For 2009 Jolomo Award Winner ...but a very exciting time Conversation With Keith Salmon - Part 1 Having won the 2009 Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting, Keith Salmon is now setting out to develop his work further. ''The support of Jolomo Foundation should help me ease some of the challenges I face to achieving my goals'' ... says Keith. Keith shares his thoughts and new experience with Ali Abubakar of Scottish Art Circle during their recent conversation. Keith - It’s been a hectic few weeks since the Jolomo Awards were announced on 12th June at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. I was still in a kind of a daze the following morning - but a pleasant reality followed shortly after opening my studio at around 10am. A local Ayrshire collector who had been at the awards ceremony the previous evening came to the studio and bought three of my paintings without any fuss ... what a good start to the morning after! Ali - A good start indeed. Did you expect things to change so quickly? Keith - I knew there would be a lot of positive changes coming into my art life as a result of winning the Jolomo Award. After all, that's the whole point of going for such prestigious awards. But I didn't expect things to move so fast. Besides - there are a number of important matters I need to attend to as well. I spent much of the following week or so emailing my customers and galleries to let them know about the award and to thank them for their support. There were also a lot of people who had emailed to congratulate me - I had to reply to them too. I could have done with a secretary! At the same time I've had to continue painting for my forthcoming exhibition at Great Glen House, the headquarters of Scottish Natural Heritage in Inverness - and spend time with my framers at the Waverley Gallery in Prestwick to get new paintings framed. Ali - I suppose it's natural to assume that some of the galleries you've been working with all these years also stand to benefit from your winning the Jolomo Award ... is this true? Keith - Well... I heard from Magenta Muse, an on-line gallery I exhibit with. They had sold one of my paintings - the first since I joined them. So I had to get this painting framed and sent off to them. Shortly after, I received another call from Magenta saying the buyer wanted to purchase another painting ... back to the post office. And Blairmore Gallery have recently sold one of my long 76 x 23 cm paintings. This is good for me but I have to paint another to replace the one they sold. I’ve also been contacted by two new galleries - the Resipole Studios and the Atholl Gallery - both asking if I’d be interested in exhibiting work with them. Ali - So it's all go then. I know for some time now you've been carefully planning to take your art practice to a higher professional level, Keith. Do you think you'll be able to keep up with the impending increase of workload? Keith - Good question. And you are right... I have to be careful not to over-stretch myself. My poor sight, as you well know, means I paint slowly. At the moment I should be able to cope with the work required for the Inverness show and a few more pieces of work I need to finish for my local galleries. I'll also send one painting to Resipole Studios who contacted me first and I’ll write to the other gallery explaining my current commitments - but expressing interest for the future. Azure, a local art and craft shop in Ayr where I’ve been showing work for the last couple of years have asked if I’d like to do a joint promotion with them. They will be putting my work in one of their windows for a month and the local press and radio will be invited along. This should give us a good amount of extra local publicity. Eileen Grey the owner has commissioned Jim Crossan to help promote the shop. Jim visited my studio - just to see the kind of work I do. He liked it and bought one painting before he left. At Azure, Jim took some photos of Eileen and me in front of one of my recent paintings. He intends to use these with his press release. Ali - Looks like you are going to be even busier now with all this public relations work to attend to as well. But this is an important part of growing your art business, is it not? Keith - It is. I’ve spent a lot of time sending out all this information and press cuttings to my agent John who runs my own website. I’m also trying to keep you at the Scottish Art Circle up to date. … oh, where IS that secretary? Ali - In all seriousness, Keith, it may well be some day, sooner or later, you might want to consider having a part-time freelance secretary. It's all in the question of return on investment, don't you think? If employing a part-time secretary releases you to focus on what you do best - helping you to earn more than what you'd pay your assistant - that'll be a wise move, won't it? Keith - Well, that's easier said then done. It's early days yet - but, as you know, I'm open-minded. Ali - I know. What's next in your agenda? Keith - One exciting thing I'm looking forward to is showing in London in October 2010. The 7 short-listed finalists of 2009 Jolomo Award have been invited to take part in this group exhibition. I don't have all the details yet. October 2010 seems so far away. But the 7 of us will be showing together in Creiff before then - February 2010. That should be good for us ... more benefits from winning a respected award like Jolomo's. My exhibition in Inverness opens on 3rd of August. I'm showing around 24 paintings and drawings there. On the 20th of August I'll present a 30 minute seminar at Great Glen House ... more local media exposure for me through the help of Scottish National Heritage. I'll donate 30% of sales revenue to Glenmore Lodge - the outdoor centre near Aviemore where the Mountain Skills course for visually impaired people is run. It was this kind of course that helped me get back into the hills following failure of my own sight - a skill now so important to my work. The donation will help subsidise course fees for other visually impaired people. Ali - That's beautiful, Keith. 'Gift-Reversal' - for the want of a better phrase. That's when you grab the chance to give something back after receiving so much. You must get a good feeling too, to be able to do that. Can we look at another area of your art life for a moment, if you don't mind?. A while back, before your big award, you told me you were planning to go professional. That confused me a bit. I had always considered you as a professional artist - both in the way you think and in the way you conduct your art practice. So tell me... what precisely do you mean by going professional? Keith - In the past I'd always tried to be as professional as possible with my actual painting and drawing. But I'd never ever thought I could make any money out of it - let alone a living. It seemed even more unlikely when my sight failed. So I just carried on painting. This is what I meant by being an amateur. When I was registered blind I was put onto incapacity benefit. My partner Anita continued to pay most of my bills - for materials, studio hire, and other expenses. Thanks to Anita I was able to continue painting to the extent you well know. Last year however, started with an increase in some serious interest in my work from galleries and individual buyers. And as you know there were also a couple of decent commissions to boot - thanks to Scottish Art Circle too. This encouraged me to believe that with a real 'push' I could possibly start to make a decent income from my art work. That's when I consulted JobCentre Plus to explore the question of self employment and get out of Incapacity Benefit - thus becoming a Professional. Do you get it now? Ali - I get it. Still... I was correct you've always been 'professional' in the way you process or create your art work. And now you are moving on to becoming a more professional art business practitioner. Yes... that makes more sense now. Keith - JobCentre Plus offered a scheme to get me back to employment - self employment in a controlled way - receiving business guidance and advice from Irvine Business Gateway to get established. Plus a short 13 week 'test trading' period before making the final move to a full self employment status. The help and support from JobCentre Plus and Business Gateway has been very good and got me off to a good start. The Jolomo Award came just in the nick of time - almost a perfect timing, you might say. It's all very exciting, though somewhat stressful too. Now I've got to keep promoting myself and my work fully - like a true professional, eh? My agent John McMenemy is visiting shortly. We’ll meet to discuss the way forward. He has some good contacts in the States - so this should be interesting for the future too. Ali - You mentioned briefly once about an MSP who had expressed some interest in your work. Keith - Oh, yes - Aileen Campbell. Back in May the Jolomo Award had their short-listed artists exhibition in Edinburgh. I'd invited our local MSP, Aileen Campbell, to the preview but she was unable to attend at the time. Aileen Campbell emailed recently to congratulate me on the award. She said she had viewed and enjoyed the work on my website. I think she has lodged a motion at the Scottish Parliament so that other MSPs would learn about my award. So much is happening so fast. I have to be in a right state of mind to handle it all with some degree of credibility. This calls for professionalism too, I think. Ali - Of course. But I hope it's not all work and no fun? Keith - As you can imagine, it’s been quite a mad few weeks - but very exciting. I was, however, starting to get tired and needed to find time to get back to the hills. I took advantage of recent good weather, put paint brushes and computer down and my partner Anita and I spent two great days on the hills. We visited the Luss Hills - walking Mid Hill and Beinn Dubh. Then a few days ago we walked Ben Venue. The peace and quite was much needed and has helped to recharge the batteries somewhat. The bonus that followed was a letter from John Lowry Morrison - once again congratulating me and inviting me to a meet him to discuss my work and plans. The first quarterly award cheque was also enclosed with his letter. Yes, it was true … I had won the 2009 Jolomo Award. It wasn’t all a dream! I’m really looking forward to developing my art work and growing the business side of it. The support of the Jolomo Foundation will make it that much easier. It’s a very exciting time for me. Ali - Thank you very much for your time and for sharing so mush with our readers. Now... what should people who want to buy your paintings do before you start bumping up your prices? Keith - Best thing to do is to check my website at http://www.keithsalmon.org where you'll find all the galleries currently showing some of my work - one click and you'll be there in no time. You can also purchase some of my work through the on-line gallery Magenta Muse, at www.magentamuse.co.uk. Best of all - simply call at my studio if you live close enough to Irvine. I usually have a good selection of finished work at the studio - at 128 Harbour Street, Irvine - but I don't have set opening hours. So please check beforehand. My mobile number is 07742 437 425. It'll be good to meet you. And... No, I haven't changed my prices. And MY PRICES ARE FAIR. If you enjoyed this Conversation With Keith Salmon, please email us to receive advance notice of Part 2 - or send your comments. Top | Home | Features | Exhibitions # ks09con 1 |
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