Merry Christmas Everyone!

Right, well I'm off to Hungary for Christmas with the in-laws tomorrow, so I thought I'd just pop by to wish all my blog readers a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!, and probably as I won't have time to update before then, a HAPPY NEW YEAR! as well. Thanks for taking an interest in what I've been up to in 2013! I'm hoping to have lots of exciting new projects and news to announce early in 2014, but nobody is really organising stuff at this time of year, so I've been left a bit in limbo on a few projects. We'll have to wait and see what January 1st brings!

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm feeling relatively upbeat about how the very early stages of my time as a full time artist has gone. I'm nowhere near making a living from it yet, but the more I investigate possibilities the more I see that there is a lot of opportunities out there for artists, as long as you can spare the time to work at things. And money. I keep seeing great courses and stuff advertised that would be really helpful, but I only have limited funds available, so some of those great sounding opportunities I have had to regretfully walk away from. That's the one dark cloud on the horizon. Running out of money. The house sale falling through has really messed up our plans for financial stability for next year. But…I guess I knew this was never going to be an easy choice, to pursue something that might be financially not very rewarding, especially at first. And I'm determined to weather the storm. Which doesn't mean I won't perhaps have to try and get a part time job sometime in the new year. I think, as long as it still leaves me with enough time and mental energy to pursue all these exciting arts opportunities, that might not be a bad thing. Anyway, the point is, it's gonna be tough, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I won't give up! And in the meantime, there's little nephews to play with, and delicious food to eat, and presents to dish out, and all that good stuff, so I'm going to put all that worry on hold for now and have fun! Here's hoping you, wherever you are, will be able to do the same! Very best wishes of the season to each and every one of you!

Oh, just time for a few more Pre-Christmas things:
I have started up my newsletter. I am still learning the software that enables me to manage it, but hopefully this is a place where you can subscribe, should you wish to:

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Also, remember that artist networking meeting I mentioned going to a few blog posts ago? I forgot to mention that someone was filming it, and they interviewed me! I just found out they posted the finished film online, and I made the final cut! Yay! I've never been interviewed "on screen" before, so I found the whole thing strangely exciting! (I'm also quite impressed with how coherent I sound. I remember thinking I'd said a load of rubbish. Must be the magic of editing!) Here's the video: And finally, how about a new picture, as we haven't had one of those for a while! Here's one of the ones I unearthed when looking for things to show to my repeat customer the other day. This is actually a photo I took a couple of years ago, that was just languishing on my computer until I dusted it off and did a little Photoshop magic on it a few days ago. I'm really quite fond of it now, although I was thinking of maybe correcting the tilt of the image so that the lines are horizontal. See what you think...

Right, well that's about all for now. Have yourselves a very Merry Christmas, and I'll be back in 2014!

Bad News/Good News

Well, that was a longer absence than planned. Two reasons, one is not arty related and depressing so we shan't dwell on it (house sale fell through - long and painful story so let's move on.) The second is rather nicer. I have my first bit of repeat business, from a nice lady who bought a picture from me at the Lancaster Art Market, and decided to buy another as a Christmas present! More on that later. First let's go back to last Sunday and look at the fine event that was the Liverpool Winter Arts Market.

The Magnificent main space at St.George's Hall, Liverpool

The vintage market in the music room

So, as you can see from the pictures, this is by far the biggest Arts Market that I have yet attended. It said on the flyer that there were 190 stalls, which I can well believe. There was the main space you can see above, and then a further three large rooms. I was in one of these rooms, although once a again I foolishly forgot to get a photo. Imagine a very posh room in a Georgian style country house (is that even a thing?), with really high ceilings, very light and airy, with large windows and cream painted walls and moulded plasterwork, and some huge paintings of Liverpudlian civic life on the walls. Then picture about 10 stalls dotted around the outside of the room looking inwards, including yours truly just opposite the door. I must say I was a bit disappointed to not be in the main room, as this was clearly where most of the action was, but we still got very good footfall in our room. The problem was sales! I didn't make nearly as much money as I did in Lancaster, and although I'm quickly realising I won't make much profit out of art markets alone, it's nice to at least cover your costs, which I didn't quite here. On the other hand, I had several almost sales, all of whom may come back to me (although with the hindsight of almost a week, nothing yet…). Plus, I handed out my card to lots of people, and spoke to many others about my work.

I guess in these early days I have to think of these events as being as much about raising my profile and getting my work known, and networking with other artists and designers and crafty folk, as about selling. Talking of networking, I did quite well on that front. I spoke to a lovely lady who makes jewellery out of old tools and such, who also has a shop in Liverpool. She was thinking of opening a shop in Manchester as well, and there may well be a role for me in that scheme…it's very early days yet, and it may come to nothing, but this could be a good opportunity for me. She also wanted me to help her find talented designer makers in Manchester who could also possibly get on board, so if you're reading this and it applies to you - get in touch with me right now!! Message me here or at my Facebook page.

Seeing as this was my last art fair before Christmas, I also treated myself and bought a few things. Not for others, as we are going to my husband's family for Christmas this year, and he has volunteered himself as being the main present buyer. Although I did keep my eye out in case I spotted the perfect thing for my mother-in-law or sister-in-law or my little nephews, nothing immediately jumped into view. I did, predictably, find plenty of things I would like to buy. The ones I treated myself to in the end were these:

The badge is by a company called Geek Cycled. Check out their website here. They do lots of great things with old comic books and retro toys and games, and the guy said they had done very well at the market, which I can well believe. This confirms my theory that practical objects, however decorative and fun, sell better than purely decorative ones like prints, something I hope to incorporate into my stock for next year! My item from them is actually a brooch in the shape of my home county of Devon. I guess it was originally a piece from a jigsaw puzzle, and judging by the charming little illustrations on it, I'd say 50's or 60's in age. There were lots of other cool brooches made from lego men and all sorts of other things, but how could I resist my home county? It was fate!

The ceramic piece was styled as a wall decoration, and I might use it as that in the future, but for now it's sitting as a decorative piece on the horizontal on my desk. I had vague ideas to use it as a coaster, but although the lady assured me it would stand up to that, now it comes to it I think it's too lovely to do that to. Unfortunately the maker didn't have any business cards, but I have signed up for her newsletter, so if I hear from her again I'll let you know her name. 

One of the lessons of the talk I went to at Wakefield on marketing yourself online was to have a newsletter, and at Lancaster and Liverpool I began collecting email addresses. I'm not sure that if you are a regular blog reader, there will be anything new for you in the newsletter, but I shall provide links somehow when I have created it. At the moment, that's still a project in my "to do" pile.

So, to my repeat customer. Having bought a framed print of the piece I call "Coral Reef"

she contacted me and said she would like to buy another piece as a Christmas present. I'm so thrilled about this, as it shows what another benefit of the art markets might be, of getting sales after the fact. I've had a few people asking about whether I have a webshop, and I think that has definitely got to be the way forward. It's just finding the money to pay for such a thing. Anyway, I digress. Having looked at the prints I had available on my Facebook page, none were quite what she wanted, so I have spent a fair bit of time this week going back through the many hundreds of photos I have in my back catalogue, after she told me which ones appealed to her, and I tried to find things that were similar. In the end, it was one that I was toying with getting printed already that she went for:

So, that is with the printers at the moment. There is a flat charge for using the printing press, so I've taken the opportunity to get some re-stocks of prints that sold well at the art markets so far, as well as printing some that sold well as cards but have not previously been larger prints. More news on that next week. Ok, that's enough for now I think! Lots of encouraging signs, and I'm going into the Christmas break feeling fairly positive about my first few months as a full time artist.

  

Things that I have learned

So, I survived!! Two art fairs in one weekend! It was hard work, but worth it. First up, there was the Handmade and Vintage Festive Market in Lancaster.

Here's a shot of the view from my stall, towards the end of the day. I stupidly forgot to take a picture of my own stall at either place, so you just have to imagine all my stuff laid out in this room. I was last but one on the end of the row, and there were people all round the room behind me as well. And there was a second, smaller room to the right of this picture. 

I must say, I think this was the best fair I've been to yet in terms of organisation, number of customers, range and quality of items on sale, and as it turned out for me, sales! I did pretty well, selling a large mounted print and a smaller one, and a smaller framed print, as well as quite a lot of cards and some of Anna's stickers. I also had time for a quick look around and was sorely tempted by some of the things on display, not least some lovely fusion glass earrings a bit like the ones shown below (sorry, that's as big as it can be), from Black Rose Crafts

Or possibly some really cool fashion accessories from Lost Little Soul, for example, this rather fabulous leather necklace:

I also chatted to several fellow stallholders, and it turned out the lady next to me was also from Manchester. She was really friendly, and gave me loads of leads to follow up regarding possible funding opportunities and galleries to contact, which I shall do very soon. One thing I've found really nice about attending these fairs, is the sense of camaraderie with the other stallholders. I imagined that perhaps some people, especially ones doing similar stuff, might guard their territory rather jealously and not want to give away too much info, but I've found the opposite to be true. People are only too happy to swap tips and advice, and to be really fulsome in their praise and encouragement. The general public have also been a constant delight. I guess, if the work doesn't interest them they just pass on by, so in general those that stop will only have good things to say, but the degree to which people have engaged with my work, and offered kind words, compliments and interest has really been fantastic. 

I'm also learning so much each time, so even though sales haven't been so great that I'm making loads of profit, I am managing to usually cover my costs, so I am keen to keep doing them in 2014, even though on their own they are clearly not going to be enough to make my dream of being a professional artist a reality. But I didn't know that a few weeks ago when I started attending them, and I know so much more now, so I consider that progress. I'll be back tomorrow with a report on the Winter Arts market in Liverpool, about which there's a lot to say as well.

One Weekend; Two Art Fairs

So, this coming weekend looks like it is going to be super busy, with not one but two Art Fairs! And, to top it all, these look like they will be the biggest two fairs I've attended! I kind of wish they had been spread out a bit more, not least because the one on Sunday had actually accepted me to come on both days, but I had to cancel as I had already been accepted for the other one. So, the line up is like this:
Saturday will be the Handmade + Vintage Festive Market in Lancaster. I was hoping to show you some promotional material about it, but it seems they've sent it to me in too low a resolution (comforting to know I'm not the only one who has these problems). So I'll just have to direct you to the Facebook event page. Anyway, it will be a pretty big affair, with about 50 stalls.

Then on Sunday, there will be an even bigger event! It's the Winter Arts Market in the gorgeous St George's Hall in Liverpool.
Here's a picture of it from the last event:

And here's the flyer for this year's event:

And if that's still not enough info, the website is here.

So, these should be two great events for me, with - hopefully - lots of sales! I sold so little at the last fair that I haven't had to do anything this week in terms of re-stocking, I still have lots of cards and prints unsold, but I really hope I won't be able to say the same afterwards! Not least because these are the last two events I'll be going to before Christmas. 

My husband had to pick this weekend to be away with work, so my lovely mum will be joining me to lend a hand with loading and unloading the car and with manning the stall so I can have a lunch break. I'm not quite sure she knows what shes let herself in for. The other day on the phone she said "what are we doing again?". Ah well, she ran a hotel and was a pub landlady for about 40 years, so she is very good at chatting to people. She may well be able to drum up more sales than me!

Ok, so that's all to report at the moment. I'll get back to the inspirations and experimentations stuff after this weekend, when I shall also be back with a full report on how it all went. And of course, it goes without saying, if you are in this part of the world, you should absolutely come and join us! It has all the makings of a great weekend! 

My good friend that bought the print in Wakefield said he liked the last Instagram, so here's another, this time from just down the road in Manchester:

The Art of good networking.

Wow, so much to catch up on! It's been a hectic time. So, when I last posted I was just about to go and do the Wednesday evening of my last Art fair, then a Friday and Saturday.
Well, this Art fair was not nearly as successful as the last one. The Wednesday evening saw a steady stream of people, but very few were buying, at least, not at my stall, I think some of the other stallholders did quite well. People who did stop to chat were very complementary about my work, but that was as far as it went. Anyway, I knew that was more of a "looking around" event than the other two days, so I went home in an upbeat frame of mind.

Me at the Art and Craft fair. Note the addition of a print stand!

Friday was… awful. I think I spoke to about a dozen people all day, and made no sales. There just wasn't anybody coming to the venue. Saturday was a little better, but still not very many people. I made a sale of a print, to a friend of mine that had come down specially to see me. (He got a good deal, of course!) I also sold a few cards to a fellow artist at the venue and one to a friend of an artist there. So, when you consider the money I spent getting to the venue each day (car twice and train once), plus the entrance fee, I made a loss. Oh well, it's a learning curve I guess. I made some good contacts with several of the other stallholders, all of whom were lovely. Plus, I went to a really useful talk on Friday evening by a lady who has set up a company called Craftfinder.
 The site is a directory of craft tradespeople, so just the place to go if you want to find hand crafted goods. They also help the craftspeople with promoting their work to the right buyers, so it's useful for producers and consumers alike. The talk was about how to use the internet to market yourself effectively. I proudly told everyone I had a blog! Others suggested Pinterest and Twitter as being valuable tools. I'm resisting Twitter for now, but I am keen to investigate Pinterest some more, so watch this space…
One of my fellow stallholders was a woman called Amy Lilley. She's a recent photography graduate who also does a lot of marketing work for arts venues in Wakefield. She was keen to put one of my pieces in a show she will be curating in the new year, which is great news! We exchanged business cards like you do, and I have since checked out her website and blog, both of which are well worth a look, which you can do from here.

The good networking continued last night, when I went to a meeting of the Salford Creative Network, which has been set up by Arts Development Salford, a local organisation I found my way towards via liking various related things on Facebook. The meeting was a perfect way to meet some fellow artists and there was also some people from various local arts organisations there, so it was perfect for me as someone who has recently moved to the area and wants to get involved with the local arts scene. They also have a great Arts Information pack that can be downloaded from their website, here. I've downloaded it have only given it a quick glance - it looks very useful though.

The guest speaker at the event was a lady that runs Eccles Community Art Gallery, a local organisation that seeks to provide exhibition space for local artists, as well as easy access to art for the local community. I happened to leave at the same time as her after the talk, and we briefly discussed me having an exhibition there, which was very exciting! I must follow it up by emailing her in the coming days. So, as you see, connections are being made and I'm meeting lots of really great people. Yay! This sort of socialising doesn't come naturally to me, I'm a bit shy and introverted by nature, and I don't have the knack of chatting easily with people I don't know, but everyone has been so nice and friendly that it hasn't really been a problem.
Wow, that's a long post. I still haven't told you about the TWO craft fairs I'm doing this coming weekend, but I think that can wait until tomorrow now.
As a reward for getting through this epic post, here's a nice little Instagram I took in Budapest in October.

Art Fair number 2!

Oh dear! The blog has been neglected for a few days whilst I returned to Devon to (hopefully) finalise the sale of our house there. On the plus side, I did pick up lots more of my framed Giclee prints, which until now were being displayed in a restaurant there. Now I have freed them up to be unleashed on the North West! The first opportunity to do so will be…tonight! My second Art Fair of the winter has crept up on me, just like I knew it would.
I will be jumping in the car in a few hours to make my way over to the town of Wakefield, for the start of the MAKE Art and Design Fair. Tonight is an art walk event, with lots of venues taking part, not just the one I'll be in, from 5 to 9pm, and then the Art Fair proper will be on Friday and Saturday, from 10am until 5pm. So, a busy few days in prospect! I'll report on how it all went as soon as I have a minute to draw breath. I also haven't forgotten that I didn't finish updates on my latest ideas and experiments, which will also be coming soon!

One of the pictures I just picked up from Devon

Inspirations and Experimentations Part 2

So, where were we? Oh yeah, things that inspire me.
Last time I was talking about how Rothko was one of my most important inspirations. I guess that's what gives my photos such a painterly quality; I trained as a painter (I also studied Fine Art at uni) and in some ways I still think like one, and take a lot of my inspiration from painters. A couple more abstract painters I think I am influenced by, would be, Patrik Heron:

and Howard Hodgkin:

So I guess those are the big famous guys that I look up to; the ones I own books about, have been to exhibitions of, had prints up on my wall and so on. But there are a few more obscure artists as well. Plus, the more I get into this project, the more I am getting interested in my photographic medium, and I am trying to think more about how I can actually shape my images using its unique attributes, and so I find I am getting inspired by some photographers as well.

OK, so an obscure artist first. Very obscure. He's called Balint Szombathy, and I discovered a book about him by chance in a bookshop in Budapest when I was there last year. The book is called "Signs of the City 1971-2012" and it features many photos like mine. I was really excited when I discovered it, to think that here was someone thinking very much along the same lines as me, but I was far enough along with my own work that I could feel like I hadn't been too influenced by him, I couldn't be accused of "stealing" his ideas, as I guess intellectual property has to be jealously guarded. Or maybe not. I read a quote recently which went something like this "Don't worry about developing your own style, as it will emerge naturally in everything you do". So I guess as long as the person being influenced isn't interested in nicking the idea wholesale, everyone can come out a winner.

Anyway, I had the thrill of discovering a kindred spirit when I picked up this book, that's how it felt to me. Like me, Szombathy had wandered around cities and kept his eye on the inconsequential details that others overlook, and had created quite abstract images from them. For the main, they are a lot less colourful and artistically composed than mine; which isn't to say worse, just more interested in documentary realism perhaps.

Here is an example, from my copy of his book, hence the weird curved pages:

Actually, the act of taking this photo made me look at the pictures afresh, as individually perhaps the composition isn't interesting, but taken as a foursome there is something really compelling about these images. Maybe the colours are reminding me a lot of Rothko again, I do seem to keep coming back to him, but it also made me think that a possible future direction for me would be to simplify my individual photos, but them mount them in a set with other pictures. That's the great thing about visual arts, if you keep your eyes and mind open, the sources of inspiration are endless!

Ok, that's all for today, but there's a lot more left for another day!

Inspirations and Experimentations Part 1

So, with my next Art Fair still a few weeks away, I've got a little breathing space. I'll try not to do what I did with Padiham, and let all the important work stack up until the last minute, when I then have to do it in a mad rush, but it's an uncomfortable truth that I've realised about myself; unless I'm really disciplined, that's normally how I do things. Anyway, the point is, I can relax for a few days at least.

So, I've been spending that time doing some more experimental pieces of work, which I have been wanting to find the time to do for a while. I have loads of ideas in my head of how to develope my work, but until now, not much time to try. So, I thought I'd document a bit of that, and also share some of the chief things that inspire me at the same time.





So, my chief inspiration for photo abstracts in general is; Mark Rothko, the Abstract Expressionist painter. He has been my favourite painter for several years now. I know abstract art isn't everyone's cup of chai, but it speaks deeply to me. When I was at uni I did my dissertation on Virginia Woolf and the stream of consciousness, and how that relates to ideas of the sub-conscious; an interest that's stayed with me ever since. I guess I like abstract art because to me, it speaks to that pre-verbal part of the brain, the bit where we feel things instinctually without being able to describe them in words. That's what Rothko means to me.

So a few years ago I was doing a a little bit of painting and quite a lot of photography and trying to work out what exactly I wanted to do with it, and then suddenly, this idea sprang into my mind. I was taking pictures of boats, and I saw how the two or three colours that a boat is painted actually looked a lot like the composition of a typical Rothko painting, so my first photographic series, "Rothko Boats" (I know, I'm not much of one when it comes to imaginative titles), was born. Here are some shots from that first series:

So, this is how the "Photo Abstracts" project, that I've been pursuing ever since, was born! Ok, I think that's enough for one day, but I'll be back soon to post more about artists and ideas that inspire me, and to share some of the progress I'm making getting my latest ideas out there! 

Art Fair Report

So, my first Art and Craft Fair appearance of the Pre-Christmas season, or indeed, ever, was on Saturday. It was at Padiham, which is a smallish town about 30 miles to the north of Manchester, which I had never been to before, and which seemed like a nice little town. The Market itself was in the concert hall of the town hall building, which was a lovely wood panelled, art deco style room, and apart from me I guess there was roughly 15 other stallholders, selling knitwear, ceramics, sewn goods, other photographers, some painters, jewellery makers and a woodworker. So, a good mix. And although there were other photographers, my work was very different from theirs, as it was largely landscape or nature photography, so we complimented each other without being competition.
After spending last week fretting a bit about how my stall would look, I was actually quite pleased with the final result, which you can see here:

The proud smallholder with her wares

So, once I was set up, all I could do was wait for the people to come in and see whether they would want to buy any of my stuff. The doors opened at 11am, and there was a pretty steady stream of people until they closed again at 4pm. Lots of people stopped to look and just for a chat, and then one lady bought a card. Yay! My first sale! There was a bit of a lull in trading for a while after that, but then things picked up again and I sold several more cards. I was "warming up" a bit now, and getting better at talking to the people that stopped at the stand, and explaining a little bit of what my work was about and what inspired me etc. People were really genuinely interested and receptive, and said lots of kind, encouraging things,which was really nice. And then I sold one of my more expensive, giclee prints, which I wasn't necessarily expecting to do, so that was a lovely surprise. Sales in cards and stickers were steady after that. Several people really liked Anna's lamps, but nobody "fell in love" enough to actually buy one. And then, right at the end of the day, I sold another print. I was kind of hoping to sell a few more prints, but overall I was really happy with how the day went.

 I spoke with several fellow stallholders and got some good contacts, advice and ideas out of that, and I gave out my "business card" (actually a postcard flyer from an old exhibition, which I happen to have loads of left over) to lots of people, so overall I'm really happy with how it went. It was the first ever event like this for Padiham too, so I think they must have been really pleased as well. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming, so I will definitely go there again when they do their next market.

 Ok, onto the next! That will be the MAKE Art and Design Fair in Wakefield, on Wednesday 27th and Friday and Saturday 29th and 30th of November. It looks like the emphasis will really be on the "Art" side, not so much on crafts, so I'm really hoping that I will be a big hit there. I have a few weeks to prepare for that, so I'll take the lessons I learned here, (mainly, sell work mounted but not necessarily framed, and have a rack to put the prints in, so I can fit lots more on my stand!) and hopefully have a lots of success there!

The Giclée print I sold

The joy of prints!

So, I had a busy day today, that has left me feeling very excited about the market on Saturday. Firstly, I made a trip to a...ahem, well known homewares store, where I got all kinds of cool stuff to help make my stall look awesome, and to buy some reasonably priced frames to frame some of my prints. I have previously bought a couple of table top easels to display prints, but while I was winding my way through the endless aisles of the shop it suddenly struck me that I might find other things that will help with the display process, especially of my cards, and my friends lamps that I will also be selling. (more about those later!).
 I looked at some sort of woven wicker magazine racks and pen holders thingies for ages - they were just what I wanted in terms of shape, but they looked pretty ugly. I toyed with the idea of spray painting them and weaving bits of thread through them, but in the end I opted for a smarter wooden desk tidy thing, that can display the stuff quite nicely I think. That leaves me without anything to display the print son, but perhaps I'll treat myself to a proper print rack for my next market.

Some of my wares arranged in the desk tidy

When I got home there was still no email from the printers, so I rang them up, and they told me my prints were ready! Yay! I was there in a flash, and could see that the bigger prints looked GREAT!, but I had to wait to get home to have a look at the cards, and I'm THRILLED with them as well! I literally can't wait to show them off at the market. I just have a busy day of mounting and framing tomorrow, and then it's showtime!

All 10 designs of greetings cards I'll be selling at the market

So, about the lamps, a few of which you can see above. They are made by a Hungarian friend of mine called Anna Kaszanitzky, who has kind of done similar to me, and followed her dreams to become a self-employed professional lamp maker. She makes amazing lampshades much bigger and more ambitious than any of the things I am currently selling of hers, but just to give it a try, I brought over from Hungary some of her smaller, battery operated novelty lamps, like these:

 They are all individually hand made and unique, so they aren't cheap, but I'm hoping people with love them as much as I do. Eventually, I would like to sell some of her bigger pieces, which you can check out at her website or on her facebook page.

 I am bursting to know how mine and Anna's work will be received. For me especially it's about whether people be attracted to buy at these new lower prices, and will the cards sell well? I'm not expecting the giclees to fly off the shelves, because they are expensive, but I'm hoping the more affordable stuff will sell like hot cakes! Because then I'll know if this really is a self sustainable thing - if I can do something I love AND make a little bit of profit out of it. I'll probably be too busy to post tomorrow, as as well as being the crunch day for getting ready, it's also my birthday, so I won't report in until after the show. So, if you're reading this before Saturday, keep your fingers crossed for me!

The language of the print shop

So, the day of the first art market inches closer and closer! After a few false starts, my pictures are now with the printers and I'm reasonably confident that things should proceed without any further hiccups, although of course, wherever technology is concerned there's always room for things to go wrong, so I won't count my chickens before they've hatched! However, they printed me off some copies of my pictures, only as a laser jet print instead of the all singing, all dancing version that the final ones will be, and I'm really pleased with how they look.
I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to the technical jargon that printers use, which is like a totally different language, but having done a few courses on Adobe Creative suite software earlier this year -the artist/designers holy trinity: Photoshop (the one I use all the time), InDesign and Illustrator - and in conversation with the lovely guy back in Exeter that used to do my giclée prints, I now know a bit more than I used to. So, for example I know that modern print technology is based around printing in the CMYK colour range, which is different from RGB, and as my files were already in CMYK(learnt that on the course!) the bloke at the print shop assured me that their finished versions should look very much like what I saw on my computer screen, and how the laser prints came out. So, judging by the laser prints, things are looking good!
Here's one of the new images I got printed today:

I've also had my first attempt at mounting a piece of my work, which turned out a bit rough around the edges, but generally went OK I think. The mounted artwork is another mini project I'm working on; image transfers (kind of lo-fi home made prints) of my pictures that are then hand painted/ coloured afterwards. That's still very much an on-going project, but I'm quite pleased with how this particular one worked out.                                                                                                                                         

So, so far so good.

The passe-partout, or, how to mount your artwork.

So, my current project is to figure out how to mount my own prints. In the past I have always had them done professionally by the same guy that framed them as well. So, this is a cost cutting exercise, but of course, I have to make sure it's done to a really high standard, as I'm going to be selling these prints to the public!

Of course, I did what every self-respecting person who wants to learn a new skill would do... I looked on You Tube! At first I was a bit discouraged, as none of the videos seemed to be quite what I wanted. Lots of the videos concerned something called dry mounting, which I realised wasn't the technique for me, partly because it involved lots of expensive equipment that I didn't possess. So I did a bit more digging, and realised that what I wanted was a window mount, like so:

 Some people use what's called the hinge method, which I think is particularly good if you want to preserve the photograph as much as possible and not rule out the possibility of re-mounting it in the future. It's kind of fiddly though:

Finally, I found a video that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. The only problem, it's in French. However, the visual instructions are so clear I don't think it really matters. Check it out:

The clip refers a lot to the "passe-partout" which I only recently discovered is the name of the bit that's called the "mat" in the diagrams above. I found this out on my recent trip to Budapest, where I went to visit a friend of my mother-in-law called Katalin Albert, who is actually a professional passe-partout maker. It seems like a weird thing to specialise in, but she has elevated it to an art form all it's own, finding very special vintage and handmade papers, textiles and even small 3D objects to decorate that area, and in some cases transforming the original artwork into something new or more complex. Unfortunately there are very few examples of her work on the internet, but here's the little I managed to find on her website.

I might try and do something elaborate like this with some of my prints one of these days, but for now I'll be happy if I can just master the basics!

Art and Craft Market Preparation Woes

So, maybe the first thing I should tell you about is the art and craft market I will be appearing at next weekend; Padiham art and craft market .

This is the first of four art and craft markets I will be going to before Christmas; I guess this is the big art and craft market season, so I picked a good time to start going to them. This will be my first ever market of this kind and I am equal parts nervous and excited about it.

The nervousness is exacerbated by the fact that, typical me, I'm nowhere near being ready for it! I've just come back from a month away in Budapest (it's where the husband's from, and I lived there 2000-2005 so it's like a second home.) Anyway, that means it's now a mad rush to get ready. I have lots of giclée prints left over from my last show in Exeter to take, but they are kind of expensive (£55-£150 depending on size and whether they're framed or not) so I've been in negotiation with a local printer to make me some non-giclée but still good quality digital prints, plus some greetings cards, to have some more affordable stuff for the market crowd.
But...I got back late on Wednesday and emailed them Thursday morning, or so I thought. Actually, I had somehow managed to only email myself, thanks to yahoo's new weird system of putting everything into a text message style conversation - argh! The kind of super dumb mistake that's so typical of me! So I finally realised my mistake on Friday afternoon, and frantically contacted the printers, who have now sprung into action, although I still haven't actually sent them the files, plus I still have to mount them all; something I'm doing for myself for the first time too. Then there's the stall itself to consider - how to present my work, whether I have enough stands and display do-das, printing labels.....So, in short, next week is going to be craaaazy busy, wish me luck!

Here's one of the new images I'm hoping to get printed as a digital print. (I can't re-print any of my giclées as they are all strictly limited editions of 10)
Usually I like to think of my pictures as pure abstracts (although I know lots of people like to find images in them, which is cool with me, I'm just quite abstract minded by nature) but this picture has some fairly obvious figurative cues, doesn't it?

Welcome to my blog!

Well hello and welcome to my blog! I am an abstract photographer who has recently made a couple of big, scary changes to her life. I've packed in the day job and gone full time as a working artist, and I've moved from the relative quite life in Exeter, Devon to the hustle and bustle of the big city in Manchester.

This blog will therefore be a record of my journey of finding out about the art scene in the North West of England and beyond, and in seeing if I can really make it as an artist in these tough economic times. I hope to share with you lots of examples of my work, of which the picture above is a fairly typical example, as well as other aspects of my day to day arty experiences, plus share the work of other artists/exhibitions/resources etc. that may be interest to any arty minded folk out there! So, if any of that sounds like your cup of tea, then WELCOME! Pull up a comfy chair, grab a brew and a biscuit and please join me in the world of EVERYDAY ABSTRACTS.