I opened my home for my first ever solo exhibition as part of the Brighton Artists Open Houses in 2020. I say, I opened my home but, due to the COVID situation, my exhibition was online with people visiting through Zoom calls. While that online event was a great success, it did create a longing for a real life face to face event. So, in January this year, I signed up to Brighton Artists Open Houses 2021.
As you will no doubt remember, we were still in a lockdown in January and I really had no idea how things would be by May, when the event was scheduled to take place. Would people be allowed in each other’s homes? On top of that, I was unsure whether people would want to visit an Open House with only a single exhibiting artist. Thankfully, I have some friends who have some great Open Houses, Abigail Bowen and Georgina Smith, and they gave me loads of reassurance and advice, as did one of the event organisers, Fiona.
As the year progressed and COVID restrictions continued, Artists Open Houses decided to postpone the event until June. While the decision was totally understandable, it did pose a few issues for me: half term, son’s 9th birthday, etc. Oh bottoms! I made the bold and quick (for me!) decision to open for one weekend only. I then made myself a countdown with a wonky drawing of a calendar with the number of days to go written on each corner.
Being an artist nowadays is not just about making art. I am also my own social media manager, stock manager, and now exhibition manager; the list could go on! I drew up a plan of house and worked out how many paintings I would need to fill the space. The exhibition was still many months away so things didn’t feel too daunting (yet!). I ordered all my canvases and wooden panels. I then played a trick on myself by booking in my amazing photographer, Andre, and my wonderful framer, Victoria, nice and early. For some mad reason this helps me with a deadline because it feels like I am painting for them and not myself. If I was painting just for me then I would faff about and make excuses but I wouldn’t want to let them down.
Inside the studio of my wonderful framer, Victoria Homewood.
With the dates set, I was in full on promotion mode to get the information out there. I set up a Facebook event, updated my website and made sure that I kept reminding people that I would only be open for one weekend. As the weekend drew closer, the more I thanked my past self for making that decision, especially as I had chosen a weekend at the end of the AOH schedules this avoided the usual AOH rush with the printers for my cards and prints, making life much easier.
In amongst all of this, the art was not painting itself so I was working in my studio most days (and some nights), pushing myself to produce a strong body of work. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to concentrate on landscapes or florals. I attended an Emily Ball floribunda course, which was a pure delight. Of course, I also love painting landscapes so I decided to focus on both subjects.
The next big decision was how was I going to launch the work: would I go with a big bang on the first day of the Open House or start selling before (or even after the exhibition). In the end, I decided to release to members of my mailing list the day before opening the exhibition. After all, they are my core followers and some of them have supported me since day one. This also meant that, if I managed to sell some before the exhibition started, I would be a bit more relaxed for the opening.
I really wanted my Open House to feel like a really prestigious exhibition so, if any sold, I would ask the buyer if I could hold onto it for the weekend. This was brilliant because it meant that I didn’t spend any time, once the house was open, wrapping and sending paintings and could instead focus on my favourite thing: chatting! ;)
I then turned my attention to my new range of limited edition prints. One option would be to arrange for any that sold to be printed and delivered after the exhibition but this all felt a bit fiddly and so I decided to take a risk and order prints in advance. I also liked the idea of people being able to take these home with them on the day. My prints are all numbered, signed, and finished so this was a huge amount of work. I then had to get them all packaged but luckily my best buddy, Clair, was on hand to help with this part. Thank you Clair - I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you!! I then had one of each of the prints framed so that people could see how they might look in their home. Finally, I had lots of pieces of paper on which I logged which prints had sold so that I could keep tabs on which number I was on within each edition. It was complicated stuff.
As the big weekend drew closer, the job list seemed to be getting longer rather than shorter: paint hallway, call window cleaner, weed garden, order red dots (bit presumptuous!), sort out the COVID risk assessment, print QR codes, get wall brackets up, upload new paintings to the website, send message to my mailing list, move all the coats out of the hall to the bedroom and all of the books on the bookshelves to my son’s room, etc. In fact, now months after the exhibition, the coats are still in the bedroom and the books are still in my son’s room. If you are ever considering your own Open House, make sure you give yourself at least 3 months to prepare and 2 months to put everything back again.
The evening before opening, I made all of the paintings available on my website (actually it was my husband, David - he does all the clever website stuff) . I (David) sent the message out to my mailing list and almost immediately some paintings started to sell (phew!). It was such a confidence boost and meant that I could just enjoy the weekend.
I opened the exhibition on the Friday and, immediately, there was a continuous stream of people coming through the door. Yay! It felt so good (even though I was still hiding bit and bobs from the kitchen surfaces in various cupboards, as the viewings started). Things got really busy, quickly, and stayed busy - all weekend! Luckily, my good friend’s charming teenage son, the wonderful Ben, agreed to be my gallery assistant for the weekend. He was so brilliant, welcoming all my visitors, helping people with the track and trace and making sure we kept below the COVID capacity limit. Thank you, Ben! Just shout when you need that reference, you superstar!
It was eighteen months after I first decided to open my home and it felt so good to be in my own solo exhibition with lots of people looking at and talking about my art. There was such a range of people: friends, previous customers, people from my mailing list, people who knew my work, as well as people who had never heard of me but had just spotted me in the AOH brochure. There were also people who had read the article about me in Coast Magazine as well as member of my Brighton Skies Facebook group. The feedback was incredible - I wish I had put a feedback book out in hindsight. The whole weekend could not have gone better - except when I lost my voice due to too much chatting. People especially loved being able to visit the studio in the back of my garden. Thank goodness I didn’t have time to tidy it because everyone loved seeing the mess which I make!
What a lot of fun. I can’t wait for the next Artists Open Houses, this December!
You can read more about my awards for the Artist of the Year 2021 and Best Open House 2021 here.
