My first art auction

As you know, Covid is causing us all to have to think creatively and do things differently. Normally at this time of year I host a Christmas Open Studio event with art, mulled wine and mince pies. However due to lock down here in the UK I’ve needed to try something new and move everything on line, and I thought you’d like to hear about it.

Art Exhibition in my homE

Instead of sharing recent work this time I decided to do a bit of a spring clean, as my storage space for art is full. So my focus for this was on pieces that were created a few years ago.
I decided to still have an art exhibition in my home and studio, despite, not being allowed to invite anyone in and I created a live video tour to share my work.

Art auction

For the first time, I thought I would try running this exhibition as a secret auction, where people could pay whatever they wished, with no reserve prices (although I did reserve the right to refuse bids for any reason). I set up an auction page on my website with the 12 pieces I’d selected and another page explaining how it all worked. I showed the normal prices that these paintings sold for and details about their size etc. I even offered free shipping and gift wrapping! Each painting had a ‘place a bid’ button which took people through to a google form where they placed their bids.

 I started the auction with a Private View evening where my subscribers had exclusive early access to take a look and start bidding.

Then I shared images of each painting in the auction during the week on social media and drew attention to the final day with a live art demo and chat. See above for the art I made in the demo.

What I learnt doing an art auction for the first time

I found this event a steep learning curve but was really pleased with how it went. I sold 8 out of the 12 paintings, and had a few other sales from my sites from people coming to take a look through the auction.
I learnt a number of new things through this event, from how to use Google Forms, to live tours and art demos with Streamyard, sharing my screen. To be honest, it felt quite a vulnerable way to sell my art and I was really thankful that it was a secret bid at the start incase no bids came in!

Behind the scenes of art demo

Would I do it again?

I think the biggest thing I’ve learnt is that having an event to work towards, gives you something positive to focus on and to talk about! I ended up reaching SO many more people through doing this on line than I would have done doing it just locally - in fact I will make sure that I include an online element in my future events even once Covid has gone.
I will probably do an auction again at some point but not for a number of years, I feel this type of thing works best as a one off special. But I will definitely be using all the things I learnt through this experience as I look to plan what’s next.

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What adjusts and learning curves has 2020 brought for you?