‘ A cold evening – Irvine harbour side’
Well then, that’s the Open Weekend over for another year and I’ve already ‘un-tidied’ the studio and am getting back to the work again. It’s amazing, after all the work that goes into the event, just how quickly it passes by. It was though, a very successful weekend with I think, just over 300 visitors to the studios. After speaking with many of my colleagues, I think most were very happy and had made either sales or useful contacts…..and for me, it was a bit of both.
My Open Weekend actually started on Friday afternoon as I was still putting the finishing touches to the studio. A gentleman came in and immediately took a fancy to one of the large 80 x 80 cm paintings. He spent a lot of time looking at it before leaving. He was back about an hour later asking if he could put a deposit on the painting ….so a very good start to the weekend…..and over the next couple of days another of the 80 x 80 cm paintings was also purchased making it the most successful ever Open Weekend for me. Of course, this event is not just about selling work, it is, perhaps more importantly, about people finding your studio, seeing the work and hopefully then going on to tell others about it. This really is the time to make contacts and with over 300 people coming into the courtyard this year, it was very successful in this aspect too. Of course, a successful event comes about from promoting it well and although we all did our part here at the studios, a big thank you must go out to all the local businesses and organisations who agreed to put our posters up and to the local newspapers and radio who gave us such good coverage.
I always think though, that once the Open Weekend is over, winter is just around the corner. As we left the studio yesterday evening under the last light of an almost clear sky, the temperature was decidedly on the wintry side. With all the pre open weekend work, Nita and I haven’t been out walking for almost four weeks now and with both of us working this weekend it’ll be next week before we get out again. Before we do, I think it’ll be time to check the rucksack and start putting back into it, all the extra gear I took out in the hot weather of July. I’ll also have to check the winter boots, crampons and spiders to make sure they are in good condition ready for the first time they are called into action. It’s incredible ….it only seemed a very short while ago that we were walking in t-shirts and complaining that it was too hot!
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