped by knowing what they should be looking at.
It is not really necessary to make excuses for the apparent state of my house/studio/dress/hair - I am an artist after all!

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