Jan 31 2017….AndyKnillArt started
Realistically, could I sell some of my art? It took until Feb 20 for that to happen for the first time. But I thought I would look back at some of the figures over the last five years.
Blogging
Www.AndyKnillArt.com has been the home of my blog about the art business.
In 2021 I set myself the target of trying to get 300 or more post reads each month and was successful averaging usually in excess of 400 views.
Sales
This splits into three main categories:
Greetings cards, Prints and Original pieces
Over those five years I have sold:
Greetings cards – just over 5,500 of which 2000 have been from my Christmas card series.
Prints – 235 mainly A4 size but now some A3 ones too.
Original art pieces – 298 of which 68 have been commissioned pieces
Based
I have been based in an outbuilding where we rented on Houns Tout for an Open Studio for Purbeck Art Weeks in 2017 to 2019.
I was a bay holder at Purbeck Artisan Yard in Wareham for 2.5 years.
I shared a shop in Swanage for 22 months.
I have had my own sole studio / shop in Swanage for 5 months.
Conclusion
It’s going quite well to be honest. The key aspect is that the art needs to still be fun for me and act as my therapy to switch off when I need to. On the one occasion when that was threatened I changed where I was working from.
I love the studio / shopkeeper role. I enjoy being a source of local information about art classes, where local shops / cafes are to be found, water safety for venturing out on the sea, where different well-being offers are available locally.
I am able to be completely open about how my mental health played a part in bringing me to be doing art and I share that through my free Art for fun activity that I run from the shop and have done so previously in PAW as an open studio and in events at PAY.
I get to act like a big kid in my hand drawn boiler suits, hand decorated pith helmet and my array of hand drawn signs to advertise the shop.
So the good news is…
AndyKnillArt is not going anywhere, I am here to stay based in Swanage. I am already entered for PAW2022.
Many, many thanks to all that visit, encourage and support through buying some of my art. The biggest thanks goes of course to Anne who has been there supporting me since the idea started after our Purbeck plan changed only 2 weeks into her moving down here.
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