Heading Back to Dubai

So I will be back in Dubai in February primarily to sell my paintings at the Dubai Jazz Festival. For I think 6 years I have been part of the arts and crafts village at the festival (a part that some people do miss) and have sold quite a few paintings there.

This year not only is the Jazz Festival bigger than ever but also the arts and crafts village is expanding and there will be at least 10 tents in the new location (Festival City) selling many different styles of painting. I will have at least 3 very large paintings up for sale (size 150 x 150cm) and have ordered my canvases from Jam Jar who will make custom sized stretched canvases for you.

Tickets for the Leonardo da Vinci Exhibition at the National Gallery

Well yesterday I went down to London with the intention of visiting the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery as there had been so much hype and excitement about it. Unfortunately, in my naivety, I did not think that I might have to book tickets beforehand. So, much was my disappointment when i got to the ticket desk and there was a sign saying 'Sold Out Today'.

On further investigation it seems that the tickets for the da Vinci exhibition had been on sale since May 2011 and all of the online tickets and advance purchase tickets had already been snapped up - until the end of the exhibition! So the only way to get tickets now is either to buy them from someone who already has some but maybe can't make it (you could try eBay but they are going for more than £50 a ticket on there at the moment), or you will have to go and queue up at the National Gallery on the morning of the day you want to visit.

The gallery are releasing a limited number of tickets each day on a first come first served basis so if you get there early and queue up then you may be lucky!

However, if you are not lucky enough to get tickets then there is still a lot of amazing artwork by many great masters at the National Gallery - including van Gogh, Canaletto, Monet, Manet, Rubens, Constable, Seurat etc etc the list goes on and it takes hours to go through all of the halls and rooms. One of the paintings on show is one of van Gogh's sunflower paintings, shown here, and you really get a feel for the depth of it in real life than when just looking at a picture - the same can be said about a lot of the great masters paintings so if you do have a few hours free, go and have a browse.

UAE Art Competition

Emirates NBD are running an art competition in conjunction with Tashkeel (great place by the way) - where you can win cash prizes of up to 20,000 AED and membership of Tashkeel. There is not long to go until the entry closing date (they never seem to allow much time for these things in Dubai) of November 24th so get creating! Full details are on the image attached.

Quiet Time

So things are a bit quiet at the moment. Having headed back to Dubai for about 6 weeks i decided that it was now really too expensive to live there on my own and that i would have to come back to the UK. One problem was the lack of places to sell art anymore - previously Arte had been good with it's once a month art and craft fairs but now it was getting full of artists, a lot of whom were hobby artists and willing to sell their paintings for very little money. This then puts pressure on the professional artists, who have much higher costs to cover, to actually be able to sell and make money.

Another problem was with the general downturn of a few years where there were less hotel jobs around. It doesn't really help that I am not a salesperson and to be a success i think you really have to sell yourself.

So for the time being I will be based in the UK again, but available to go back to Dubai for any large jobs that may crop up. I will also likely be at the jazz festival again next February where sales are usually forthcoming.

This weekend I have 3 paintings in an art exhibition in Woodbridge, Suffolk so am hoping for a sale from there, and after that I have a possible craft fair at a local tennis club that I just need to confirm.

Art on the Prom 2011

So yesterday I took part in Art on the Prom in Felixstowe for the second year running. The weather forecast was not brilliant but better than it had looked earlier in the week. I felt the crowds were not quite as big as last year but then last year was a lovely sunny day. Sales started off slowly but there was a bit more of a rush as the afternoon started and I sold 8 paintings overall varying in size from small Union Jack paintings to a large painting called 'Dream'. I was pleased with the event overall and the feedback from visitors was good but it was just a bit disappointing that the rain came down with almost an hour to go as the end seems to be the busiest time. Things got a little bit wet but I don't think any damage was caused, just me ending up looking like a drowned rat!

Felixstowe Art Group Annual Exhibition

So this week was the Felixstowe art group's annual exhibition. I am a bit of an anomaly in the art group I think as most of the other artists concentrate on landscape and traditional painting rather than abstracts. There are a couple of artists in the group who are professional or semi professional artists but overall most of the group are hobbyists (not meant with any disrespect as being professional or hobbyist is no reflection on talent!). Anyway, so the annual exhibition has been going for 60 years although this is only my second year with the group.

They are a great bunch of people who manage to get a lot of people to visit the exhibition every year. I am very impressed at the visitor numbers and the number of paintings that are sold over the 5 days. Most of the artists really underprice their work so maybe it is no surprise that so much is sold.

Anyway, my stint on the desk was on Tuesday afternoon and it just so happened that a lady came in while I was there and wanted to buy all 3 of the paintings I had for sale! I was hugely surprised and pleased to say the least. I had two large textured abstracts in (see image on the right for one of them) and a textured, glittered union jack and was pleased at the way all 3 had come out and am glad they have found a new home. Now I just need to get painting again ready for Art on the Prom on 4th September.

Urban Art Fair - Brixton, London

So last weekend I took part in the Urban Art Fair for the first time. It was a good experience for me but the problem was that it poured down with rain the whole weekend which really put a dampener on it in terms of people coming to look and sales made. However, I would sign up for the fair again next year as it was a really good set up with 150 artists and I am sure the potential for painting sales there is quite good if the weather had been better. It is also quite cheap for a pitch with a commission payment rate of 10%.