Yesterday was my first ever artist demo at The Fernie Arts Station. Being a beautiful Saturday afternoon I was not surprised that the audience was small, but that was probably a good thing as I wasn’t nervous and they were nice with no heckling! I was surprised how quickly the 2 hours went by, initially thinking I would wrap it up early, but did not.
What worked well:
I did the demo in a similar fashion to the baking shows. I had 3 canvases of the same size. One was just a gessoed and toned ‘blank’, the second had a completed under painting and the third was the fully finished version.
I started with my blank toned canvas and described how I prepped the canvas. Then I showed my sketchbook and talked about my drawings and studies for prepping and planning
I began the drawing on the canvas with diluted oils and got half way done, then asked if they had enough and wanted me to move on to painting. UNANIMOUS yes.
Hmmm... it was a good time to throw in a joke - why did Van Gogh become a painter? Because He didn’t have an ear for music. GROANS. Moving on.
Started the darks and shadows first with thinned oil paint. Then mixed up sky colour, then lightest grass colour and covered the largest areas first. Then tackled the house and soon enough time was up.There were of course questions throughout which I hope I answered without babbling too much. I think I would sometimes go off on tangents but hope they got their questions answered. I showed the completed version earlier on in response to a question.
I think I would be good to go if I ever had to do another demo someday. The pre-planned and finished painting steps worked well for me, as there were no surprises. I do like to plan ahead!
All in all a positive experience for me, hope it was okay for the audience. It would be worthwhile having someone video the talk so I could cringe and watch it all later to see what was working best. Many thanks to Jackie at the Arts Station and the women that attended!
Fernie Arts Station
Photo courtesy of Jackie from the Arts Station
