Maybe it was the scorching temperatures, maybe it was the sub-zero economic climate or maybe it's just a question of taste, but this years painters fair wasn't the resounding succes I was hoping it would be. We had a different location this year, across from our old spot, which was good in that it had a lot of shade for a large part of the day, but bad because it was a corner spot that didn't have a lot of traffic. Nobody puts baby in a corner, but this time I didn't mind so much, I was able to display my works on both sides of the stand (not visible on the photo are two more paintings, the penguins and the rusty parrotfish).
Despite a number of positive comments and prices that were ridiculously on the low side, I only managed to sell one painting (the eye of the Gekko will now have a new home with my good friends Menno and Marjon, bless them) and all of two greeting cards. It's still beyond me how people can be attracted to my work, browse through the entire set of cards (yes some people actually went through the whole box of 63 cards which consisted of just 10 different ones) and not put down 1,50 euro. It's probably just me ;-)
With brush in hand, foto laurence Meijer
Foto: Yvonne Eggens
The fair encourages artists to show their skills by actually working on something during the fair. I Started a small pufferfish that was ideally suited for this, as it wasn't too big and used a basic set of colours. Especially kids seemd to love it. Maybe I should do a line of cute animals for kids rooms. Everyone loves brightly coloured fish and birds right?
I worked on the fish untill it juste became too hot and left Alex to hone his budding painters skills on the background. I tell you the boy has talent! Meanwhile the sweltering heat left none unaffected, from surly auctioneers to art fair patrons who fled to cooler places in droves (even if it meant hearing an out-of tune women's choir in the coolness of the church building). I did a few tours of the fair myself and with a few exceptions that were either beyond my budget or impossible to travel with, didn't see anything that seduced me into buying it. All in all it was a nice experience yet again and we had a lot of fun in a subdued, non-sweat inducing way. Next year I'll be in the US looking for artistic and legally non-visa-jeopardising opportunities.
Thank you Alex, Yvonne, Menno, Marjon, Ellen and Wilna for helping out!
