Anyhow, congrats on your show.
Thank you!
But honestly, if you sold out a piece with a mere two sales on the first day, then you could have sold five of those on Saturday and 4 more on Sunday. TISK! TISK! OK you're new and don't know what your best sellers are, so no corporal punishment this time only. But you won't start breaking into 5 figures until you don't sell out until the last five minutes of the last day. Takes practice.
Yes! For the last show I had 2s of most and 5s of the best sellers from the first show, which all disappeared quickly. This time around I’m producing 20s of each of the top sellers and 5-10s of the lesser sellers. I also had an issue with replacing one of the framed works with another of the same. I didn’t want the purchaser to feel their unique purchase was diminished, so I replaced it with a different work. That was stupid, because….
Your Best Sellers are what makes it all possible, treat them well and make careful notes on what in those pictures because you want more of the same thing in yet more pictures.
Excellent feedback. I debated that very detail at length during the show and since. One other key issue about the last show was the specific market. The show was in farm land, right next to the foothills. A lot of my work is from that area, and that’s what mostly sold. The show before had a wider mix of subjects that sold but a lot less sales. With only 2 shows, there are too few data points, except for which were the top sellers at each event. But what I’ve read time and again is that people want what is around them. To that end, my biggest sale was from someone who said “The work is a mirror of what is outside my door.” Due to this I may end up capturing works in more districts during the coming year.
And don't confuse pictures that you like or that you think other photographers will like with what will sell. Photographers don't know s**t about what sells, just ask any gallery owner.
Agreed. Gallery owners I’ve worked with don’t necessarily know what sells, either. That is probably part of why many galleries fail.
It's nice that you're getting gallery and other contacts. It's also nice that those contacts are coming AFTER you have set yourself up as independent art schlepper. That way the gallery can't claim to have made you everything you are. That can happen. Read a couple books on the gallery/artist symbiosis/parisitosis before committing to a gallery. And it's even more important that you're receiving wide ranging recognition from the public, be sure they know your name.
Note to self….put a sign on the booth with the name. I handed out a bunch of cards. Only made a couple of hundred, and ran out of those too.
At the moment I see galleries useful mostly for marketing purposes, so I can state that I’m in x galleries, where the works sell for 2x what I’m selling them for here. This seems to impress and encourage those who ask.
The shows I’m doing now are both to ease my way into the circuit and are also needed to get into bigger shows (all of the bigger shows around here require a listing of other recent shows). The producers of my next show say that about 5K people attended last year, which is over 2x what the last show had and probably 4x what the first one had.
Yes the fairs are fun if you can take the physical abuse. Most of artists are more or less gypsies who spend a lot of time on the road. Every fair is a kind of homecoming for all concerned. It's a good feeling. Makes the otherwise hectic setup day more than tolerable. BTW listen to what those guys tell you.
Agreed. I’ve received lots of useful information from show veterans.
Were you the youngest artist there? We're a dying breed. It's uncertain how long "art fairs" as an institution will carry on. Might not be a good career choice. OTOH, I know a few art fair mavens with incomes that would make almost any gallery artist except Andreas Gursky more than envious. Think about it.
One of my cousins did verrrrrrry verrrrrrry well doing art shows. I figured at the outset my chances of success were about 1 in a million, but due to the priceless feedback of some people here, and the amazing comments of overwhelming numbers of people in the last 2 weeks, there is some cause for hope.
On the broader issue of the economy, I was talking with the owner of my local art supply vendor a couple of days ago. I have a unique relationship with the guy as I consult for him on IT issues plus I buy from him. He says that sales have been sloooooly picking up, after dropping to nearly nothing since 2008. People buying more art is a GREAT indicator that the broader economy is starting to show a heartbeat.