Open studio artist's walk

[Jean Kelly]

Hi,

I've signed up for an artist's walk, open studio thing where my studio will be open for a weekend in early Oct. for the public to walk through, view, and meet me. Has anyone here done anything similar?

This seems to be a perfect way for me to "come out", without taxing my body very much. There will be a reception the night before the artist's walk and each artist will have one painting on display for the weekend at the gallery organizing the event.

I'll have to clean my dining/studio up, and plan for some treats to serve. Any other suggestions?

Jean

[Kimberly Dow]

Plenty of business cards, flyers, etc. And nice smelling candles!

[John Zeissig]

Hi Jean,

I did this three times about a decade ago, and these are some of my experiences:

1. If your studio is somewhat isolated geographically, it may be better to team up with some other artists and have a small group exhibit. This increases foot traffic a lot since people can take in several artists without driving all over the place, You'll probably be competing with several artist's collectives where people can see many studios at one stop. Viewers tend to go into art overload at some point, and may never make it to your studio if they've already seen too much.

2. I've never gotten any good direct sales from these events, but that may be because I was mostly showing high-ticket art furniture items, not paintings. A friend of mine took a bunch of her sketchbook drawings ( small charcoal, pen-and-ink, and pencil drawings ), matted them, and shrunk wrapped them in plastic. She sold them for $20 or less and did quite well with these, even though her paintings did not sell well. I bought two of them myself!

3. Collectors and gallery owners do use these events to see what's out there. I established a long time association as well as a friendship as a result of one of these events. Another friend of mine got a number of illustration portrait assignments from the New Yorker magazine as the result of a staffer having seen his work at an open studio tour 7 years previously. 7 years is admittedly a very long hang-time, but the point is the the exposure value may be there, even though your direct sales may make it seem not worthwhile.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

[Jean Kelly]

Hi John and Kim.

Thanks Kim, candles are a good idea, I'll find some nice ones. I've begun printing out postcards with my info on the back, I'll have plenty of those.

John, the walk is organized so that the starting point is the gallery. All artist's info is there, along with examples of their work. In theory people will choose where they want to go based on the work they want to see. Hopefully I will get people who want to see realistic artwork and I should stick out like a sore thumb. Madison has very few portrait people. I'm located in Madison and easy to get to, but not near any other artists. The rules state that this must be your home or studio, so I don't think I would be able to form a collective of others artists.

I don't really expect to sell much, just plant seeds. But I may start matting some sketches just in case.

This is the first one in Madison, and hopefully it will become an annual event.

Jean

[John Zeissig]

Jean

The open studio tours I did were organized exactly like yours. One difference probably is that there were 300+ Artists in the ones I participated in, and they have been running since the 1970's. It is not possible to visit all the studios in the events around here, even if you wanted to.

What I mean by artist's collectives are buildings in which large numbers of artists rent studio space or live-work spaces. There are many of these around here. But maybe Madison doesn't have any? Anyway, the organizers never put any restrictions on individual artists getting together to share a space if they felt like it.

It'll be really exciting if you're the only realist painter in the event! I have no idea what Madison is like, so I haven't a clue what you're in for in some senses. But it is a college town, isn't it?

[Jean Kelly]

John, The University of Wi. is here, lots of beer, brats, and football. The area is very liberal and casual. In art we seem to have a lot of angst, watercolor florals, landscapes, and experimental art. There is a great deal of "fun" art, fiber, weaving and jewelry, pottery etc.

I stick close to home most of the time, have been studying, painting and drawing and don't really know many other artists in the area. Guess this will be my chance to meet them.

When I was quilting, I was in an incubator (business) where many artists had studios, none did anything close to reality. We had a gallery for shows and open houses ect. that I participated in. There are a number of other "artsy" areas here, and I imagine they may be in the walk. But, I don't believe there are any portrait artists around.

It looks like there may be around 50 artists participating (a guess). I'll report more later.

Jean

[Jean Kelly]

Well, today is the deadline to have photographs and bios to the gallery for the "master book". My oldest son was in an accident and broke ribs and his hand badly (the one he needs) and is staying with us to recuperate. Needless to say I've missed the deadline but talked to them and will have all ready by tomorrow. I now have a mat cutter that I don't know how to use (Logan Simplex 702 I think), all kinds of mat corners (must be at least a thousand), and frame corners, all from a photographer that is no longer working professionally.

There are officially 89 artists participating, this sounds like it will become a big deal in this area. The reception is being held on Gallery night, a night that all the local galleries have open house, then the next two days our studios are open to the public. My oldest son (the busted up one) has designed a nice business card for me, and I 've been printing postcards up like mad. There will be numerous press releases to advertise this event, and so far seems to extremely well organized; imagine a room full of 89 artists all offering suggestions. It's a wonder anything got done.

I'm leaving the bio till last, all I want to write is my name, address, and phone number. How about, "I like to paint people!" and leave it at that.

Jean

[Jean Kelly]

Hi all, I turned in my "late" pages to the gallery today for the Master Book that will be there for people to see. My idea of deadline is still heavily influenced by firm, imovable, etched in stone, DEADLINES imposed by the building industry ( I designed and drafted boiler systems, refrigeration, and heating and cooling systems blah, blah, blah).

What a suprise to find that in the art world, deadline doesn't really mean deadline!

I worked all day yesterday on my pages, and this is what I came up with. The photos are clear and as true to reality as possible, hopefully the presentation will be different from other's pages. These photos are horrible but I think you'll get the point (glare from plastic, and out of focus). I dropped them off and was told by a gentleman with a very clipped British accent, "Nice presentation, we have a lot of people looking for art like this. It shows a high level of skill." Now I cross my fingers and hope.

What do you think?

Jean

[Jean Kelly]

This should be the second page.

[Jean Kelly]

Sorry Cynthia, some animals snuck in!