Big Thank You to The Art Ladder!
I was lucky enough to meet Marine and Penny, from The Art Ladder, Parker Harris, when I visited The British Art Prize 2024 Private View last Thursday.
Emma Parker and Penny Harris created Parker Harris in 1990, and for over 35 years they have been one of the leading art consultancies in the UK. Marine is Head of Comms and Social Media and together they work with galleries, collectors, corporate sponsors, and artists around the world. The Art Ladder is a mentoring and training platform where they share their experience with artists to support them to build a successful and sustainable career.
Tonight I joined one of their free masterclasses. The masterclass covered:
Working with galleries
Selling your art
Creating a plan for success
In part 2, as various types of income streams were discussed, Marine mentioned how I create baubles as an alternative way of generating income and getting my art out there. I even sent Marine, Penny and Emma their very own bauble as a thank you for such a wonderful course!
Towards the end Marine talked about how the course has been helpful for artists and I was pleased to see a testimonial about how The Art Ladder has helped me. Find out more about this below.
I’ve really enjoyed the courses that The Art Ladder offers. I’m always a bit nervous about paying for training, but after watching a one hour free session I was convinced it was worth giving it a try.
I love their training style; there are tons of gems in this training for all levels, delivered with insight, experience, professionalism and with a genuine friendly approach. It’s given me a huge amount of confidence about how to handle several areas of my art practice. As with all courses there are some things you know and some things you don’t, but for me it was also about knowing that what I was doing was best practice. I had that confidence that I wasn’t asking stupid questions or saying the wrong thing, but actually that was the best approach and the right thing to do.
The course helped me in so many ways, but when I won The People’s Choice Award in The British Art Prize, Artists & Illustrators magazine, I can pin point two main things that The Art Ladder helped me with.
The first was the competition entry. I usually use a very scattergun approach, testing out a few different artworks and hoping the judges will like at least one of them. I now realise that that’s a big no no. Quality and consistency is key. The British Art Prize was the first competition I employed this tactic of submitting 3 paintings of similar style and subject. When I reached the top 50 finalists I was stunned, and while I realise there are other factors at play, I have to give The Art Ladder a huge thank you for steering me in the right direction.
The second thing was about not being shy. I hate to bother people, but after The Art Ladder course I was ready to shout about my nomination, I planned several posts from different angles and I even reached out to BBC Cornwall radio! This campaign must have done something right because I won The People’s Choice Award. It may look like a nice surprise, but the secret is I worked really hard behind the scenes; creating several different social posts, reaching out to everyone I know, using Linkedin as well as usual Facebook and Instagram platforms, emailing people directly and following up if I didn’t hear back, I even have a vote tracking spreadsheet!
In short, I’ve learnt a lot from The Art Ladder, it’s a great community and while the above helped me with the competition, there have been many more takeaways I have from the course and I highly recommend it! Be brave, invest in yourself and honestly, you can transform your art practice! It’s happening to me right now!
