Exhibiting - 10 Things Artists Hate to Hear

My newest painting, 'Irish Setter'

Most of the people I meet at exhibitions are a pleasure to talk to but there are others who either intentionally or not are at the best unthinking, at the worst rude.
I usually laugh the comments off as all exhibitors have had their share of 'those' people but a friend of mine has decided not to exhibit any more as she found the comments affected how she viewed her art.

So here are 10 of the comments artists hate to hear:-

1. 'How much', said in a shocked voice, swiftly followed by John, Sue or Bob only charges a fraction of that, I wouldn't like to pay that much.
2. 'I wouldn't pay that much' you can buy paintings for £10 at .......
3.  I like the ones painted by the artist over there better.
4.  Why do you paint cats they're horrible animals (insert animal of choice for cat, I've had the same comment for dogs, horses, birds etc)
5.  My friend, wife, sister etc is really good, said while looking at your art then walking away with a slight shake of the head.
6.  Why would anyone want to hang a painting of an animal on their wall.
7.  If I had the time I could paint like you
8. Are you using crayons, I used to use those at school . (if I'm using coloured pencils)
9. It's like painting by numbers
10.  How long has it taken to paint that (perfectly reasonable question) but after telling them 100 plus hours they follow it up with, it only takes John, Sue or Bob 10 hours and they're really good.

Exhibitions - The Hanging Dilemma

So far this year I've entered five exhibitions/shows and at four of them I'll have my own stand.

Each year I try to improve on my display so that I show my work to the best possible advantage.
In previous years I've used velcro to attach prints to the exhibition panels. This works well but because of the weight it is only possible to display mounted/matted not framed prints. Even so if the marquee is on grass the damp sometimes causes prints to fall off, usually at night which means the paper buckles by the time they're rescued in the morning.

This year I decided to look for a hanging system so that I can display framed prints and originals, this didn't turn out to be quite as easy as I thought.
I had to make sure that whatever system I went for didn't damage the exhibition panels and obviously I couldn't fix to the wall or ceiling. My initial searches only turned up fixed systems which were either wall or ceiling mounted. It was only when I had a lightbulb moment and entered 'exhibition picture hanging'into the search engine that I started to find what I was looking for.

I settled on using picturehanging.co.uk who were very helpful in sorting out what I needed. This was just as well because I was totally confused when I initially looked at what was available.

I did need to email the exhibition organisers to ask the width of the panels as the screen hooks are made to measure. I also needed to weigh a picture and calculate a total weight per cord.

When everything arrives I'll have a practice run and post some pictures just in case anyone else has the same dilemma.

Back in The UK

We had a fabulous time in Canada but all good things come to an end and we're now back home. It was nice to see the family, both human and canine and to sleep in my own bed.

I'm feeling jet lagged, although this holiday all the flights were on time and our luggage arrived at the same destination as us.


I got a lot of good reference material, bears, moose, elk etc, but this little ground squirrel holding his grass is one of my favourites.

It appeared a young animal as its attempts to get the stalks of grass were only successful about one in five times. It would leap in the air, grab at the grass and more often than not miss, but when it did succeed boy was it happy.

Back to the art tomorrow, although I'll be at the Cheshire game Fair next Saturday, Sunday and Monday, more details tomorrow.