Open Studios. The Countdown Begins!

It is only four months to our local open studio event.
The forms and the money have to be in by Friday.
There's a lot going on behind the scenes.
And while that goes on, by artists themselves who volunteer for the job of organising it all, we mere participants start thinking about what we ought to do to get our own little space ready.
Last year I had the plan of how I would set out my studio and home written out  before I'd even put in my application.

2012 and 2013
Peterborough Artists Open Studios Directories.

I decided less is more and didn't throw every single thing I'd painted or drawn that year into the mix. I think it worked well. But this is all the easy part.
For me the most difficult part is putting the word out and attracting visitors. This I had to plan. Some years I've left it till the week before . Bad idea.
Most important is a list of contacts, whether it's family and friends or clients who like and may have bought your work before.
Next I had to decide how to contact them, a mail out, posh card or photocopied slip?, or should it be via email? Then there's facebook and twitter and instagram, or perhaps a text. Of course talking to everyone you come across about it then following up with card, email.
And people will come having looked at your entry in  the directory so your image and 30 word statement better be enticing.

Mary Kemp.
 Grace the Border Collie Encounters a Wave.

It's all not as easy as it first appears.