November 7th First Saturday Arts Market Recap

What a delight it is when a buyer from a previous show seeks you out to tell you how much she loves her painting.  And when another buyer says they saw your work online, was disappointed that their favorite painting had sold, but they buy another one at the show.  Those are a couple of the highlights of this most recent show, and tell us we must be doing something right.

This was a good show for us.  Beautiful weather, a decent crowd, a great corner spot… and sales.  We voluntary took a chance on an overflow spot around the corner from the main show venue.  It turned out to be a good decision.  We got to see many of the visitors twice as they came and went from one of the main parking lots.  It was the first time we’ve had a corner booth, and now we know why it’s prime real estate.  It gave us a chance to set up in a new configuration, and get lots of very open exposure.  We were also able to park very close for setup and teardown, which was a big plus as well.  Note to Mitch Cohen, Market Manager (I know you’ll read this):  We will gladly “anchor” the show from that spot all the time.  Unfortunately, while I did charge the camera before leaving home, I neglected to put a memory stick in it, so I have no photos of this setup.  Duh.

A couple of other artists sought us out specifically, one who had visited the show previously, and had a booth for the first time, and another who is primarily a watercolor artist, but is also working with gouache.  He had found me online and came to the show to meet and say hello.  I really enjoyed visiting with him, but (note to other show artists) I must remember next time that customers come first and visitors (especially other artists) must take a back seat when customers enter the booth.  Fortunately, Nell was there to help greet them and answer questions but I need to be more careful of that in the future.  Another note to other artists:  never, ever give your business card to a customer when you are in another artists booth, especially if no one asked you for it.  It happened, and I let it pass, but I won’t next time.  My booth.  My customer.  Period.  End of discussion.

We were delighted with the sales.  Keep in mind, that since my prices are low, a good show for us might be peanuts for others, but we are accomplishing our personal mission, our long range plan is on track, and we are being profitable.  What more can one ask?  We sold three of my landscapes and one of Nell’s mini florals.  Dollar-wise, it was our best First Saturday so far, and regardless of how we do at the December show, we will end the year with a show profit.  Not bad when you understand that we really expected a loss for our first year doing art festivals.

Interesting Statistics Which Probably Mean Absolutely Nothing:  Of the three landscapes that sold, all were Texas landscapes.  Two of them were my most recent work, done in the last month.  One of the pieces that sold was “Morning Reds”, which was featured in the most recent wetcanvas.com newsletter.  I knew that piece would sell, but didn’t expect it to be so quick.

So, overall, a very good, enjoyable show.  The five hour one-way drive takes its toll, but we really enjoy doing this show, and from conversations with our buyers, we feel we may be seeing the beginnings of a collector base in the Houston area.  We will do the December 5th show, then lay off during January and February, returning to the Market for the March show.

5 small studies

After doing the painting of Carousel Mountain, I took a break and did a series of little 5×7 studies.  I marked off a 16×20 board, and then, working from the laptop next to my easel, I went through a couple of CDs of reference photos, making quick selections, sketching the scene quickly with a brush, and jumping right in.  I believe most of these are either west Texas, or along I45 between Dallas and Houston.  When I’m in the zone, I end up with some pretty satisfying images.  When I’m not, I wonder why I wasted all that board on such crap.  This time, I think, I was in the zone.  I ended up with nine studies, some of which I’m happy with, and some that could use some tweaking.  Maybe I’ll tweak, and maybe not.

Some of these look kind of cool in frames, so I think they will go with us this weekend to Houston for the monthly First Saturday Arts market.

The intent was to play with loose brushwork and color variations.  Several of them were laid in with grays, and then I worked color over and into the grays.  That’s a process I may spend a bit more time with.  Two or three of these might become larger paintings.  The grays were produced with cobalt blue, burnt umber and titanium white.  I only use DaVinci Gouache, and the palette for all of these was cobalt blue, medium yellow, yellow ochre, red, venetian red, burnt sienna and burnt umber.

Below is a photo of the board before I did some last minute touchups and cut the pieces down to size, followed by five of my favorites from this exercise.  All are 5×7, gouache on cold press Crescent board.

 

Carousel Mountain, Big Bend, Texas

I’ve been trying some new subject matter, and this one is a real departure for me.  My dear friend, Mary Grace Bartoo, provided me with some photos from a trip to Big Bend National Park in far west Texas.  Being a real glutton for punishment, I chose this one to try first.  I figured I may as well push myself a little.  This is Carousel Mountain, in the Chisos Mountains, near the Texas-Mexico border.  It was the unusual shape that grabbed me.  Easy to see how it got its name.

This is 16×20, Gouache on cold press Crescent board

Recognition on wetcanvas.com

I was pleased to have one of my recent paintings featured in the latest wetcanvas.com newsletter.  The focus for the month was gouache.  It was the first of the “Two from Texas” posted here recently, which I’ve since titled “Morning Reds”.

Two from west Texas

Here are a couple of new ones.  Both are west Texas, near San Angelo.  The morning sun hitting the red cliff face was a striking image, and I had to try it.  Both of these are 9×12, gouache on cold press Crescent board.

(Update:  Both of these sold at the November First Saturday Arts Market in Houston.)

Farm

Here’s a new one with a bit stronger color than is usual for me.  It’s 8×10, Gouache on cold press Crescent board.

Derelict

Years ago, I did a painting of an old deteriorating wagon.  It was one of a half dozen or so acrylics, and I had no clue what I was doing.  The landscape part was awful, but I liked the wagon, and that painting has been hanging on my studio wall for a long time.  I decided to paint the wagon again, in gouache, just to see what I could do with it.  Here’s the result:

11×14 ~ Gouache on cold press Crescent board

Recap of First Saturday Arts Market October show

Note for newbies to the art festival business:  find a way for the tent to come out first and go in last.  This show on October 3rd ended up as a wet one.  Most of the day was just overcast and threatening.  Just enough to keep the crowd home.  And it ended with rain.  It was slow enough to allow me to spend some time listening to Kenneth Scott do some guitar work.  The guy has magic fingers.  Of course, I would rather have been trapped in the booth by throngs of people eager to buy art.

We did have sales, enough to make it a profitable trip to Houston again, and keep us in the black for the 2009 shows.  Not making a living at this yet, but we are having just enough success to make it worthwhile for us personally.  I have mentioned that, with kids living in Houston, we do save the cost of accomodations, right?

When I did a few snow scenes earlier in the year, I wasn’t sure whether they would sell.  As it has turned out, almost all of them have sold.  Some sold in Ohio, but some have also sold in Houston.  A very nice lady who lives not far from the First Saturday venue has visited us at the show before, and she spent some time at this one studying one of the snow scenes.  As we were packing up after closing time, she returned, and wanted that picture.  Since all the artwork was packed, she was willing to wait until next month.  But we like to think of ourselves as professionals, so we took the time to dig that painting out from the bottom, so she could take it home with her right then.  One of the things we’re trying to be mindful of is that the act of painting is about us and the art.  The act of selling is about the buyer.  When in business mode, our focus should be on the buyer’s convenience, not ours.

Now, about the rain… and the tent.  I’m always a bit nervous on potential rain days, worried that we will have to set up in the rain.  The first thing that has to go up at any show is the tent, of course, but it’s vital on a rain day to get that tent out first without unpacking everything else and having it exposed to the weather.  The tent is the heaviest part of our show equipment.  It’s too heavy to put on top of anything else, and as a result, it has to go on the bottom.  Teardown at this show was the first time we’ve torn down in actual rain.

You can get everything in tubs, wrap things that won’t fit in tubs (very large trash bags work for this), and break down the walls, all the while keeping everything under the tent.  But eventually, the tent has to come down.  And it has to go in before a lot of other things, which means large artwork, carpet-covered panels, etc. have to sit exposed while the tent gets taken down, bagged, and put into the vehicle.  Our solution to this will be a long wood box, just big enough for the tent, that will go into the back of the vehicle when we go to shows.  The box should be sturdy enough to allow anything at all to be stacked on top of it.  This will allow us to pull the tent out before unloading anything else, and more importantly, will allow us to pack everything during teardown while the tent stays up as shelter.  Then, after everything else is loaded, we’ll take down the tent and slide it into the box as the last item of business.  Not only will this help in rainy situations, but will allow us to have shade longer on those hot summer days as well.

Another lesson learned:  always open the tent up the next day after a rainy show and let it air dry.  Trust me, you don’t want the only tent in a show that isn’t pure white.

So.  A good show?  Yep.  We could have done better, and we think we would have if the weather had cooperated, but we’re still on track, doing what we love to do, and selling some paintings.  Nothing to complain about here.  Nell and I have a saying that we toss out when things get interesting or we face a new challenge:  “just another one of life’s little adventures”.  That attitude has served us well.

You gotta love it

We’re always happy when we get a mention somewhere.  I got word of this one this morning.  We’ll there tomorrow.

http://www.houstonlivingguide.com/2009/10/guest-blogger-mitch-cohen-on-first.html

Newsletter and First Saturday Arts Market

The first issue of our newsletter, “The Parker Roadshow”, went out this week.  If you’d like to receive the newsletter (we hope to put a little something out each month), email me at ralphparkerstudio@yahoo.com.

We will be at the First Saturday Arts Market in the Houston Heights tomorrow from 11am to 6pm.