Sophie Ashdown

I do quite a few art shows and exhibitions, some of which are more successful than others.  On the weekend of 15/16 November I did my 6^th show this year, the W4 Art and Design Show.  I have participated in this show every year since it started in 2019 (except 2020 due to Covid.)

The first year we did the show, it was almost all artists showing paintings with a few sculptors.  That first year I did fairly well and made over £1200 in sales of my paintings.  Considering that the entry cost for the event was only about £75 it was a good little earner for two days.

Over the years the show has grown and evolved into quite a big event in my local area.  We have more artists and artisans participating including jewellery makers, ceramicists, and even a luxury kimono maker.  Originally on the first evening we had some wine and an opera singer do a few numbers.  Now we have multiple musicians and other performers throughout the weekend.  The event has grown and grown.

The organisers did an excellent job this year of advertising the event online and locally.  The Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/w4artanddesign/ was buzzing for weeks ahead of the event and all of the artists were encouraged to post regularly leading up to the weekend.

There were no shortage of visitors, especially on Friday evening when there was free wine.  On Saturday there were more families attending and there was steady footfall across the weekend.  The problem was that the visitors were not really looking to buy art for their walls.  They seemed to want small things, prints, small gifts for Christmas, etc.  In particular they wanted to buy things with local flavour.  One of the artists who does huge gorgeous colourful artworks, didn’t sell any paintings but made almost £800 on the Friday night alone just selling Tea Towels (!) that were for Chiswick, Richmond, Hammersmith, etc.  Another artist friend sold more in calendars with prints of local scenes than he did selling his paintings.

From experience of previous years, I was aware that this is where the trend was going, but I don’t really make things with local flavour, and I don’t make small pieces!  So this year I took my smaller paintings and some A5 pieces that I have made recently.  I also made a “Chiswick” ink piece as an experiment and it was the first thing I sold. 

One of the best things about the show is that I was there with my 14 year old son AJ, who is also an aspiring artist.  We have exhibited together many times and he always outsells me in volume.  He creates beautiful ocean-like pieces using acrylic paint, pouring medium, and silicone oil. 

AJ sold three paintings, all of which were on the smaller side.  Normally he sells much more but there just wasn’t the buying mindset that we hoped for.  AJ also made some Christmas baubles using his paint technique on ceramic baubles and he sold quite a few of these.  Thus reinforcing the obvious trend that people mostly wanted to buy small things.

We were not the only ones who experienced this.  All of the artists echoed our same experience.  Still, it was a lively and fun event with lots of lovely friendly people.  However as an artist there are not many true measures of success, but one could be in how much you sell.  If my success as an artist was based on sales then I would not have fared very well on this art show.  It is disappointing but it happens sometimes.

Perhaps if I had put the Chiswick piece on tea towels in different colours then I would have done better!