On the 19th January I was lucky enough to be one of the 70 selected artists chosen to exhibit at the international art fair in London run by Artrooms. I’ve spent the last 4 months of my life gearing myself up for this 1 weekend and I think I can safely say all the effort has paid off!
Artrooms is the only organisations to run art fairs which are free to the artists. Their ethos is to create a meeting point for curators, galleries and collectors with emerging, talented artists from around the word. The utilise the gorgeous Melia White House Hotel on Regents park for 4 days, and each artist gets their own hotel room to turn into a mini, intimate gallery space.
Over a thousand artists applied, and a carefully selected panel of judges then selected 70 artists to be part of the exhibition. I had 4 months to prepare, and knowing the great opportunity this could be for me, I decided to fully focus all my effort over those 4 months for this single weekend. I worked closely with the organisers throughout those 4 months, and was provided with a curator who helped enormously to focus on particular types of my art, prices, room layout etc. I’m still in awe of how well run this event is and how much the organisers support the artists!
The 4 days were intense! I had 1 day to set up, then the private view started on the Friday evening, where a total of 1500 galleries, press and art collectors visited each artists’ room over a 4 hour period. The following 3 days the fair was opened up to the general public, and I had a constant stream of people coming into my room to talk to me and view my art. I brought a box of unison pastels and a work in progress piece to show people what pastel painting is like; and one of the things I enjoyed most was opening up people’s eyes to the possibilities of pastels and talking to them about what a fantastic, tactile and immediate medium this is. Of all the 70 artists exhibiting, I was the only pastel artist, so it felt good to represent the medium.
Was it worth it? I met an enormous number of people from around the country, had amazing feedback on my art, and sold 6 originals, 4 of which got bought by a major at gallery in Mayfair to take to an international art fait in Bologna Italy. It’s opened avenues for me I wouldn’t have dreamed possible. I met artists who had travelled from all around the world, exchanged ideas on art, and I’ve come away feeing more inspired and connected than ever.
