There were many fine words...

After five months of creative energy, work, planning and money, the weekend’s Art Fair was a complete bust. To spare their blushes, I won’t mention which one it was here, though a scan of my social media would probably answer that one for you, but what do you do when you’re faced with a disaster?

First of all, count your blessings. Yes, I know that sounds like advice for the privileged, and it is - because I do have blessings to count, for now. So yes, no one died, which is always a plus, and no one lost an eye, again, a big plus. 

I have lost money - but I did, for the first time, curate a fine art collection which has pushed my creativity in directions full of potential and excitement, and with a freedom you don’t get when you’re working to a brief or for a client. I wasn’t yet sure I could manage my time while working at my other jobs and pull that off, and I have, and I have many more ideas to work on - and that’s great.

Feedback - the people who did comment, were positive about my use of colour, loved the detail and intensity and none of them made comments about it being too expensive. And feedback from the other artists too - many went out of their way to come and look at my work and talk about what they saw in it, and that’s pretty great.

I still have an income from teaching and other things to keep me going, and more opportunities to show my work, this wasn’t my only chance to sell.  

But why did it go do wrong? 

I didn’t listen to my instincts, and I didn’t do enough research. I’m a good artist, but I’m feeling my way with this whole business stuff - and this was very much a learning experience. 

I could easily blame the Fair for getting it wrong, and they did do that. They booked the show to run at the same time as a big street festival, which has been running for 80 years and draws crowds of 10,000+, which on the surface sounds like a great potential plus. 

However, it’s an outdoor festival, with lots to see and experience outside for free, so why would people pay to go inside? Added to that, if you’re coming to a street festival, you’re not coming with a buy art mindset - you’re there to wander the streets, take video for insta and eat street food. Carrying art about is not something you want to mix with all of that.

Added to that, if you are an art collector, or someone who’s looking for a piece for your sitting-room now they’ve just decorated, you’d look and see that at the same time as the art fair, is a massive street festival, full of middle class white people titting about in costumes, drinking cider and playing accordions, no parking, huge crowds and, just to add to the issues, a rail replacement bus, well, you’d probably just give it a miss. Buying art is a luxury, so making it hard to do just means you won’t do it. People stockpile loo roll in a disaster, not paintings.

Another point on the same theme, the organisers chose to make access to the fair difficult, by not using the door that opened onto the high street, but one down a side alley, an alley which was blocked off by temporarily traffic barriers and a St John’s ambulance. When you got there and were asked to pay to get in, the first thing you saw were tables rented to craft stalls - not bad, but not art, and nothing you can’t see for free in the shops in the town - none of which helped.

So none of these things were my fault, sure, but I hadn’t done my research, and that was - I’d relied on having had a far more successful fair there in October, which meant I didn’t look more closely at the idea when I was offered a stand. It turns out this was the first time they’d run this fair in May but I didn’t realise this - I assumed, which is always an error. I also didn’t look up the dates and see the street festival was on, which might have given me pause for thought too.

I had thought when booking that Spring didn’t feel like the right time for this kind of fair, that Autumn/Pre Christmas you’re always going to get a bigger crowd, and even if only 2% of people might buy your work, 2% of 1000 is a lot more sales than 2% of 100. It’s a numbers game, as many people muttered darkly to each other all weekend.

One thing I am certain of, this art fair was very much not my market. This is not something you’re going to find out until you try of course, and I wish that there was a less expensive way of finding this out - but just because a place is selling art, isn’t enough. The fair itself was too generalist for my ideal demographic, and too small to ensure there are enough people to raise the odds of my demographic attending simply by force of numbers. 

So what do I do? 

Well, first of al I keep going and I do not let myself give in to the inner demons about how I am not good enough and my work sucks, My work is amazing, my art is impressive and moving and new, and I have to remember that is always harder to sell than the familiar.

It so happens that the next show I am doing, was well known by the other stall holders, who all confirmed that it is well attended and has a longer reputation for being a good place to meet a more engaged market. I had already confirmed that it has been running since 2007, and that had to at least be a good sign that enough people have come back to exhibit and so keep it going.

The most important thing though, is to find new ways of finding my market. My instinct always has been that, after spending a lot of time in other careers trying to sell my work a craft fairs which failed to bring in much income, they are not my ideal market, and I need to listen to myself. What I will be doing, is thinking, researching and exploring other markets both physical and virtual, where my time and money might be better spent reaching people who might never think of themselves as art buyers, but still love what I do.

I sure as hell won’t be giving up any time soon!

(If you do not know the phrase ‘fine words butter no parsnips’ there’s something else you’ve learned to today!)