The French love expositions, artistic ones, wool fairs, potatoes fairs, poultry fairs, if it’s a rural, local pastime, there will over the long summer and into autumn, be an event occurring in a quaint little village. Our area is no exception and this year has been a good year with Crocq, Auzances, Orsenne, and just in a month Nouhant expositions providing me with much needed art exposure and a little income too. France is expensive and with rarely ability to carry your UK profession accross the water, most of us fall back on hobbies we once had and try to step them up to being more commercial.

Luckily a friend of mine is quite on the ball and with a little work on the local Marie, has managed to acquire for us a cute little empty shop in the famous village of St Severe, where Jacques Tati filmed Jour De Fete playing the tipsy Postman. Although my attelier in Gouzon is almost laid out for courses and gallery, there is still alot of niggling work to be done and boxes to unpack. This shop, open weekly on market day, will give our little art group the focus it needs and hopefully some exposure of our skills. We are a mixed bunch, doing glassworks, wirework, fabric printing, cards and craft items. We start early November and I can’t wait! More photos next week ♡

I finished designing a set of tea-towels with bees and fish on and my favorite Pipi Gingham design and found a great printers in UK called Wraptious. Their quality if not their lead times, were great. Large sized and well stitched, until I can sew my own, they priced low enough for me to make a small margin based on our local markets economy.

Passing through a tidy of my hard drive, I came across a few files of floral and tree photos. Rather than living in computer obscurity, I took them out. A little tidy on Photoshop and I suddenly had sixteen very presentable prints. I print all my own work, add mounts and cellophane wrap and currently supply my bird artvto Queens Street Gallery in Neath, South Wales and RIVA Concept Store in La Chatre, Creuse in France. Its a slow start, but I hope over the following year to produce another good body of work, both illustrative and photo.

I designed a few cards too for the autumn and winter markets. I was impressed with Wraptious again, re quality of paper stock. Unfortunately with Brexit, my large, and rather heavyweight carton cost me €20 in Custom fees! This eats away at the bottom line, so my next set of cards, a small run had to go via Vistaprint, printed in EU and thus no extra import fees. The Brexit issue has hit delivery costs hard and many of us get art supplies from the UK. Creuse is a rural area too without the popularity that the chateau areas provide, so making an income from art is tougher.

But some more good news. Today I head off to a popular town nearby, Aubusson to install my work for a trial four month run at a prominent craft shop there. Aubusson is the famous UNESCO tapestry town and throughout summer and early autumn, has a real buzz of tourism. Its a good place to show work. I feel a little nervous and Tony coming with me to help install tables and help with layout, and calm me down. I always feel anxious with new things and I want this to go right.