First Exhibition Success

I was totally blown away by the success of my first solo exhibition which, to be fair, wasn't really an 'official' exhibition. It was the opportunity to put 30 of my paintings on the wall of the Cafe/Bar in our local town Community Centre and invite people for drinks. The morning after the pictures went up I had a phone call from a lady asking to buy one of them. My first sale to strangers. I was delighted! After emailing them the details I heard nothing and the voice of doubt crept in! "They must have changed their mind" ...but no, it was just an email glitch. So my first sale from the exhibition was confirmed. I was so happy! It wasn't about the money, it was the validation of having someone else like my work enough to want it on their wall on a daily basis. That made me very happy! I think of my art as uplifting and that is a word I heard someone use to describe them. Oh the joy! We had two weeks to promote the open evening where we were inviting people to come along and have a look. I was posting on facebook and instagram a different daily image publicising the event. I had 72 people interested and 12 saying they were coming. On the morning of the event I had a message from an old school friend who had seen the pictures and wanted to reserve a couple. Yay! On the night we actually had 50 people turn up for the open evening, a mix of friends and family mostly with some new faces too. One forgets how public facebook is and how people watch and engage with your journey. I think it is rather lovely that so many people who had watched my faltering attempts on facebook over the previous 18 months were interested enough to come along. It was wonderful to feel so supported. I saw friends & family I hadn't seen in ages so it was a lovely social event. I certainly haven't found my niche/style yet, which meant I had an eclectic range of oils, pastels and acrylics varying in size and style. Surprisingly this worked really well, people liked the variety. I suppose if I had a specific style then it would have only attracted people who like that type of thing. So maybe I will just continue to paint what I love and hope others love them too. I was totally blown away by how the evening went. I sold 20 of my paintings in total over the evening and weekend with 5 commissions requested and a pastel workshop. Well I love teaching and sharing the joy with others so I will really look forward to that. The whole event couldn't have gone any better. Most of the pictures are listed now on my website as sold but if anyone sees anything they like and it isn't available I am more than happy to recreate it, offer a print or create something else of their choice e.g. from a holiday photo like my french ones. It is very hard starting out doing some like this with no history or credibility. Art is so subjective and can also be quite snobby so I had not had the courage to put myself out there in art circles but 'fortune favours the brave'. Well it certainly did for me this time. I am one very happy bunny and I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the support.