Artists Bio.

I just finished mocking up my Short Biography for "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" tonight.
I think its important to write a fresh bio for each exhibition and have it laminated (it just looks so much better laminated!) There is normally some new "News" you can add each time and if you have guests attending your opening who came to your last show you want to give them something fresh to look at.  Even if you just cut, paste, rearrange and add a new picture its better than recycling an old biography from an old show.
What should you put into your Bio? Well everyone will have differing views on this I am sure but I think its best to keep it brief. One page will do, you don't want to write a novel or life story, just a nice short statement about who you are, where your from, what you do and any achievements or awards etc.
Here's my latest Biography...........................

Bonnie Coad

Artists Biography.

Bonnie Coad is a visual artist specialising in experimental, organic compositions.  Coming from an artistic family she was always encouraged to explore her creative side.  Her art is active and dynamic. She works chiefly in acrylics but also enjoys mixed media, using texture and bold colour combinations to create unique artworks. She has successfully sold her work to both national and international collectors.

Bonnie was born in England in 1974 while her Australian Parents were enjoying an extended trip around the world. They moved to New Zealand to live when Bonnie was four and she grew up on the West Coast of the South Island without the modern convenience of electricity or telephone. It’s to this that she credits her creativity.

In 1987 the then much larger family made the move from the West Coast to Motueka where Bonnie spent her teenage and young adult years, and it was during this time that she began to paint and develop her original style.

Bonnie Coad moved from Motueka to Blenheim in 2002 and is a member of the Blenheim Art Society, exhibiting in their regular exhibitions throughout the year.

She has held solo exhibitions in Blenheim at Highfield Estate and The Cloudy Skies Gallery and has been involved in a number of group exhibitions and shows in Blenheim, Motueka, Lumsden and Auckland.

As House artist for Riverside Café her art is displayed for most of the year with new work being added as it is completed on an on-going basis.

Bonnie is represented by Auckland art agency, Art+Soul. She has a selection of work for sale at Art and Souls Ponsonby Gallery and through their online Gallery at www.artandsoul.co.nz

I will also be laminating some other bits and bobs relating to my art. just the latest news.  A news story about my last exhibition, a blurb about my artwork being purchased for Clifton's art collection, etc. This will all go up on a small section of wall in a high foot traffic spot. Its good to have a "info centre" for your guests and customers to look at, it helps people to relate to you and your art. I didn't realise how important and worth while this was until quite recently. People wont know about your achievements unless you inform them and it will give you endless conversation starters on opening night if you are like me and a bit backward at coming forward. 

I have also finished going over my invites list tonight. All names crossed and ticked all invites in stamped, addressed envelopes, ready to post tomorrow. You don't want to send them out to soon or to late. If they go out to late people might already have plans for the night and if they go out to early you risk being forgotten about completely on opening night.  NZ post is between three and five days targeted delivery so make sure you allow for this as well. I ordered some very nice fridge magnets with my Visterprint invitation order. They feature one of my art works and list my contact details and website etc. I put these in with my invites in the hope that they will go on the fridge and help remind people about my exhibition. I use the same system at home with the bills and it works well. I am constantly reminded each time I get the milk out that something needs to be paid! sigh..............

My next blog will cover Lay-buy. How to go about it, the do's and dont's. Weather its worth the bother.............

Invitations and getting your event into the Newspaper.

Soooo...........those of you who read yesterdays ramblings will remember I am not feeling too crash hot. I am still feeling pretty crappy, perhaps a bit of blogging will help to distract me form feeling sorry for myself.


As mentioned yesterday I am going to talk about invitations and getting your event into the local news paper. My invitations for my up and coming event are already delivered. My last exhibition was overshadowed by a terrible death in the family about three weeks out from opening night.

My laptop died!!

Yip, I know, I shouldn't joke about things like that. You have no idea how much trouble this caused. Well the less said really the better, but lets just say that the invitations only just made it into the post in time!! I had to settle for creating and printing out my own, which where fine, but not nearly as nice as the ones I had been working on on-line. Needless to say I was really on the ball this time around!! I had them designed, created and delivered six weeks out from opening night. Vistaprint postcards make excellent invitations!! I have used them several times and they always look nice and professional. They often have the postcards offered for free, so it ends up costing you very little, apart from your time and they fit nicely into a larger sized envelope for posting. You can up load your own work which will cost you some where from $3.99 to $7.99 for the image you end up using. Note- you can upload as many images as you like, you will only pay for the one you use.
Once you have ordered one lot you can take advantage of any other offers they send you and order more with out paying anything for the second order, just postage. It pays to be organised and order early because they always send you more offers and you can simply go back into your Vistaprint portfolio and reorder more.  Mine have a photo upload of one of my art works on one side and the invitation write up on the back but you are not limited to this layout, there are lots of different layout options. The actual write up is pretty brief, stick to the basic's.  You want to grab the readers interest straight off. Your reader should be able to pick up everything with a quick glance.
You will be able to write up a full page bio to be displayed at your event for anyone who wants a more in-depth explanation of what you do.

A title and brief explanation, the date, venue, times and any contact details is all that's needed. You may also want to add an RSVP message for catering purposes. The last venue I exhibited at was a Winery here in Marlborough, Highfield Estate, here's a plug for them
http://www.highfield.co.nz/restaurant/
Their food is wonderful and sitting out in the courtyard with a coffee or climbing up to the top of the viewing tower is a nice way to waste a bit of time in the weekends. They support local artists by hosting exhibitions throughout the year.
For my Highfield invitations I cut and pasted a small map form their website into my invitations because I was concerned that some people may have been unsure of its location.
Double, triple, quadruple check EVERYTHING, especially those sneaky am's and pm's. Once they are ordered there is no turning back..........................

If you are exhibiting through a Gallery or established venue that holds regular exhibitions they will inform the local papers about your event. At least that's been my experience to date. If your doing your own thing and exhibiting at a cafe or some other establishment that doesn't have someone officially in charge of running the art side of things you will properly need to do it for yourself.
Contacting the local papers is easy, you can find them all on line and a quick e-mail or phone call is all that's needed. They are normally more than happy to find some news to cover that doesn't involve "Flossy the Three Legged Goat" or "Sam's Giant Spud"  I normally wait until I have set up a few event listings on line so that I can send through a link in the body of my e-mail as well.
I unfortunately live a considerable distance form the venue that I will be exhibiting at next month and will have to interview via the internet and phone but that is a thousand times better than just not bothering at all..............
If there is more than one local paper approach them all! I have never really liked approaching the papers. I find there something quite discomforting about talking about yourself.  But it is important to inform the public if your serious about your art and you want to be taken seriously as an artist and be recognised for what you do.


Well!! that is a disappointingly small amount of text for the amount of time it has taken me to put it together!!
Next time we can talk about Bio's and write ups etc . Its a good idea to print a bio off and get it laminated so it can be displayed at your exhibition as well as any other items of interest such as news paper stories, awards, charity events or any other interesting things you might have been involved in.

The new seasons opening at The Riverside Cafe.

Ok, What did I just do????  I am not to sure if this is working?...............so if its not completely obvious to you yet, I am new to this blogging business!
I have already spent near an hour trying to figure out how to use this site and it hasn't been easy.
I decided it would be good to set up a blog ages ago but in true Bonnie Coad fashion have put it off for............about six months. I am home from work today, sadly struck down by a terrible case of MAN FLU that is is currently going around and thought that now would be a good time to set up a blog. I thought it would be an easy and stress free exercise that I could undertake in my fragile state, lol, silly me! If I hadn't come so far already I would have canned this in a fit of "oh sniff, cough, sneeze! I cant be bothered!!!
But at last I have managed to work my way through what seems like a mine field of tabs, suggestions, options and REQUIRED FIELDS.

Soooooo............... what am I blogging about?
It may appear that I am actually moaning and bitching about setting up my blog page (well I am...................I'm sick, I feel like moaning!)
But my original intention was to follow the steps taken over the next four weeks or so until the opening of my next Riverside Cafe exhibition. I don't know how many of you will be interested in this but I though it would be a worth while exercise. I myself would find the process other artists go through interesting and informative. I have had quite a few exhibitions but still feel at times as though I am stumbling about in the dark. Mostly when using a totally new venue...... it can be a bit like starting a new job, a bit intimidating at best!
I have learned all I know mostly through trial and error. Luckily I have a "Oh hell! I will just wing it! How hard can it be?" sort of out look on life and have never been to scared to give things a go.
So here goes............

A great big THANK YOU! to the wonderful folks at Riverside Cafe for making me House Artist in 2009.
Here's a plug for them, check it out if you are in the Region, they make the best food!!!!
http://www.riverside-cafe.co.nz/riverside-cafe.html
This October I will be kicking off another new seasons launch. Opening night the 8th, 6.30pm to 8.30pm. All welcome!!
The Cafe officially opened its doors, or rather kitchens, again on September the 1st and my art from last season is currently still adorning the walls. This will all come down on October the 8th to be replaced by aprox 15 new art works. This number depends largely on whether I get my A into G and finish a few pieces that are in various stages of "PROGRESS"  I am one of those weird artists who works really well under pressure and I am quite often finishing work very close to my exhibition dates. Its not unusual for me to start a new piece on a whim, way to late and then work tirelessly all hours of the day and night to get it finished in time. (Needless to say- I am a bit disorganised!!)  This approach is not the best because it can make producing catalogues and flyers etc a bit hit and miss. When your doing your own thing you can keep it quite relaxed but Gallery's and agents might find this sort of thing a bit annoying at times.
I used Vista Print to create my own invitations, catalogues, promotional banners, and a few other bits and bobs. I also brought a few books of stamps and envelopes for posting out invites. My total bill for advertising my exhibition is $100.
I have learned the hard way that you are better off spending a bit of money on advertising and creating a more professional impression than just trying to make do with "As cheaply as possible" or "I just cant afford it!!"
Vista Print do bombard you with the most annoying e-mails but once you learn your way around their site they have some very good deals and often offer their products for free. They are well worth checking out.
There are lots of sites you can find on the internet that offer printing options and if money is no issue there is always the local print services too, its good to support local business and if you don't want to spend hours and hours uploading and arranging your own designs this may be a better option for you. I am limited by budget too designing my own. But note!! The first time I ever did it I missed a typo and the whole lot of invites I had ordered where useless. I learned a very valuable lesson "Get Google Chrome" or any other spell checker if you haven't already!!!
The opportunity's for self promotion via the internet are endless and really can be broken down into two simple groups. Sites that are local to your event and sites that are easy to use. I have wasted countless hours over the years submitting events to websites that where difficult and time consuming to use and probably didn't get much traffic anyway. Over the next few weeks I will post links to the sites I find the easiest to use.

The Face Book Event page is great! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=239481339421163

Most of you will have already seen and used one. They are a very valuable tool for free exposure and promotion and its nice being able to actively interact with friends and people that are going to come, cant come or are thinking about coming!! There are also countless websites that offer free event listings and of course it makes sense to spend a bit of time on Google searching for local and national sites that you can use.
Here is a link to my free event listing on a Nelson information site run by the Nelson/Tasman council  http://itson.co.nz/2011/2877-take-a-walk-on-the-wild-side
The Big Idea is a great site that is very easy to use, it has an Auckland focus but every little bit helps and you can maintain a profile and gallery for free. If your show is based in Auckland they have an option to suggest it to the editor for publishing on the home page. Also once you set up your event you can see at the bottom of your event listing how many views it has had, but be aware, each time you look at the page is also part of that count :)
http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/connect/events/2011/oct/91667-take-a-walk-on-the-wild-side
So, there we have a brief out line of a few of the steps I have taken so far................. I am going to have to sign off now as I am quite sure I am dieing.................. well, maybe just need a sleep, sick sick sick!!!
I will sign in again soon (day or so) with a few words on approaching the local media, invitations and anything else that pops into my head.

Disclaimer!! All information listed in this or any following blogs is meant only as "Helpful advise"  :)

Please don't hesitate to comment if you have anything at all that you want to add or think would be a useful observation or addition here. This blog is meant to be all about helping artists to stumble through that no man's land of self promotion, exhibiting, showing etc.............. I'm certainly no expert, I am learning all the time and any useful information that costs you nothing is priceless!!!