Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Trees In Light
5x7 inches
acrylic on panel


See my paintings HERE


Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip

Preparing for Events

Yesterday I had a big Charity event. The artists donated a painting for an auction and we were allowed to set up a booth inside the building to sell our wares.

Sometimes sales are good and sometimes not. There is a big crowd, food, drink, a band playing and a lot of noise.

The main advantage to this sort of thing is PR. Hopefully enough people will see your work and remember you, so that they will come to your studio at another time to purchase. Of course most of the people who come to these things are looking for bargains, so you must have your browse bin paintings available as well a higher end work. Most of the people who attend these functions are well to do and want to look good in front of their wealthy friends, so it is never bad to do these events from the artist's perspective.

I recommend that you have a variety of items for sale at this sort of function. I had 10.00 miniatures,3.00 note cards, 10.00 art pins, 50.00 browse bin paintings and 500.00 framed paintings. Having a variety pulled lots of different people to my booth. I also had a give away. Free bookmarks with my contact info on them.

I had my studio assistant running around with my bookmarks, talking people up all night. If you do not have an assistant to help you, ask a friend to come or a relative. Offer to buy their dinner as a reward.

I would not recommend that you use children under 15 to help you because people will not take you seriously if you have your kids running around bugging people. That is often a turn off for patrons. Keep in mind that this is a social occasion for people and they have left their own kids at home to get out and enjoy themselves.

Be neatly dressed but don't wear fussy clothing. You want them to focus on your art. I wore my studio T- Shirt. Be friendly and charming at all times, even when you are bored to death. Be sure to have some kind of bag or wrapping paper for their purchases. I buy the flat bags to put cards and small unframed painting in. I order them in bulk and thy last a long time. I keep a roll of brown craft paper and masking tape to wrap larger framed painting. People will appreciate that extra effort and it looks more professional.

Follow up immediately after the event to send out thank you cards to patrons who purchased from you, and image post cards to anyone who signed your guest book.

I'm off to teach a workshop tomorrow in Orlando, FL, so I will be back to post here on Monday.