What a week!

So, this turned out to be an eventful week!

Last weekend I was offered my first solo exhibition and this weekend 3 pieces of my work went into a local gallery. Today I joined a number of local artists at the gallery, Thirteen Brushes in Colchester, for a visit from a journalist from the Essex Chronicle, who is putting a piece into Thursday's edition about local artists.

It seems a lot can happen in 7 days.

I'm obviously hoping to sell the pieces or for them to start to generate interest in my work. I met some really interesting other artists, some who are very successful and have had very interesting careers and others who, like myself are just starting out.

The coming week will seem quiet by comparison! I'm still waiting to hear back about the studio space and next week I'll find out if my last submission of the year has got through the pre-selection process.

If I am successful selling my pieces then I may have to look into becoming VAT registered....I never thought that something like that would be such an exciting prospect...or an ambition!

YAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!

Okay, that's now out of my system, the close of what has been a totally unexpectedly fortuitous weekend!

I was cheeky yesterday and showed up at an art gallery without a prior phone call or anything and asked if they would take a look at some of my work. I have to say at this point that the iPad really came into it's own here, I had downloaded some images onto it that it proved to be an invaluable way to show my work to the gallery owner. Thinking that I would be told a flat "no" or at best a "thanks for coming in, we'll let you know", I was offered a solo exhibition!

I tried to act totally calmly whilst arranging a meeting for later in the week to discuss details, but the surprise and excitement must have been written all over my face. When I left I was beaming. I managed to hold it in till I got back to the car then just cheered!

I still can't quite believe what happened and part of me is worried that when I go for the meeting I'll be told that they made a terrible mistake and I don't really have my first solo exhibition at all.

Let myself enjoy the excitement, the complete icing on the cake would be to get the studio space I've applied for.....but for now, I'm just so happy! It's quite overwhelming, I've never shown on my own before and the knowledge thatI have to fill the space on my own is daunting....but so bloody fantastic. I have a couple of new pieces that I'd like to paint for the exhibition and with Christmas, the New Year and then going away in half term, I'd better hurry up and find what box I packed the paintbrushes in when we moved.

All that is really left to be said is....YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!

They can only say no!

So today I'm off to do something I'm not very good at, the sell!

A local gallery which looks fantastic has recently opened and they sell the kind of work that mine would take it's place well amongst.
The question is what will they think of my work, what will they think of me?!

So I'm going to take myself in there with some key pieces of work and take it from there. If I can get represented by a gallery....or even just get a few pieces in it could mean nothing.....but it could make a huge difference to getting things underway.

We'll see.....it's time to try and be charming...........

Oh well.........

No luck with my submissions to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, we went to collect yesterday.  When I picked up my worked I swiped a cheeky look at what others were picking up and there was some fantastic stuff that hadn't got in.

A friend told me that they aren't just looking at individual pieces but how everything fits together as a whole, so if your work doesn't fit, then that's just that!  I don't feel down, I did initially, but have submitted for yet another exhibtion (irons in the fire and all that).  I have applied for a studio space in Colchester, which I should hopefully be hearing back about in the next couple of weeks. 

Quite a lot to keep my fingers crossed for, I've got to get somewhere if I keep buggering on.