How to make an exhibition a success!

The exhibition was a great success! Our opening night had well in excess of 100 people and quite a number of works were sold! We had plenty of food and wine and so many fantastic comments on the work.

 

After we had set up the food and organised the drinks table, it was time to relax and play hosts to our numerous arriving guests.  The next half hour to 45 minutes was spent showing people our respective artworks, and catching up with each other intermittently with exclamations of "so and so just LOVES your work!"

The wine certainly helped ease nerves! I wasn't actually nervous at all in the lead up to the exhibition, however as the end of the day drew closer on the Monday, I began to be a little apprehensive. After all, there were going to be random strangers looking at, commenting on, and judging my work! Scary prospect.

 I had several people comment on this work, 'Imagination'. It sold which was just an amazing feeling! I think I could have sold it several times over though, because I had so many wonderful comments on it. People wanted to know how I had come up with the idea for the work, what techniques I had used, and what my thought processes while creating it were. It was truly a wonderful validation of all the hard work I put in. And as I was explaining my work, it occurred to me that this was really it! I was now a fully fledged professional artist! This is what it feels like for those people you see who are having exhibitions and selling work. They really are just like me - maybe it gets old for them if they do it all the time, but I don't know. I somehow think that the novelty of 'hosting' your work to people wouldn't wear off quickly. It's really rather exhilarating!

 Our guest speaker was our teacher and mentor, Heather Stewart. She was introduced by our other teacher and mentor, Andrea Clifford. Heather began Brougham School of Art and Photography, and it was wonderful to hear her say such lovely things about us and our work and the hard work we put into the exhibition.

In addition to the painting I sold, I've just found out that the bottom two prints of mine have an excited buyer! A lot of the art sold was to friends and/or relatives during the exhibition. I think that if someone you know actually wants to pay for your work, it's a massive compliment! It's awesome when it's not someone you know because it validates that you ARE good enough. That your work is of a high enough standard that random strangers want to have it on their walls. But also, when it's someone you do know, it's very flattering that they are impressed enough with what you've created to fork over their hard earned cash, rather than simply asking you for it as if the work you put in isn't worth them paying, but they're happy to have it if it's free. So either way, when you sell work, it's a fantastic affirmation of your professional worth. (oh, and thank you Mum for the photos! - if you want to see more of the photography stylings of Liz McMahon, check her blog out here.