The Thriving Artist - Making a Living
The ultimate joy for someone who loves creating is to be able to spend their whole time doing it and having the freedom to create according to how they feel inspired on the day. In actuality, how many artists actually have that? Let's face it, in order to develop a full time income as an artist you either have to be so in demand that you can charge 1000's for one piece of work or, if you are like most of us you have to be creative about the creative ways you can develop an income. Many of the current day successful artists also teach and the best ones get paid to travel the world teaching and painting. Oh my goodness! That is my dream. So, I am branching out! I have always enjoyed teaching and coaching and firmly believe that if you understand how to structure a training programme you can teach anything. I recently ran my first pastel taster workshop. I was delighted that the four ladies on my workshop were happy enough with their pictures that they paid the additional money for a frame to take them home in. At the weekend I have another one for six people and am also signed up to tutor a couple of Summer workshops at Create98, our local hub for creative activities. I am very excited about that. In order to be invited to teach on the well known course circuit, travel the world and be able to charge a premium for your work you have to have a certain pedigree. Either as a member of one of the National Art Societies or to have won awards, have a book published or have had major solo exhibitions. An Art Society Membership requires you to have been exhibited at their annual exhibition at least three times. It's a competitive world and places in these exhibitions are very sought after. You do often hear people say there is no point applying and it's costly to boot. Some of them requiring £30 to submit each painting. It's a complicated old world. For me, I am just going to focus on creating work, sharing the joy by teaching it to others and learning from the people who are already successful. Art Society Membership? I would love to!!
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