CATCHING COLDS

When I catch a cold, it normally runs the same course - four days of shivering sneezing misery followed by four weeks of getting rid of the gunk which clogged up my tubes (sorry to those of a sensitive disposition!). So it has been with me this last fortnight, and I've been catching a cold financially too.

I took out an ad in the Independent on Sunday on 13th March, and wished I hadn't bothered. The ad agency had contacted me with the offer of a panel, which had become available due to cancellation by someone else, at the bargain rate of £185 + VAT, as opposed to the "normal" rate of £600 + VAT. Their circulation figures were around 700,000, which is certainly a lot more than that of the special interest mags in which I've advertised up to now. I went for it, as I've been considering advertising in one of the "big" papers for some time (just to see what would happen!), and I probably wouldn't get a better deal than the one which was being offered. They designed a beautiful panel for me, and it duly appeared in the magazine section of the paper (at the foot of a page of similar-sized ads). My website viewing log showed the poorest figures for a month that day, so I now KNOW this doesn't work!

In anticipation of the increase in sales which the advert would produce, I had invested another £200+ in new stocks of greeting cards and giclee prints. I have sold a few of these lately, but not in a quantity which would justify the expense I've incurred over it. Then, on Saturday 12th March, my computer desktop monitor packed up, and I had no option but to replace it , at a further cost of £150. Ouch! For a self-employed artist on a very modest income, an outlay of £600 over the course of a single week, before I'd even bought myself something to eat, is a fairly serious matter.

Thank goodness it hasn't been all bad news. My client loved the painting of the ill-fated fishing boat "Kildonan" (see posting 28/02/2011), and I've received a commission to do a number of "Nort Boat" paintings for the St. Magnus Bay Hotel in Hillswick. I've now started this, with the "Sovereign", a paddle steamer which was one of the earliest in the fleet, having been acquired in 1836 and running on the Aberdeen - Shetland route until 1867, when she was wrecked near Aberdeen.

I've been working steadily on the stock/exhibition works too. I've nearly finished a Howe o' the Mearns landscape, and have begun another seascape with an "under sail" theme, which has a dual purpose in that the 2012 Tall Ships race is visiting these islands in July. I expect I'll be getting some themed greeting cards and giclee prints for that event too.

Aaaachoo!