September 2014, well, what a month….
… Around 200 visitors trekked out to our little corner of Hertfordshire to visit the six of us at The Stables who opened our doors as part of Herts Open Studios. If you don’t know what Open Studios is, it’s basically artists who open their homes, working studios, or an exhibition space once a year, show their work and have the opportunity to chat with the public about their work. Each artist has their own opening times throughout the three weeks Open Studios runs for, which is promoted by Herts Visual Arts. This year, there were 154 artists who participated across Hertfordshire, with 27 artists throughout our local area of Dacorum.
We chose to open every day at The Stables, as there were six of us to cover the opening times, it was exhausting, sometimes with spells of no visitors, then you would get a rush all at once, (normally as soon as I got all the messy stuff out!). As long as you make the most of the quiet times, sometimes to work, sometimes to rest and reflect, personally, I found it to be an incredibly positive experience.
I was delighted at the interest in encaustic wax, there are many many people in the ‘love it’ camp , and I had a lot of people sign up for more information and dates for the wax workshops I run. I sold quite a few pieces of work and since it finished have run two wax workshops, and have more dates booked later in the month. (There are still some wax workshop dates available, click here for details.)
We had some amazing people come and visit us, their stories always fascinate me, it can be such a small world sometimes when you get chatting to someone who knows your neighbours in Cornwall, or lived in the same street, or worked at the same company. You get to see their faces when they see a piece of work, which they love, and ‘just have to have it’ that’s an amazing feeling and it all makes for a unique experience which you don’t often get if you exhibit in a gallery or as part of an exhibition. So, there you go, that’s what I love about Open Studios, I think most Counties have their own versions of “Open Studios”, so next time you see a sign with an arrow saying ‘Studio Open’ in your area, go and have a nose and see what treasures and stories you can find.
I will leave you with a few comments from my visitors book…..
“Love the textures / colours of your encaustic wax work”
“Really unusual and lovely”
“A wealth of artistic talent, a super studio – (and a nice coffee!) – lovely”
“Very interesting, lovely person”
“Good Luck in all your ventures!”
“Very inspiring, thank you”
“Interested in wax courses and dates please!”
“Wonderful, just love your work xx :D”
I paid them all on the way out…. ;0) Hope to see you next year….. Julie. x
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