21 Nov 2010 Day two, and a prize winner!

We hold a daily prize draw during our Open House events. The prize is a framed 'limited edition' or something equivalent. The winner chooses an image and we arrange a size and frame to suit their requirements. This morning our first visitor, Ingrid, pulled a card at random from yesterdays visitor records and we had our winner. The card was entered in the name of the youngest visitor yesterday, named Ava, aged about 6 months. So today Ava's parents came back to choose a print from our catalogue. 

Ava will be hanging a Ruffell print called 'Polperro Low Tide' in her room in Cambridge.

20 Nov 2010 End of day one!

The start of our three weekend Artists Open Houses show was quieter than previous years. This probably because we are opening a week earlier than most of the other houses in the Brighton trail. Here is a picture or two of the show on the first day. We sold original paintings, prints, and cards plus guest artists exhibits. Looking forward to tomorrow.

17 November 2010 More about Facebook...

Yesterday I wrote here that I have enjoyed cracking the Facebook thing!
Actually I feel like a religious convert or teenager on a first date.


The journey of spending a bit of spare time going through the process of learning, understanding, and implementing was much easier than I thought.
And it was deeply satisfying to get the results of the time spent so quickly.


I really do recommend that any artist who wants to get noticed should get a Facebook fan page. [It is now called a LIKE page].


I followed the guidance of Chris Farrell and his 'Understanding Facebook' series of bite sized videos.
Click here to see how much free stuff he just gives away!

16 Nov 2010 Facebook excitement

Just a couple of weeks ago I was uninspired and unimpressed by Facebook 
I knew that it was popular and that it was being used by many other artists to promote their work.
But wasn't it shallow and trivial?
I felt that this very blog, plus my own website [www.colinruffell.com], plus our business website [www.crabfish.com], and my Linkedin groups, was enough.
Then I found an online teacher who showed my how to do FB better, and who explained the viral process. I also read a couple of books recently that added excitement to these viral possibilities and another that supplied explanations about the naturalness of social media.


So I stuck in and re-created my Facebook profile, made a bunch more FB friends,and then created a LIKE/FAN page with this welcome picture. And already 50+ people have 'LIKED' it! All in a couple of weeks.


. 

Do you want to go and have a look? 
Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/ColinRuffellArtist

6 Nov 2010 The first Christmas cards.

Every year since the year dot we get and display our first Christmas card in November. Very often is is from our old buddies John and Jean B from Bayswater Road days. They get a prize for heralding Christmas early. But this year we are pre-empting [right word?] all incoming mail by creating more of our own cards to sell at our upcoming Open House in just two weeks time. These will go on display here first. Unless JB's send in even earlier than usual. 

Here are some of our own new designs. 

These will all be in our 'artist signed handmade range'.

1 November 2010 Half a million up in smoke!

Johnny Woodford throws a great halloween party. We went along last night, and while were there we organised some more exhibits for our upcoming open house. Only 19 days time. Yikes.
JW chopping boards are always popular.
And hopefully we arranged for an early Christmas tree.
The highlight of the evening was the promised 'burning of half a million quid'.
As you can see, Johnny had carved something earlier.