Arranged in advance, after finding the venue on Instagram, and then seeing it for real when we visited Bruton in the summer, No. 6 Bruton High street was a great venue and a great experience. It is an unusual venue as the owner, Clare, has kindly aloud artists to use it for free. She passed the management of it over to Ali who communicates and arranges things.

Having sold a fair few originals at the show in Somerton just before Christmas it was a worry that I wouldn’t have enough pieces to fill the space, but it turned out to be okay, as I had framed a few Limited Editions of the ones that had sold. I did the hanging myself as well as the manging and take down, all without major incident I’m glad to say. The space, as you can see from the pictures had a large front window, it easily fitted three of my pictures, the main one being the now sold ‘Through the windscreen’ with kind permission of the owners, it proved to have been a good move as it directly drew in a few visitors. Inside it was fairly small, with two hanging walls and a fireplace on another. The owner has her office in the room behind so we agreed that I would be quiet if I saw the lights on and she was using it, but she didn’t and I was able to have gentle music on while there.

I had a fair few visitors after a very poor start. I was open Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the two weeks. On the first Friday I only had two visitors, but it meant I got a lot done on a pastel drawing I’m currently doing, but the rest of the days I had between 15 – 30 visitors each day. Surprisingly though, no sales, not event a Limited edition, so I’m not getting something right or my work isn’t good enough. I will ponder that over the next few weeks. But I did meet wonderful people, artists and collectors and passers by. I got a load more followers on Instagram and a lot of hits on my web site, so it was well worth it. So far though, nothing converting to a sale! A lot to think about.