Preparing for the holiday season
Even though it’s still the beginning of October, I’ve begun to seriously think about the holiday season and what I need to prepare. I would consider this my ~first~ holiday season as an artist even though I participated in one holiday fair last year. I think this year, I am putting most of my efforts into in-person events, but I will continue to try to sell my art via my website and market via Instagram.
What I’m working on
I applied to two more art fairs and have already heard back from one of them. I’ll be vending at the West Cliff Holiday Outdoor Market in Santa Cruz on Friday, November 25 and Saturday, November 26th from 10-4pm both days.
I’m preparing the 12”x16” paintings to be photographed for prints. I’ll be getting prints made for them to be available on my website and at the art fairs.
I’ve been painting these 4”x4” canvases that I’ve had since 2020. I’ve been inspired by an artist I follow, Brooke Cormier, who is doing a “Project Clearout” where she is painting all the canvases she has in her studio to clear out some space. I figured I should do the same thing, since I want to be painting larger paintings moving forward, but I have a bunch of smaller canvases.
I landed on creating a pegboard display that will sit in front of my table for smaller booth setups. I got all the materials and “built” it, which really consisted of minimal wood cutting and screwing things into place.
Inputs
I finished reading The Practice by Seth Godin. I find it pretty motivating and I think it’s a book that I’ll probably buy and refer to when I feel unmotivated.
Outputs
I just got back home in California earlier this week. I’ve been trying to get my art business things in order to be as prepared as I can for art fairs. I’m flying out to Joshua Tree tomorrow and will be spending two weeks there, so my October is mostly gone! I’m looking forward to hiking, sunrises and sunsets, and spending time with friends! Maybe I’ll have some nice sunrise and sunset paintings that come out of this trip.
