STUDIO BEHIND THE SCENES ///
This creative journey is a funny old thing... I wish I could say I've figured it all out, but truth be told, in many ways, I still feel a bit lost at sea!
However, I'm slowly gathering strength and certainty around my boat - its layout and capabilities. But more importantly, the direction it's headed in.
You see, the sea is largely out of my control. I can control which waters my boat travels through as I choose each new direction. I've realised that not firmly choosing a direction keeps me lost at sea, bobbing around and going around in circles. This is not what we want!
I recently took a month or so (unintended) away from social media, as I felt like my wheels were spinning a bit and I wasn't making the progress I desired.
Anyway, sometimes you must step back to see clearly if you know what I mean?
I realised that I needed to fully commit to direction. For context, these are some of the questions that come up for me about what to focus on?
- Should I pitch to more art galleries to get my art into more physical spaces?
- Should I apply to art competitions?
- Should I put my art into local group exhibitions?
- Should I focus solely on building an audience for my website?
- Should I use online art galleries?
- Should I use Etsy?
- Who should I collaborate with, and how?
- Should I just sell original artwork?
- Should I have a wholesale offering for printed goods?
- Is having an email list really the key to driving sales and growth?
- How many freebie offers should I create?
- How many emails should I send?
- Should I get my art onto more products?
- Should I pitch to blogs and magazines for features?
- Should I just pick one thing to paint and paint lots of them?
- Should I bother with a blog?
- Should Instagram, be my number one social platform?
- Should I offer art classes and workshops?
- Should I make more video content for socials and YouTube?
- Do I actually have solid offers for people to spend money on? And do I have enough of them available?
- Who are my offers for?
- What surface should I paint on?
- Should I offer framed art?
- Can I work on paper?
- Where should I sign my art?
- Should I offer limited or open-edition prints?
- Should I offer print on demand products?
There's more. The list is actually endless and exhausting if you let it become overwhelming. I felt dizzy just writing that all down! And, of course, your direction can change and divert many times.
What I've come to realise is that it's important to pick a direction and stick to it. Sure, you can take little scenic routes here and there, but you must stay the course. You have to try a few things out and see how they feel to fine-tune and get more specific and clear. It's all part of the process.
So, what does this mean for my little studio? Hmmm! ??
In an attempt to avoid over committing and the epiphanies that may follow from this little article, I'm going to focus on what the things feel good to me right now. Because this feels like a great place to start and a safe way to share my journey with you.
Right now:
- I LOVE painting and growing my art portfolio, and following the curiosity of my artistic journey, embracing that it is ever changing, surprising and complex!
- I LOVE building and tweaking my website (one of my favourite things to do on the admin side)
- I LOVE helping and guiding others to understand the links between creativity and well being and how ANYONE can learn to paint or draw or ? and EVERYONE is creative.
- I LOVE promoting the importance of connecting your heart and your home for some fun, quick life wins, and supporting this by offering my art for sale to pretty up your sanctuary.
- I LOVE the sensibility and long term nature of open edition prints & greeting cards to both retail and wholesale customers.
- I LOVE writing my weekly blog articles and emails.
And the counter side:
- I DON'T LOVE the confusion and void that is social media (but I will persist!!).
- I DON'T LOVE putting the worthiness of my art (and its sales) into the hands of external art spaces and people.
- I DON'T LOVE packing my artworks for shipping. HaHa!!! (because it's a big job and I'm thorough and a worry wart perfectionist). Of course this is a must, but I want to avoid any double handling of shipping artworks wherever possible (i.e. the to and from galleries/exhibitions).
- I DON'T LOVE art that is not personal and high quality and handmade (i.e. print on demand is a big no).
So this is me getting clearer on the voyage that is my creative career!! Bon voyage, til next time...
Where are you on your creative journey? Please share I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment on this post or email me at hello@samhortonstudio.com
Take care, Sam x
