To paint or not to paint?

I'm back from NYC, a little jet lagged and in need of a rest. However, with just over a week until I am due to exhibit at Cheltenham art in the park I need to get my planning head on to make sure I am all set to go.

Last year was my first year taking part in the exhibition and I had a fabulous time meeting lots of like minded artists in Cheltenham (I made some friends too!). I even got into the swing of setting up each day which was a little daunting at first. The way it works, is that you get allocated a railing around one of the big parks in Cheltenham and that screen becomes yours for the week. All you need to do is ensure it's set up by 10am every morning and pack away at 8pm at night. Fitting this in around a full time job is "interesting", but thankfully after the first day taking an hour to set up, I managed to get it down to 5 mins on subsequent days! Mastering the art of hanging your paintings on the little hooks is tricky, but once you get the hang of it, you can get things up very quickly I discovered! I think I may have even achieved something of a world record in screen dismantling by the finish!! The artists who are exhbiting then take part in a rota to act as stewards at the show, providing security to the artwork and taking payment where required. I am still trying to sort my slot for this year, but that proved lots of fun last year too, so I hope they can still find time for me.

Despite it being a pleasureable experience, it's fair to say it wasn't the most successful or profitable show ever (thankfully it's not very expensive!). Typically it fell in the period when we had constant rain in the UK, so who wanted to walk around a park in the cold and wet....no-one! Also, the organisers said sales were down considerably on previous years.

Not one to dwell on what was, I am now rethinking this years strategy. I've been going to see the first 2 weeks of the exhibition (I am week 4) and I hear sales are down even more and the stewards have advised me that smaller pieces are selling best. Damn that credit crunch!! Art is a luxury item I guess and so I am thinking how best to approach this now, given that I only have a week to paint. Typically I don't have many smaller paintings at the moment as I've had a run of selling them. So, it may be time to dust off my paint brush and try and at least to get a couple of new bits done. Decisions Decisions!

I am sure I will be ok. Friends keep telling me I have more work than I realise, I hope so.

As soon as I do have anything new painted I will be sure to tell you about it here!