On The Easel

Years ago, when I first began to pursue art as a career, I was showing my work at anywhere from 16 to 20 art shows a year. I never really had a problem filling up the calendar with shows but I was finding that the highest quality shows were very difficult to get into. I was lamenting this frustration to a fellow artist who had been successfully jurying into these type of shows for twenty years and he let me in on a few little secrets he had learned as the result of being a judge at many of the very shows I wanted to get into.

Ab The Flag Man

The competition today is very stiff. So what he shared with me may not get your work into every show you would like but to ignore his 20 years of wisdom will set you up for failure even if your work is the top of the lot.

10 Secrets For Getting Into Art Shows

Understand the realities of the jurying process - This is just simply a matter of math. If 2000 artist have entered the contest and the jury has 4 hours to decide on a group of 300 artist how many seconds will they be able to spend looking at each artists work? I came up with 7.2 seconds. In the larger shows you can expect your art to be seen for no more than 10 seconds. All the secrets that follow are a strategy that accepts this reality.
Red - It doesn't have to be a lot and it doesn't have to be overwhelming but think fire trucks, stop signs, brake lights and little red dresses. We have been culturally programed to pay attention to the color red. On the other had blues and greens trigger the response of sitting back in a chair while enjoying a cocktail.
The 50' Rule - You never know under what circumstances the jury is going to be viewing your work. In the old days it was done with a room full of slide projectors. So if your work does not make a statement from 30 to 50 feet away you are probably not going to make it to the next round of judging (if there is one).
Simplicity or Grand Complexity - Simple subjects with bold and clear communication have the best chance of catching someones eye in 10 seconds. The exception to this would be a type of work that is so complex that it can't help but cause awe in the viewer. What you don't want is work that falls somewhere in between these to extremes. If they need time to understand the paintings value they will already be looking at the next artists work.
Bold and Confident - This is an area that I have to repeat again and again with my art students. The way in which you apply the paint communicates something to your viewer. A bold and confident brush stroke communicates a bold and confident artist. One of the stunning realities of the contemporary art world is that you can have bad drawing, bad color, bad composition and bad taste but if you do it in a bold way people will love it. Bold will communicate in 10 seconds. Sublime will get lost in the frenzy.
Consistency - The work you present to the jury should be very consistent. You should be able to hang them all together on the same wall and know that the quality and artistry are the same. Even a similar color scheme will be helpfulGreat Photo's - In this day and age there is simply no reason to have great photo's. Wining it with your photo's is crazy when there is so much useful information on photography all over the web. Here's some help: Burdick / Sachi
Know Your Show - Sometimes it can take several years of applying in order to figure this out but often there ares some obvious clues. If you are applying to a show that is put on by a major corporation, that buys art for it's collection at the show, you need to think in terms of what do they want hanging on their walls. You may be the best "cute puppy dog" painter on the planet but most corporate collections don't have cute puppy dogs hanging on their walls. The two best ways to find out what a show is looking for is by either attending it or by getting some solid advice from an artist that has been in the show for several years.
Price - This point may only apply to outdoor shows and festivals but every show has some type of price profile that can be determined by doing #8. For outdoor public festivals the powers that be are usually looking for price variety. Something that everyone can buy and something that only a few can buy. Know your show is the key to this as well.
Everything is Important - You've got to be a perfectionist when going through the application process. I know for a fact that there are shows I did not get into because I did not consider by display photo to be that big of a deal. When you are up against thousand of others brilliant artists the details become very important.

The girls hate that I gave up the art show gigs

For the sake of your own mental health you must also remember that there are tens of thousands of outstanding artists and craftsmen out there. Even with the perfect application of these ten secrets, you will not get into every show you want to without persistence and patience, but these little tips will greatly improve your chances.

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What style do I not paint in? Good question. For years I have tried to fight the fact that what and how I paint depends to a large degree on my mood. I don't fight it anymore and the results are a great opportunity. For myself it is an opportunity to do a type of painting that is very close to the same endorphin rush I get while sipping a hot cup of coffee on a cool morning. For you it provides you with the opportunity to buy original works of art that cost less than most prints. Why do I keep the prices so low? Because I think it would be cool to have a "Kelley Tree" in every house in America. With that as a goal I should never run out of things to do!

So you can see these little guys at our family creative blog: Yepper-Doodle-Dandy!

Here is what they look like just in case you have not noticed the Etsy store on the left.