Windsor Contemporary Art Fair

Now that I'm back online I can also tell you all about the WCAF which was held a couple of weeks ago on the 12th-14th November.

This was my first ever art fair and I have to admit that I was really nervous about it. 

Although my work had been selling well on Etsy, I'd never put myself out there in the public before with all my artwork in one place.  

When you exhibit at an art fair, in a way you are setting yourself up to be compared with 100 other artists.  And by "compared" I don't mean in style, because everyone is so different, but rather a comparison of standard - well that's what I was doing anyway! 

But thankfully I needn't have worried so much - I did pretty well for a first fair - I sold a few originals and lots of prints and cards.  

Another big upside to doing fairs is the contacts you make and the lovely people you meet.  All the other exhibitors are really supportive of each other and are very willing to give invaluable advice to newcomers.  Please take a look at the images below and check out the other artists.

So all in all it was a really enjoyable weekend and I'll definitely be applying again to exhibit next year.

My stand at the WCAF

Please check out my favourite artist at the fair - the lovely, sweet Helen Rhodes

Her work is just stunning - I would've bought her whole display if I could!

http://www.helenrhodes.com/

Another favourite artist at the fair - the amazing Darren Dearden

His work is huge and completely brilliant.

http://www.darrendearden.co.uk/

And yet another family favourite at the fair - artist Jo Bunce

She also paints amazing flowers - just gorgeous!

http://www.jobunce.co.uk/

Computer Hell !!!

Oh my gosh - I've been in computer purgatory for the last 3 weeks - what a nightmare!  Yes my pc finally fried itself and it has taken 3 weeks to get a new one and be properly back online.  As much as I love my Blackberry, there are certain things that just can't be done. Like updating my shops - and PRINTING!!!  Of course this all happened just a week before I was due to exhibit at the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair.  Luckily my fab friend, Tania, came to my rescue and printed out all my giclee prints for me on her computer.  

The downside of course is that I've lost a whole load of images which are gone forever in the internet ether because my hard drive wasn't salvageable.  Yes, I know I should've backed everything up ... but I didn't.  

Lesson learned - enough said.

Papercut Birds in Oak and Ivy Heart

I finally finished this piece today.  I'd put it away a few months ago while I was working on a few other things.  I'm struggling to get a really decent photo of it, but in the meantime here are a few nice shots.  

Morris Dancing Papercut

I finally finished this piece this morning - what a great feeling! Now I just have to decide how much I want to price it at for the Windsor Art Fair in November. I always find this such an impossible task and my family are always telling me that I undervalue all my work - so maybe I'll just get hubby to price it for me!

Christmas Tree papercut

I decided that it was about time I designed something for a Christmas card.

This is what I came up with. Hope you like it.

I just wanted to show you the work in progress so far. I reckon there's an average of about 60 flowers in each corner - and with 5 petals each, that's about 900 petals I've cut out. So you can imagine my hand really really aches right now! Anyway, I still haven't made a decision about what's going in the middle - it certainly won't be staying like this. Maybe a little folksy scene with a tree? We'll see. Watch this space ...

English Folk Art (for a change!)

I've decided to take a little break from my usual traditional American folk art style and do something a bit more English for a change. I'm not entirely sure what an English folk art style is exactly (maybe there isn't such a thing - but I'm sure there is!), so I guess this is just my own style on the very English tradition of Morris Dancing.

When I did an internet search for English folk art, such a mishmash of things came up - half of which weren't even English - that it's difficult to see a generic style. American folk art is very distinctive, as is Scandinavian, German, Dutch etc - but seemingly not English. If anyone can enlighten/educate me otherwise, I'd be really interested. All I really came up with was barge painting and pub signage.

Anyway, this latest piece of mine is going to be a circular dance of Morris men and village girls, the corners will be blossom trees and the centre - well (as is usual for me) that's still to be decided!