Saturday, February 11, 2012

Show Season

For many artists, this time of year begins a busy show season. I am no exception. My first show of 2012 is my biggest one of the year - Safari Club International.




At SCI I have a 10' X 40' booth and we set it up so I have 75 linear feet of wall space. A lot to fill! I usually have two show-stoppers (large pieces to grab attendees attention) and a variety of other sizes. There are about 70 artist exhibitors out of the approximately 1200 exhibitors. Estimates of 18,000 - 20,000 attendees make for four busy show days. You can understand why I prepare all year for this event.



My framer, Holly at Pacific Flyway works for weeks to have my pieces ready to go. (Thanks Holly!!!) My husband packs our Suburban with all the show panels, the lights, the paintings, the prints, the tables, the easel, the desk shelves, 2 boxes of supplies and paperwork, light bars, a dolly, and our suitcases. ( have no idea how he fits it all in!) Fellow Artist Terry Lee from Coeur d'Alene, ID takes some additional donation artwork and some large painting boxes for me in his trailer to ease our weight.

A 16.5 hour drive to the show, set-up (my husband and I have 3 days to put the final touches on the booth), 4 show days, and take-down. There were eight of us for take-down and thanks to Greg, Jim, Greg and Jan, Dean and Denise for their help. Then a 16.5 hour drive home and we unpack all the panels, paintings, etc. Next, days of writing thank you notes to my collectors (old and new) and packing and mailing their original oil paintings. (Just about all the attendees are out of town and need to have their purchases shipped.)

And the result? I had a good show. Quite good. Though it started off slowly on Wednesday with only one original sold, by Friday I had people waiting to purchase while I was writing up other sales. It's exciting when someone is moved by your work. I paint to share my experiences. When someone wants to take that story home, I feel I did justice to the moment I tried to capture.

Stay tuned for my next blog. I started a painting at SCI which I am just finishing.

1 comment:

sschopfer said...

Congratulations on your terrific show!