My Experience at the Paul Maillard Business & Arts Initiative's Art Show (Patreon)

I am a cryptid- all photos of me are blurry.

Hey Artnerds!

On Friday, August 15th, I participated in my first art show in over ten years.

About The Paul Maillard Busiess & Arts Initiative Art Show

This is a small, very local art show hosted by the Paul Maillard Business & Arts Initiave.

About 10 artists display their work- I was the only watercolor artist. Almost all of the other artists had been part of the show in the past, I'd applied for the past two years and this is the first time I was accepted.

The event space is a restored historic Catholic church, and is absolutely beautiful.

Tickets were $35 each for the public (I received free entry and one free ticket, Joseph and I purchased tickets for my mom and two friends) and were mainly sold online. This did not include alcohol but did include small bites. This event is primarily a fundraiser to raise funds to hire artists to paint murals and electrical boxes for the street, and there was a silent auction as well as a raffle.

The show was minimally promoted by the group, I handled my own self promotion (as you guys might have seen). I did not expect fans of my work to necessarily make the trip out to Luling on a Friday night and pay $35 for a ticket, but I did want to give it a fair shot and do my part to help promote the show.

Artists provided all their own structure, so I brought gridwalls and tables.

My goal in applying was fairly simple- I wanted good photos of my original watercolor art in a more gallery-esque setting. I'm currently trying to appeal to local stores to carry some of my products and originals, and while 'anime con' and 'comic con' do not impress down here, I thought perhaps Art Show might. I really wanted to focus on showcasing my original watercolor illustrations and art prints.

Matting & Framing

My main focus was on my Louisiana foods series, which are an unusual size- Moulin du Roy's 29.7x42cm, so I knew no standard US frame would work for these as is. I decided to matt them to a standard size (16x20"), with Joseph cutting custom openings to best suit the artwork.

We bought huge uncut matts from Blick, Joseph generously cut them down for me. We also purchased sturdy 16x20 chipboard to provide additional back support.

I bought 5 inexpensive frames from Blick- just something to show customers how these originals might look framed.

I selected the pieces I wanted framed from my newer illustrations, and we focused on those first. Once those were cut and framed, we selected several more pieces and custom-cut mats for those as well.

If you are interested in cutting your own matts at home, it does save money, but its pretty grueling if you aren't willing to buy the $300 cutters. We own a small $40 mat hand tool, so it was a pretty taxing process.

Printing New Art Prints

I also ordered new Louisiana food prints from Catprint, going with their felt paper. I love how this paper looks with my watercolors- it does a wonderful job conveying the texture!

I need to re-up popular print designs before my Fall show season starts!

Friday Morning Setup

Setup started at 9AM and continued through out the day. We got there around 10am, and managed to get all our wares inside before the sky opened up and started pouring. Although I did sketches for this setup, reality always necessitates flexibility- in this instance, the display Christmas tree I ordered to display my ornaments didn't arrive until about an hour before the show.

In retrospect, I wish I'd done a better job with 'zoning'- placing similar items together (e.g Christmas cards with ornaments) and giving prints and cards more room to breathe. Even when I try to curate, I end up overcrowded! I also need to dedicate a grid to displaying totebags too- I have these adorable canvas totes in, but they haven't sold as well as I'd like, and I think it's because I'm not displaying them very well.

But! The main focus was intended to be originals and prints, and I think we did a decent job with that, although in the future, I might skip filled tables and just focus on standing display. There's so many options when it comes to setting up a pop up shop!

The Show Itself

The show started at 7pm, and we arrived a little early to finish setting things up.

The show surpassed my expectations in many ways. It would have been nice to get photos right after setup, but we managed to get quite a few nice photos of the setup while the event was just getting started.

Joseph is Better at Sales

photo by Sylvia Schmill

Despite my 15 years of convention experience, Joseph is WAY better at sales at these sort of events. This makes a lot of sense- he did phone sales for his father for a decade before, his hearing and processing are better than mine at noisy events like this, and frankly, his skin in the game is minimal. Plus, people LOVE hearing him talk about how hard his wife works, and that just doesn't come across the same when its coming from me first. I ended up just stepping back and allowing Joseph to work his magic.

At future shows, I need to bring a little TV tray and do some live painting- that way, I'm doing something engaging and entertaining- demonstrating how we weave our magic, and Joseph can focus on wooing customers.

So what Sold?

No originals sold, but that wasn't surprising- nor was it even my intention. I was after thosde display photos, baybee. We did sell a few art prints and several books, which is fantastic!All in all, I had a wonderful evening- the people were so kind, the food was delicious, and the space was gorgeous! If I'm accepted next year, I'd love to display floral illustrations or perhaps nature illustrations!