Not been feeling too well lately and not full of the joys of Spring so the blog has been neglected.
I've still been active on Redbubble, adding one or two paintings and keeping an eye on the wonderful variety of art that always gives you a lift whatever your mood.
I've been preparing for the upcoming Soc. of Floral Painters exhibition at The Vyne, National Trust near Basingstoke starting the 28 May.
I'll be putting three paintings in and some cards and a couple of folios (mounted, unframed paintings). But there's a lot of work involved for just this small number of works. You have to decide early on which paintings you want to show, making sure they fit into the criteria for the SFP, especially size wise...(this year, due to lack of space, they must be less than 18 inches on the long side, which is very small.) We have to fill in forms listing the titles and sizes of the paintings and the card titles and send these off with the handling fees.
Then you have to get these paintings mounted and framed, either doing the work yourself or paying a framer. Then you've to sort out the cards you are selling, making sure they are priced and boxed and labelled. The paintings once framed need to be labelled and have removable labels attached to help the hanging team. Then they have to be packed up in bubble wrap and delivered to the venue in a two hour slot on the handing in day and Basingstoke is quite a long way from Nottingham where I am!
All this effort has been worth it in the past, especially on one memorable occasion when I sold all the paintings and the cards and didn't have to go and collect anything! Last year, I had done all the work and taken the paintings to Poole in Dorset for the annual exhibition..only to not sell any paintings! But I did sell prints and cards.
So exhibiting requires a lot of energy and enthusiasm often for very little return! I've posted one of the paintings I'm exhibiting. The Tree Peonies...hope you like it.
