Last month I was mostly rather busy.

The Month of May was a very busy month. I decided as part of my new year’s reflection and future planning that I would do an Open Studio event over the Spring Bank Holiday. I had never done one from my home studio before, mainly because navigating the mad barking dog, trip hazard cat and climbing up a wobbly loft ladder to stoop (depending on how tall you are) in a space not big enough to swing said cat let alone view artworks was not, I deemed, very suitable! So having moved to a house with a fabulous studio space I was very excited about sharing it with as many of you as I could encourage to come.  I have to admit I did spam social media relentlessly for at least two weeks before.

So, it took most of the month of May to finish off my studio space to a point at which I could invite visitors in. Him who is usually outdoors came in long enough to build me an amazing storage system so, I at last got all my stuff out of boxes and on shelves or in different boxes; how on Earth do we creatives gather so much stuff to possibly make art with? Anyway, painted over some outrageously expensive William Morris wallpaper in a rather nice turquoise/sage green paint, put a hanging system in to make it easy to hang and rehang work as and when and other than a few final touches I was ready - ish.

I opened my front door at 11am on 24th May and had 3 days of steady visitors. If you have not opened your studio to visitors before I can highly recommend it. It does help to be able to talk the legs off several donkeys without missing a beat or collapsing halfway through the day but possibly less exhausting if you’re the quiet, mysterious type. I had over 60 visitors in three days, met some beautiful people and to finish off a fantastic weekend I sold 7 paintings and some prints.

I now have 8 weeks or so to get back into creating again before I need to make decisions as to what work to take to Art In The Pen, 15 & 16th August, Skipton in Yorkshire. One of the things I had not experienced before this last event is how much of a hole it leaves in a series of work when a few pieces are sold but not enough of them the say ‘well that’s that finished’ and move on, but too many to stop it looking like a complete series to display. Luckily I had 4 medium sized pieces and 10 very small pieces that I was not happy enough with to want to wrestle into completion last month and have now finished all 4 of the medium sized ones. I am planning to open my studio with a special guest at the end of July, more about that in my next blog as I still need to finalise the date.

If you’re thinking of opening your own studio and you want to ask any questions feel free to use the contact form and I’ll get back to you. Thanks for reading.

Love

Martine x