January

Well the First Coast Pastel Society is now two years old. We had our first official meeting in January 2012. We've done a lot in the last two years - we are now a member of IAPS, we've had two member shows (one juried and one open to all), we've hosted workshops with Kathleen Galligan and Michael Chesley Johnson. We have an upcoming workshop with Casey Klahn and another juried member show.

Alas, your faithful blogger, however, had an issue at home that prevented me from attending the kickoff meeting for the year, so I've had to rely on comments from other attendees about the meeting, and our topic of discussion: : "Paint what you love or pain to sell?"

So some impressions from the meeting:

About 12-15 paintings were examined. Suggestions made mostly about frames, matting to encourage sales. Found that everyone raised their hands when asked if they painted for pleasure. Discussed pricing particularly area pricing. Our area is lower than other parts of country. Stories shared. We said we needed more discussions of marketing.

We noted that pricing is very regional. Do we undersell ourselves?

Do we sell low to keep work moving?

Do you paint for potential sales, like giving donations for charities, piece to friends?

100% said we paint what we love, not what sells.

We all said we paint more to get recognized than to make a living (very hard!!!)

Lyn suggested that if we get posts from PSA painters and see something we like, go to their website and see how they price things.

Make decisions about who is your market

Possibly offer prints as a lower cost alternative. Carron is attending an event on Tuesday and will get info about getting prints made.

We discussed what can legitimately be called a "giclee"

Lyn suggested we get a "thick skin" regarding people's comments about our work.

Discussion of framing for a gallery vs a juried competition. Show framing is different from gallery framing. What is your objective? Richard McKinley says the frame is “the dressing on your painting”.

Mat and frame should not be same width. If you do not use a mat, use a wide frame.

Stay tuned to this space for more details about our upcoming plein air day at Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, our interesting March meeting, our workshop with Casey Klahn, and our member show in May!