Sunday 22 February 2015

Promoting Yourself

Every artist who wants to sell their art needs to make an effort at promotion. This can be very difficult as many artists prefer hiding in their studios painting to getting out in the world.

In the rural area where I live, it is doubly difficult. The majority of our  population is retired: people who are more likely to be down-sizing than buying art, and we no longer have a professional gallery in the area. Some artists display their paintings in local restaurants or book stores and some of us have small home-based galleries. Many of us display our art at the Creston Public Library and at the Chamber of Commerce as these venues offer 2 month long shows all year. Various groups put on annual Art Shows and we have a moderate influx of tourists from the late spring through to the end of September.

The problem remains! How do we get people in the door and buying? This year a number of us are trying something new. We are going to put together a directory: Artists and Artisans of the Creston Valley. The directory will be available at the Creston Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Centre for visitors to look through. Hopefully, it will encourage visits to our galleries and more sales of art.

I have spent the last few days working on my information sheet for the directory and after three versions I think I have one that will work.

front

back
The Artists and Artisans of the Creston Valley directory will be a simple binder with information sheets about a number of the artists in the area - lets hope it will be effective.

Thank you to my Google+ friends: Sheila Delgado  and Sea Dean
http://www.sheiladelgado.com/ - http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.ca/
for introducing me to http://www.picmonkey.com/ so I could make the collage on the back page of my information sheet.


10 comments:

  1. A very timely post as we approach our "busy" season. And you are very correct in the statement "many artists prefer hiding in their studios painting to getting out in the world" - it's a major undertaking for me to promote my work!! Glad you found Pic Monkey - I just found it a few months ago and it's a great program!

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  2. Thanks for commenting Leone. I have only used PicMonkey to do collage but it looks like there are a number of things it can do - I will be investigating. I know you have signed up to display at the Chamber and I wonder if you are interested in being in the Artists Directory. We are interested in having artists from Yahk to Roindel listed.

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    1. I hope it will help you Chani. I am lucky that there is an active Arts Council and art community here. While some artists are very cliquish others work together to support each other. Good luck to you!

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  4. Great artwork and ideas. Good luck, Val!

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    1. Thank you so much for the compliment on my art, Laurie. As for the ideas - I only hope they work - lol

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  5. Good job, Val, and kudos always for the efforts you make to promote the artists in the area!

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  6. Val this really looks great! I am so impressed, that you are using square! You will have to tell us all about it in a post sometime. Best wishes to you and the other artists! So glad you tried Picmonkey and enjoyed using it :)

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  7. Thanks Sheila. I don't really enjoy using Picmonkey as I am not adept at mouse manipulation but it does a good job although it takes me a long time. I write about using Square soon - thanks for the idea.

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