My Artsy Year in Review

Now that 2010 has come to an end I am doing a quick review the artsy things I did and participated in during the year and deciding if I will drop some or do them again.  Life should be fun!  Here's what happened.

Moody Blues
by Susanne Clark.   Acrylic on canvas.  12 x 12 inches 

Outdoor Art Shows 

I took part in six over the summer with varying degrees of success.  Two local and four out of town.  While most of the out of town shows were fun I will only do one of them again.  We had recently returned to Toronto and thought it would be interesting to do shows north of the city in small towns that we hadn't visited for many years so there was a double purpose in participating.  Although some were held in very affluent and pretty towns where there are many summer cottages and visitors, the sales for most artists were very poor.  Perhaps it was because many of the attendees were from the US where the economy is much worse than here in Canada.  
Locally I did two shows. The best was the Queen West Art Crawl in downtown Toronto: my second year there.  The vibe is great and, for me, the sales have been good both years.

Open Studio
I held my first Toronto Open Studio and because my studio is in my home it made it very easy.  After I set it up it looked really good and although not many people attended, I don't know many people here yet, those who did come came to buy.  Open Studios have always been really good for me.  I think it's because people like to see the artist in their home or studio environment and see the art in a real setting. I also enjoy the meeting the people who come.  This is an event I will do each year and once I get to know more people here in the city I'm sure attendance will increase.

Internet Sales and Online Galleries
I am always amazed with online sales of art.  I"m not sure if I would ever buy art online and yet I have sold quite a few works online over recent years.  When I lived in the UK I used to list the life drawings I did each week on a small site and sold many of them ...in fact three to one man which made me wonder?  I am now on Fine Art America where they offer reproductions of my work. It's a print on demand site but you can also list originals.  I sold both reproductions and originals there so that is something I will also continue. The photo attached is one of the recent originals I sold over the Internet.

More to come in the next post.