Last week Ras al Khaimah held its first Fine Arts Festival of which I was fortunate enough to be a part of.  The event is designed to introduce the art of local artists like film makers, musicians, photographers, jewellery designers and artists to the community.  It was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to meet other artists of different genres as well as members of the community who are also interested in supporting the arts.

As a fine artist (in my case a painter) one tends to work mostly in isolation in your art studio and rely on word of mouth for people to learn about your work.  I think the cop-out there for me is, by the time they have come to me, they want my work.  I don’t have to do any selling at all!  I think as a rule there are very few artists who are good at marketing their own work.  Society expects us not to be boastful, which I think is only a small part of our inability to sell our own work well.  The other part is your heart and soul is in that canvas and it is very difficult to be objective about something you want to sell yet feel so attached to for personal reasons.  As an artist I completely respect an individuals right to his own taste and what he sees and enjoys and what he wants to hang on his wall, so that is something that I don’t take personally at all.  It is not only something I encourage and embrace, I practice it too!  Yet, there is an anxiety about presenting your work to complete strangers because you in your own minds eye are exposing yourself for perusal and judgement….  A very difficult conundrum to juggle!

It was an event I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of and I hope to see many more like this in the future where art and the community can enjoy an evening together in a beautiful setting!

It was certainly fun watching others enjoy my work as much as I do painting it!