Too Much Craziness! (What I learned at the latest festival)

"Crazy Dog" 4.5 x 6in. Pastel on Paper
Click here to buy print (postcard just under $2, greeting card just under $2.50):
http://www.redbubble.com/people/nikihilsabeck/art/7054584-crazy-dog-pastel





Haven't painted anything new in a couple weeks, so I thought I would start small to warm back up-- this is a quick portrait of my sister's very energetic little dog. It kind of sums up how I've been feeling these last couple weeks, with so many shows happening at once.




The final car on the crazy train was last Sunday's Avocado festival. This was my first time participating, and it was in a brand new section called "Avenue of the Arts." My sister (the lone organizer in the family) helped me through the whole process, and if she hadn't been there I would have left in tears at 7:30 in the morning. Actually, I don't think I would have even been able to pack up the car on my own. Here are a few things I learned from Sunday's experience:




1) Be early. We were there exactly on time, and still had to negotiate space. One guy literally pulled up right after us and parked his car on our booth space. Had we already had the tent up, he might have been discouraged.




2) Bring a trusted person to help you. It's important to take breaks, and my sister and I noticed that people were more comfortable approaching us when just one of us was sitting alone in the booth.




3) Get some sleep! I made the mistake of getting up at midnight to finish some preparations, intending to go back to bed in a couple hours. Midnight quickly stretched into two, three, four o'clock, and before I knew it I was jumping in the shower to get ready to leave. Needless to say, I was less than personable by 2:00 in the afternoon.




4) Provide incentive to enter your booth. My sister (who has a reputation for thinking of everything and being well-prepared) set up an attractive water station, complete with ice and lemons. This drew in quite a few people thanks to the hot weather, and gave them a chance to look around. Music is also a good conversation piece, as long as it adds to a friendly atmosphere in your booth.




5) 10 feet by 10 feet is a small space! Just a few people in the booth can make it crowded, which discourages passersby from coming in to look. It's fun to get visits from family and friends, just make sure you leave room for your potential customers to feel comfortable entering the booth.




The text from my sister the next morning said it all: "I feel like I got hit by a truck." Running a booth at a festival is hard, physical work. The breakdown and setup require strength and patience (and a sense of humor). It's also rough on the ego-- people walking by will say all kinds of things, both nice and nasty. I enjoyed the times people ran in to look at a particular piece (maybe not excited enough to make an instant purchase, but it was still flattering). I also enjoyed making some new contacts, and feel much more prepared for future festivals.




This brings me to my last, most important tip: take a little time to enjoy the festival itself. I've gone to the avocado festival for years, and always love the avocado ice cream. I took a break toward the end of the day to walk with my daughter all the way through the festival just to find the avocado gelato cart, and enjoyed watching her smear it all over her face and dance around the booth with glee. This was the high point of a long tiring day, and the memory I'll treasure most.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inspired by Light (Pastels on Canvas)

Image
"Morning Glow" 12 x 16 Chalk Pastel on Flat Canvas Email nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com if interested in purchasing Been trying to get back into the daily painting routine, which for me either means a small painting a day, or a larger painting spread over two days.  It's a bit of a challenge with the growing belly and a very inquisitive firstborn, but I was lucky enough to get a little extra inspiration from an odd source: Sunday's eclipse. We have beautiful views of the canyon and hills behind us, and I watched the light change on this hill as the sunlight waned throughout the course of the eclipse.  I noted how the normally stunning lights and shadows on this hill were blunted by the general darkening (as opposed to the usual sunrise or sunset glow).  I thought I would be a little more appreciative of those lights and darks and try a painting of the trees and hills the next morning. I completed this painting in several steps, having struggled a little recent...
Read more

Painting Cats

Image
"The Bookeeper" Click here to view auction After many years of painting cats, I've learned a few things.  Every time I start a new cat painting, it follows its own unique path, bringing challenges that I don't seem to face when I paint my more traditional material (landscapes, birds, floral and botanical pieces, etc.) For example, cats don't stay put for too long (unless they're asleep, and even then they'll often stretch and change positions when you're least expecting it).  To combat this challenge, I end up working mostly from photographs.  That means adjusting the proportions, since the camera angle causes some distortion depending on the position and location of the cat. "Eye Contact" Oil Pastel Not for Sale "Side Glance" Oil Pastel Available on Etsy  One of the reasons cats are enjoyable to paint is that they have strong facial expressions.  When I'm painting a cat, I get so focused on rendering the cat...
Read more

A Hot Mess of Water Lilies!

Image
"Balboa Water Lilies" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or purchase So, every time I take great photos to paint later it turns into a learning experience for me. We took a little day trip in September down to Balboa Park in San Diego, California.  There wasn't much left of the water lilies after some recent vandalism (a bunch of geniuses decided to have a water gun fight and ended up destroying the lilypond).  It was a strangely hot day for downtown San Diego-- part of a series of heat waves that dogged me throughout the last months of my pregnancy.  I was thrilled to get some pretty photos while down there, particularly of the lilypads and turtles. I love to paint water, but I forget how time consuming it can be.  There are lots of layers involved, and I ended up using fixative as I layered in the lights and darks in this piece.  I also didn't anticipate how difficult it is to depict those peaceful, floating lilypads.  Af...
Read more