So spending the day at a rural and agricultural show in a tiny village trying to sell my work wasn't a complete bust, I actually made some money from it! The worry about doing an art market in a small show is you pay a lot of money for tiny table space and potentially end up wasting your whole day on a cold, damp field with no one in sight to even look at your work, never mind buy it. I have to say the weather didn't look promising and my heart was sinking at the thought of losing more that I would gain but the tough locals came down to the show ground in their numbers and enjoyed all that was to offer.
Once all the stalls were set up people started to wander into the tent and snoop at everyones wares. It was great to finally 'showcase' a selection of my work to the local's who have known me since I was little, but never actually understood what I'm doing at uni (despite telling them every single time I go back home). I managed to sell 3 bags and 2 paintings meaning that once I payed for the space, I made a good enough amount of money to have made it worth doing. I also gave out a lot of flyers as people wanted to email me later one so It might have been even more worthwhile yet, I don't know.
Going into it I knew I wouldn't sell many things because it's not the kind of place you would go to buy art and people never carry more than a few pounds on them anyway. I wanted to do it more for experience and to show my friends what I've been up to so any sales were a bonus to be honest! It definitely seems that smaller items like cards, bags and prints would sell well as they are a more friendly price to the audience that are there. Maybe for next time I need to get some proper prints made so that even if I don't sell many originals, at least I have made a little bit of money back on the smaller items. Overall though It was a nice relaxing day with minimal stress and a good opportunity to show my home village some of the things I've been working on.
