Again time has disappeared and I haven’t posted a blog. I was telling a lovely young lady the other day that the reason for this was that I have been hibernating. But this hibernation wasn’t because it was cold outside, quite the opposite. I live in Australia after all and it is our summer. No… I was having what I call an art hibernations. What is an art hibernation? You know the ones where you have a deadline for an exhibition or a painting competition and you knuckle down and get lost in creating your art and you only come out for food and sleep. So that is what I have been doing for the past 3 months – preparing for an exhibition. And now I am done… all I have to wait for is to have it hung on the walls of the gallery in April. Which I am waiting for with great anticipation. So today’s blog is going to be on what I do when I prepare for an exhibition.
Some of you have probably gone through the process of preparing for an exhibition. I feel it is an exhilarating but sometimes daunting process. Especially if you have to get a set number of painting done to fill a gallery space in a set period of time. I was very fortunate to have some guidance along the way when I first start exhibiting.
Tip #1 – Start Painting
I know this sounds like a strange tip, but it is seriously my first tip. If you start thinking about all the paintings you need to get done and in the time frame that you have to do it, if you are like me the task of preparing for an exhibition becomes so overwhelming you get inertia. And then before you know it, that time frame you had gets smaller and smaller every day. So I usually start by just painting a few ideas. I keep them small and I paint them quickly. If I choose not to do small paintings, I will instead draw up a number of different thumbnails of different ideas – nutting out my compositions and designs. Usually by doing this new ideas start popping into my head and before I know it I hone in on one theme/idea that I want to explore. More often than not through this process I get a number of different themes/ideas but I will only choose one. One theme for one exhibition. I can always come back and explore the other themes for another exhibition. I will spend only a couple of days on this as I need to get into my main body of work as time is of essence.
Tip #2 – Have a theme for your exhibition
I know it can be great to have a lot of different paintings of different subjects etc to showcase what you can do but I found out early on in my career that the exhibitions that hang really well are the ones that have a central focus. A clear idea/theme running through them.
My first exhibition was at a local council chamber and I had been selected to hang a number of my works there for a weekend. Other artist too had exhibitions on at the same time. My exhibition had a lot of great paintings. They were paintings that I had done over the course of the year. But they didn’t connect with each other. The still life paintings had no connection to each other. The landscape paintings consisted of seascapes, landscapes and city scapes. They didn’t share a connection. The other lady that shared my space had a body of work that were all of seascapes and each painting connected with the other paintings.
That short weekend I discovered the “buzz” that was created around an exhibition that had a cohesiveness. A central theme. People were coming into the exhibition space, walking past my work, straight into the other artists exhibition space, as if they were being pulled by in invisible rope. The paintings just drew you in. They mesmerised the audience. The central theme of her exhibition meant that all the paintings hung well together and they feed off each other. The exhibition looked stunning. My exhibition didn’t.
If that didn’t convince you, my other example is group exhibitions. Have you ever noticed that when you go to see group exhibitions it can sometimes seem like a mishmash of different paintings and different styles and it just doesn’t seem to gel. (Obviously not all group exhibitions are like that but for the most part they are). It is really hard to hang a group exhibition and make it look good when all the paintings are not connected and the paintings styles are so very different. So my point is try and make a connection between your paintings. Your exhibition will hang better for it. And it also helps when you start painting all the paintings for it. Usually each new idea is feeds off the old idea. Well that is how it works for me.
Tip #3 – Start your Focal Painting
Once I have honed in on theme I usually like to start work on my focal painting. This painting for me is usually my largest painting and the painting that the whole exhibition focusses around. I start here because for me the biggest painting takes the longest time and once I get this painting done it usually helps pull my focus to the theme of the exhibition. It also helps me work out how many other paintings I need to get done to fill the exhibition space in the space of time that I have allotted. Also with my focal painting finished usually I feel much more relaxed about the time frame and it seems like all the other paintings just flow from there.
Tip #4 – Give Yourself Time
Because I work in oils I need to always factor in drying time, framing time and delivery time.
I don’t think there are many galleries out there that appreciate getting wet oil paint on their lovely fashionable work clothes. So I am always factoring in drying time so that by the time my exhibition rolls around my work is dry and framed. I know there are some artist who work right down to the last minute. But I am not that kind of person. If I worked like that I would be stressed out and a complete nightmare to live with. I put myself in the category of person who plans and prepares things in advance so if there are any hiccups along the way – like paintings going missing in the mail etc I have time to find them and get them back on track. Things don’t always go according to plan so that is why I give myself more time than necessary. Just in case of problems. That way by the time my exhibition rocks around I am relaxed and ready to enjoy the exhibition opening.
Other aspects of an Exhibition – Administrative stuff
The thing I learnt when I started exhibiting was that as an artist I not only am the creator of my work, but I am also the warehouse operator, the dispatching clerk,the administration worker, the client services representative and social media/internet and marketing officer. There is a lot more involved in having an exhibition than just painting the paintings and displaying. There is all the behind the scenes stuff like liaising with framers, couriers and organising with galleries, taking photos of my work, preparing it for transit and other things like that. The exhibition is just the fulfilment of all that behind the scenes work.
Always remember to take good photos of your work. They are good for your records but also it is important to have good photographic reference on your internet or social media presence. It can help draw people to your exhibition.
Always remember to pack your paintings well when you transport them. Just in case they drop them or something bangs into them. And also give the couriers time to get the paintings to the location. Don’t cut it too short. The worst thing that could happen is an exhibition opens without any work because it is still in transit.
Have a good dialog with your gallery. Keep them informed of what is going on. Like the status of the paintings etc.
And finally have a good working relationship with your framer. I love seeing my work framed because it feels like it has finalised my painting.
I do love it when an exhibition opens because it shows that all my hard work and the hard work of the gallery, the framer and the courier has paid off.
Would love to see you all at the opening of my next exhibition in Tasmania.
“Alla Prima” opens the 6th April 2018 @ the Colville Gallery 5:30pm.
Happy painting everyone.
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