Summer art shows: Lessons learned

Well, my first summer art show season is now over and I learned a lot.  The first thing is that I need smaller pieces so there's more price choices for people.  So, I've spent most of this last month working out how to do some of my pieces in a smaller size.  Here's a shot of some of what I've come up with.

The larger piece, Springtime Spirals,  is 12x12 and is a fabric collage in a floating frame.  The two smaller pieces to the sides are 8x8 collages mounted on gallery wrapped canvas.  I haven't put them on my webpage yet, that will happen over the weekend, and my working title is some variation of Dance Like Nobody's Watching.    The 2 pieces at the top are 4x6 and unmounted as yet and I'm not sure whether they'll be framed or mounted on the canvas.  The protective coating on the canvases means that the hand-dyed silks I use lose their shimmer and the two smallest pieces are both silks so I may end up framing them.  I'm also adding some wearables to my work.  Those are hand-dyed silk scarves at the lower left of the picture.  I'm using some of the same images on the scarves that I use in my collages so the two lines are related, yet each stands alone.

My other big lesson is my own personal limits for multiple day shows.  I just don't have the physical stamina to do a 4 day show and be at the show, interacting with people, everyday.  So, next year, I'll focus on shows that are 1 or 2 days in duration.  Or work out sharing the schedule with another artist for the longer shows.

While I didn't sell as much as I had hoped, I learned much, gave out many of my business cards and got great feedback on my work.  All in all, a very good start at doing art fairs.