Once we had the posters up and the A board out on the pavement we were ready to open. The first thing to say is that the exhibition looked good, it was the first time that I had seen my paintings up on the wall together and I was pleased with how they looked. The time taken in working out the arrangement of the works using photoshop mock-ups had been time well spent.
The entrance area was set up with cards in the new display racks, business cards and catalogues available and the visitor book on the desk.
The street outside (early in the morning):
The passageway:
The main entrance:
Inside the entrance area (the blurb):
The entrance to the main gallery:
The main gallery:
A clockwise tour of the gallery:
And of course ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’:
Once the exhibition was open we had a steady stream of visitors. Over the six days we had nearly three hundred visitors.
The Feedback
The feedback we got from people was amazing. Everyone seemed to enjoy some aspect of the exhibition and the decision to have a joint exhibition definitely payed off. The interaction between the landscape photographs and the close observation of my paintings was well appreciated.
With regard to my paintings one thing that I found pleasing was that of the 19 paintings on display there were only three or four that nobody picked out as being their favourite one. It was also interesting to see how people looked at the stones and shells I had put out in a dish and then studied the paintings to find the parts that I had used as source material. Some visitors also had children with them and when I pointed out that each of the Shingle Plant paintings had a ‘hag stone’ somewhere amongst the shingle they had great fun trying to spot them – a sort of stone ‘Where’s Wally’ game.
It was also great to chat with some of the other local artists. A local well-known contemporary artist Chris Newson, a protégé of Maggi Hambling’s, came in for a chat. He had had a solo show in the same gallery three weeks earlier which had been very successful, and we discussed how best to run an exhibition. (He related how he had sold a painting to Therese Coffey the environment secretary and Suffolk MP by saying if she bought it he would vote Conservative in the local elections – he didn’t). Chris has his own gallery in Leiston, a town nearby.
It is a strange feeling putting on an exhibition for the first time, the paintings are put up on the walls and people come in to see them and, in some ways, to judge them, and by doing so one feels like they are also judging me. It was immensely gratifying therefore that the first person who came through the door on the first day gave such positive feedback. She was particularly taken with my Phoenix triptych calling it “absolutely stunning!” and we discussed if it was for sale. I had marked it down as ‘Not for Sale’ in the catalogue as it is one of my personal favourites. She had to fly out to Ireland that evening for a board meeting but took my details so who knows? Maybe I can be persuaded to part with it.
The visitor book had space for comments as well as allowing us to build up a list of emails for our planned 6 monthly newsletter. We have also received other feedback via email and text since the end of the exhibition.
A selection of comments:
“Absolutely stunning!” L. McM.
“Fantastic show! Impressive and inspiring works.” N. S.
“Great exhibition” V. B.
“Amazing images” G.B
“All good work” D.H.
A very pleasing response.
What did we Learn?
The main lesson we took from the experience is that setting up an exhibition from scratch involves a lot of work!
It also doesn’t come cheap, however we decided that this would be a showcase event rather than a shop as it is more important as a learning process and a way of getting known and making contacts, building networks and generally getting into the art scene. As it was it would have only taken a couple more sales (which still may happen) to cover our costs. Also much of the expenditure went on building up the necessary ‘infrastructure’ for future exhibitions such as the display racks, the card payment readers, re-usable frames and the greetings cards which we can sell at other events.
What might we do differently?
We had been undecided about the catalogue and I feel we fell between two stools, not knowing how many people would turn up we went for the minimum print run, but even then we found that people would use them to look around the exhibition but then put them back when they left. Some people asked if it was okay to keep them and by the end we had got rid of nearly a hundred but that leaves us with over a hundred that will have to go into the recycling as they are all dated and have the gallery logo on the front. Also as they are A4 size people seemed more reluctant to take them away as they were awkward to carry.
Another time we would definitely have a Private View with a lot more local advertising of the event. As we were expecting the OCA study visit on the Saturday we thought it might be too much to have another event as well, but talking to a few other artists who had exhibited there it seems that that is the time to make the most sales.
We also suffered by having the exhibition over the one weekend in May that wasn’t a bank holiday. Aldeburgh was very quiet, something that several of the locals remarked upon, the fact that there was no queue at the famous fish and chip shop on a Saturday was almost unheard of! Early booking of a prime time seems to be a good idea.
At the end of the day it was a fantastic experience, and we both learnt such a lot. It has done wonders for my confidence with regard to my art and I have also learnt a lot about what is essentially setting up a business. We both now feel that we can move ahead.