Waxhaw Festival

OK, this past weekend was my first art festival and it was in Waxhaw, NC. It wasn't a fine art festival; it was more like a general festival with crafts, kids stuff, organizations, etc. In the 'fine art' section, there were 4 potters, 4 jewelry booths, 2 woodworking booths and a metal smith, who had some cool stuff.

I sold one original painting, one framed print and about 15 packs of note cards. I was approached by two gallery owners to make an appointment to show my work. I had 28 people sign up to be part of my mailing list. I had 57 hits on my web site over the weekend. For the first one, I consider it a success.

Everyone paid cash so I never used the credit card services I signed up for, but I'd rather be prepared than lose a sale. The display panels I had made were great. As you can see in the photos above, they were nice and airy, almost like a screened room. Visitors commented on how professional it looked and that it was nice and cool inside my tent. For the Raleigh festival next weekend, I'll set up lights to brighten it up inside. I'm very happy with my panels and they were relatively easy to set up by myself. Sunday, the wind was gusting a bit now and again but my paintings didn't move very much.

Note Cards

One thing I saw when walking the booths at Charlotte's Festival in the Park was that almost all of the artists, whether painters or photographers, had a bin or basket full of note cards. Good idea! I found it super easy to print my own note cards using my computer. Of course, the first step was to photograph my paintings, which i had already done. Then using a photo software program, I had to crop them so that they had nice clean edges. I did this with Microsoft's Picture It, which I've had for years.

Then I used Microsoft Publisher to do the rest. I found the correct card size and fold settings and imported the image, wrote the title of the piece on the back and printed it on note card stock. I set my printer on the best printing setting and used Avery Note Cards.

They look great but how much do they cost me to make? It's easy to figure that out. The note cards at Staples cost $22.41 including tax and there are 60 cards with envelopes in the pack, so that's $0.37 each. The ink costs $40.55 and I can print about 287 cards before it starts looking poor, so that's $0.14 each for a total of $0.51 per card so far. I also needed clear, sealable bags to put the cards in and I found some at ClearBags.com. 100 for $13.00, that's $0.13 each.

If I put 4 cards in a clear envelope, that's $0.51 x 4 plus $0.13, for a total of $2.17 per 4 pack.

I have a bunch printed, bagged and ready to go. I'll let you know if they sell.

Taking Credit Cards

Please visit my web site http://www.cherisimmons.com/

I've read enough about artists at art festivals to know that I should take credit card payments. When I sell on EBay, it's easy...I take PayPal. Would this work for me out in the field? I was sure that if I had a wireless card for my laptop, that I could have the PayPal web site open on my laptop and that people could simply use their credit cards on PayPal's web site to 'send' me money for a purchase. But I quickly discovered that even though this is possible, it requires the purchaser to create a PayPal account and I didn't see that as an option.

I needed another way. As luck would have it, the September issue of Sunshine Artist Magazine had an article about different artists and their experience taking credit cards. After reading it and researching more on-line, I decided to call Chase Paymentech. I saw one of their brochures in our local BJ's store. After speaking to the sales rep, I signed up. My transaction fees would be as follows: 1.69% for Visa & MC credit cards, 1.67% for Visa & MC check cards plus $0.15 per transaction. No monthly fees, no contracts, no application fees and during a special September promotion for BJ's customers they would waive the first 3 months of transaction fees. Perfect! Since my first 2 festivals are both in October, my trial period for art festivals would be transaction free.

I filled out the required paperwork and was approved for a merchant account the next day. The following day, an investigator came to the house to make sure I was who I said I was, and to view my art or product.

The next day, I had telephone training on how to process credit card payments via my cell phone...very easy to do, by the way. I originally thought I wanted a wireless credit card terminal but I was told that to purchase one it was $890 and the other option was to lease one for a minimum of 36 months at $40 per month. That sounds too steep for me right now.

I'll let you know if I have any problems.

Display Panels

Please visit my web site www.cherisimmonsart.com.

I already had a 10'x10' EzUp canopy but I had to figure out a way to hang my paintings from it. I went to Charlotte's Festival in the Park and looked at all the artists booths, took photos and asked questions. Then went home and researched my options on the internet. A lot of artists were using ProPanels, the carpeted display panels that stand upright. They looked nice, very professional. They are also heavy and pricey. Some Artists had free-standing wire grid display panels with fabric covers. The biggest thing I didn't care for with these was that they had feet that stuck out into the booth by 10-12" or so. I imagined potential customers and me kicking & tripping over the these.

I saw a few who were using fabric panels and decided that was the way to go. There were two different kinds of fabric panels, those that looked like mesh and those that looked like canvas. I decided against the canvas because if I were going to use hooks to hang my paintings, then I would have punctures in my new panels. Mesh is the way to go. I found a couple of companies through on-line research that offered mesh panels but they were kind of pricey also; about $600 if I remember correctly.

I called up a friend of mine who makes boat canvases. I showed him my photos and we talked about how it could be done. He showed me fabric samples of good, sturdy outdoors fabrics and we decided on something called Textaline. Oh, I also wanted the panels in black because I frame all my paintings in gold-leaf Plein Air frames and think this will show them off the best. He ordered the fabric yesterday and should start construction on the panels in the next couple of days. I'll let you know how they come out. I'll also show you photos of the finished panels.

The beginning...

I'm an oil painter. I paint landscapes, mostly and I just started seriously in March of 2007. Since I'm so new at it, I didn't expect much success right away. However, I've decided that I enjoy it enough that I want to try to make it a full time career. and I recently acquired my first Collector. It's extremely flattering to have a Collector. I also won my first award, an Honorable Mention with the first painting I exhibited (Rock Valley Road) and I was thrilled! This is also the first painting that my Collector purchased. She also bought the next 2 paintings I exhibited six months later. Then she bought a 4th painting a couple of months after that. Wow!

Rock Valley Road, Hana Malia Cottage, Red Dirt Sail, Oak Island Lighthouse

Last month, I decided to build my own web site and after quite a bit of research, I went with BlueVoda so I could build and manage my own. Cheri Simmons Art web site.

I'm happy with it so far. So, I've been painting a lot and have a web site but I needed to figure out how to show my paintings to more people. I applied to 2 juried art festivals and to my surprise, I was accepted into both!

The first one is in Waxhaw, NC and it's called Autumn Treasures, Sat & Sun Oct 11 & 12, 2008.

The second one is in Raleigh, NC and it's called Artplosure, Arts Alive on Lichtin Plaza and it's Sat & Sun Oct 18 & 19, 2008.

I have a lot of prep to do so that my booth looks as professional as possible without spending too much money...after all, I don't know if this is going to be a profitable venue for me. It is for some artists because a good number of them travel all around the country exhibiting at fine art festivals.

I'll keep you posted on what I've done to get ready and how it goes.