| Author | Message | ||
  Kukana |
I just got back from Midway Swiss Days. (Cathy...I missed you!) It was suppose to be the show to end all shows. Well, it was great, but not all it was cracked up to be. It ranks as the second best show but it was a hassle because we had to create a Swiss themed booth and that was timely and expensive and just a plain hassle. I just got my new issue of Sunshine Artist with the top 200 shows of 2002 and didn't even realize that I have applied to 7 of them (Im only going to do 8 next year. Quite a dtop from this years count of 33 or 34..I've lost count) The booth was corny but cute. I'll upload a picture tomorrow. | ||
jaeyer |
Gail/Mn Carrie is giving you some great advice I think. I have been thru this question - in fact I go thru this about every other year it seems--but I always end up with a business decision that points me toward selling only originals and not printing, but I am able to sell orig cards, and other things fairly easily. Guess this is a little late to be commenting but hope that you find success whatever you plan to do. Jerry | ||
gypsyjean |
I am interested in learning about any upcoming competitions or shows to enter. It would be nice to have an ongoing bulletin for artists to see what is posted on events other have read or heard about. Please list ways to contact source. | ||
fink |
Surely in your area there are local competitions and shows that you could participate in. For the last few years I have participated in a local show and competition. For years I have not gotten any ribbons until this last year when I had gotten a blue ribbon which let me go onto the state competition. This year I received a red and blue ribbon. It is such a boost to your ego to think that others like your work. Of course when you enter such a competition, the work entered must look good but yet have some different look to it compared to others. I also have another a one person show locally again this year as well as scheduling a couple outdoor shows too. Marketing is the main problem for me. I have the paintings with no problem BUT the marketing is awful. It takes more time for that than painting. Check in your area for shows. Once you start finding them they come to you. I am a board member of the local art association in Iowa so I seem to see more opportunities there also. Hope this helps. | ||
JoanG |
If you subscribe to "American Artist" or "Artists' Magazine" there's lists of competitions and shows to enter in every issue. The listings always include contact info and how to get a prospectus for the show. Drawbacks to most of these is you must have professional quality slides of your work to enter. A guy who wrote to one of the mags suggested taking your work to a good photolab to have the slides made and says the cost is reasonable -- I have yet to find a photolab in my area that does this. Hope this helps. | ||
fink |
To JoanG If you know a photographic artist, contact them for slides or photo's. That is where I got mine taken and they were excellent. What this gentleman does is take black and white photo's and hand colorizes them on a custom basis. They are fantastic!!!! At one point in time he tried to explain to me how to do it but I find that it is much easier to let him do it and pay him for the time he takes to photo them and then pay for the processing myself. It gets expensive but I find that if I don't talk too much while he is doing it, it takes less time. They turned out great and I need to have him do my new ones. I mainly wanted them done so that I could send them off and hoped to get some work from there BUT I didn't although I have gotten into some shows with the use of them. | ||
JoanG |
To "fink" Thanks for the tips. There's a few people listed in the yellow pages(scads of portrait photographers, but not too many others)- I'll have to start dialing and see if there's anyone who'd do the job. Your guy sounds like a real find and there must be others out there somewhere. I'm just getting up the nerve to enter my work in some shows after quite a few years of self-imposed anonymity due to child-rearing and other commitments. Time to crawl back out of the ol' shell and get moving! Good luck in your endeavors, and thanks again. | ||
fink |
Joan Yea, just go for it - what do you have to loose? One has to have that attitude. Remember that you well experience rejections but don't let that bother you. Believe in yourself and your work. | ||
gypsyjean |
Dear Fink and Joan G. Thanks for all the advice and I do subscribe to Artists Magazine, but I recently left my home town in Buffalo where they had a paper called the Art voice that had a bulletin section that listed competitions and galleries looking for work. Now that I am in rural NH I was hoping to find something that listed nation wide information on competitions for artists. I too am a parent and just finding time to paint again after teaching for a number of years and my work is multi cultural which might not have any appeal to local galleries in this small town. I was hoping people might just post a few competitions they had read about in magazines or adds across the nation, like a bulletin board. | ||
fink |
Dear gypsyjean. Last year I had my first one person show. Since then alot of things have been happening that are more incentive for me to keep painting than competitions - at least more worth while to me. The gentleman who hosted my first show has put me in touch with alot of people are worth knowing. Competitions are interesting but so far have not increased my visability. Just my thoughts. | ||
gypsyjean |
Dear fink, thanks for the pointers! I'd be interested in hearing how you made your first contact to have your show, and how many pieces you needed, and if they were all on the same theme. Are smaller galleries easier to approach for a first time show? | ||
jack ives |
Hi Gypsyjean, Some of the best ways I stay informed 1. Read American Artist and Artists Magazine 2. Check the Internet under Artista Workshops 3. Join a local art association, they enter may shows and have many contacts. Make sure they are a very active association. Good luck fellow artist! | ||
fink |
Dear gypsyjean, I really have never had trouble getting my work into the local galleries - but understand that they ARE small galleries. After contacting them and being patient to have them view my examples, it has paid off greatly. Also like jackives said that local art associations are very helpful too. I am the secretary of our local one. One of the people who was scheduled for a show this year never responded after committing to the show so they sought another artist to do it - me. The show was for only two weeks but during that time I sold one piece. There are alot opportunities but you have to be in right place at the right time to grab hold of them. You might want to check out groups on the state level. You never know what may come of that also. | ||
mcandycain |
Hi fellow artists. How do you find out about getting prints made, display racks and all the other things needed to do a show. I'v talked to a few artists and have gotten some great info but, there must be another way to get it. Thanks for any help. | ||
Carrie Stuart Parks |
Hi Mc, The best is what you are now doing. Go to a show and talk to artists--but don't limit your research to art shows! A show is a show is a show is a show. Look at people who show other things--crafts, sink fixtures at a county fair, glass blowers in the mall, dog food sales at a dog show, insurance agents at the business after hours, etc. Think and ask OUTSIDE the box. Ask, ask, ask everybody. Compile the comments. Take the best. Modify it for art. Use some of the same creative juices in the business end that you used for your art. -Carrie | ||
gypsyjean |
Dear Jack Ives & Fink, Thanks again for the pointers! I did find a local Association in a city not too far away and people tell me it's the best way to find out what shows are going on! I hope to get to the shows this summer and begin to make contacts! I'll also check out the Artista Workshops on the web! I too am interested in finding out the best way to have prints made of watercolors and ink drawings as (mcandycain). Is it best to work with a local printer or mail order - and are prints usually made from the original work or from a slide or disk? Gypsyjean | ||
Wndl |
Hello Fellow Artists What a great site this is. I am participating in a sidewalk art show for the first time, and I need some suggestions for how to display in a 10'x4' area. I have a table that I will use, but I was wondering what I could use to hang my paintings on? They are watercolors in frames up to 12"x16". Any inexpensive, quick suggestions would be great, the show is Aug. 26. Thanks | ||
Carrie Stuart Parks |
You did not say if you have a cover for your display area. If you have something like a portable shade tent, you can take boards like 1 x 6, lean the boards against the metal frame of your awing, put hooks on the boards and hang down the board. The trick to ANY display is think WIND, clumsy people, and kids. Secure the boards at the top with wire and make a base that you can weigh with something. You can also create simple A frame displays with pegboard (but you did say cheap). Also: Find out if any artists that you know with a display is going to do the same show. Borrow??? -Carrie | ||
Luv2PAINT4U |
I have been painting watercolors for 2 years now and have been enjoying teaching them to beginner and intermediate students, I have been asked to do a showing but she wants me to frame all my work and then she takes 40% there isn't much left after that so I haven't done it yet. I keep thinking I can do much better =) so I keep working at it. In the meantime my friends and family who have seen my paintings love them and have purchased them. Also some friends have comissioned some work so I have been selling alot of work anyway...I have found a good display case that u can carry with you and show people at different times works out the best. Either that or maybe I am cheap and chicken! | ||
LPMullins |
I just entered two paintings in a local art exhibition. All my friends & family were sure I would win. I didn't expect to & didn't win any awards. But I noticed that some of the paintings that DID win awards really didn't look like much. It makes me wonder what the judges are looking for in a piece of artwork. | ||
LPMullins |
Wndl ~ This is too late for that show, but maybe you can use this idea in the future. I've also seen people display their work on lattice board. It doesn't act as much like a sail as more solid pieces do & it's lightweight & has lots of places to put hooks like S-hooks. | ||
carol |
LP something to think about. my instructor had a painting win best in show at a large juried show. she took that same painting and entered it in a smaller, but good juried show and it was rejected. figure that one out.goes to show you, you never know. | ||
LPMullins |
Carol ~ You are right. I guess you just never know. | ||
Carrie Stuart Parks |
Wouldn't it be fine to just figure out what judges look for?? My husband did his first watercolor and wanted to show it. The statewide juried show was coming up and I was planning on entering--so I told him to enter also. I counceled him about how hard some shows are to get into and that he just needed to get his feet we. Of course, he got in and I didn't. I took it well..........ripped my brushes out of his hand and told him to get his own dang pallett. (grin). If it helps, sometimes the subject is a problem (everybody enters florals or barns that year.)Sometimes it's that everybody does realism, and they need some abstract. Sometimes they (judges)do the same technique as you did and they think it could be done better. Sometimes they have personal dislikes (like using Paynes Gray.) And sometimes you're not up to snuff. Keep working at it. In watercolors, practice pays off. Best wishes Carrie | ||
pamcasso |
I just read this whole section...how relieved I was to find people and fellow artists who are willing to share....!!! I have been finally blessed. It has only been since Jan. that I have started any promo work on me. I had a one woman show in Aug.- Sept. and just entered a juried exhibit in the Detroit area and got in 7 pieces. After joining an art club, I was asked on the first night to do another one woman show in Apr.2001. It has just snowballed. I was really discouraged from art when I was younger and I guess God decided since I will be 50 next year that it was my time. My friend always told me to not go against the river...she's right. I'm going with it and am soooooovery happy inside. Thanks for all of your good advice. If you'd like to respond to me it's..pamcasso@yahoo.com........ | ||
Carrie Stuart Parks |
Hi Pam, Congrads on the success! Keep up the good work. -Carrie | ||
Gail/Mn |
I am asking my question here 'cuz people are mentioning making prints of their water colors. I am interested in the cost of such, prints, cards etc. I have had both done in my area and it is very expensive and almost unable to break even... unless you have 1000 cards made up! The place I go does very good work, but keeps increasing the price of just "set up". Now, for every painting it is $20.00, just set up. So, taking in 5 paintings to have cards and prints made, each will be an extra $20.00. This is a smaller city, and this is the only reproduction company of good quality in our area (3 hours to nearest bigger city). Does anyone have anything to add? Is this added cost normal? Thanks. | ||
Carrie Stuart Parks |
Hi Gail, I won't address the price just yet, just the idea of prints and cards. As you have discovered, the printing process is very expensive. Hallmark and other companies feel it takes 15 different cards to make up a "look". I personally found that I needed to sell about 1/2 the cards I printed before I broke even. Now, the purpose of prints/cards is: 1. Your work is in the $5000-10,000 catagory and this is a way to make them affordable... or 2. Promotion on your work.... or 3. Make money If you fit into catagory #1, don't sweat the price. If you are like most of us, you are in catagory #2 or #3. Prints and cards as promotional items work best if someone else will print it for you. I have had clubs, organizations, conferences and individuals pay the cost of the prints and give me the "overflow"--free prints for me. (yea!) I find that small originals do the same as prints and I can do a small original and have just the paper/mat/shrink wrap as the cost. The card may cost me $2.00 each to print and the selling price is $4.00. $2.00 profit. Small original: $15-30 selling price, $2.00 to put together, $13-28 profit. People who are into buying a piece of your work and who don't have much money will buy the cheapest thing in your booth. If the cheapest thing is $4.00, they will buy it. If the cheapest thing is $15., they will buy it. I would think very long and hard before going the print route. It ties up a lot of money and takes quite a while to get the money back. Just because others are spending money on prints, it does not make it necessarily a good marketing choice. Whatever you choose to do, best of luck on your journey. -Carrie | ||
Gail/Mn |
Thanks Carrie, I am in the #2 and #3 catagory. I am thinking very hard about doing this. Thanks. Gail | ||
Carrie Stuart Parks |
Hi Gail, One last thought. If you move into "I'm pretty sure I want to make a print of____" Then take that print to a big show. Put a "pre-printing" price on it--tell folks if they order today, it is (1/2 or 1/3) price. Pre sell. If no one in interested in ordering one at the lower price, re think making it into a print. I sold out my first three prints this way. I got cocky and didn't pre-sell my next two. It has taken fifteen years to sell out (at only $29 a print and a low edition of 150). Best wishes, -Carrie | ||
Gail/Mn |
Ugh! Decisions! I don't think right now I will do this. I paint with a group that are up there selling alot and it is fun to put my things in with them at our summer shows/sales. I have done some originals for x-mas cards and gift tags that do super, but no charge to the printer. The only thing... if you end up loving one or two of them, you just don't sell them I guess. Do you find originals hard to sell, like it is a little part of you? |
