The End of the Year!

By Sally Pudney on 31st December 2019

So – the end of 2019, and the end of the decade. A time to look back and look forwards.

It is astonishing to me, looking back, that at the beginning of this decade, in January 2010, I was still teaching part time in a primary school. I had no website. It would be another five years before I started this blog. I had only been painting in acrylic for four years. And I had just exhibited two tiny paintings at the Haylett’s Gallery, that was all. Wow! A lot has changed.

Looking back at this year, it has been my most successful painting year so far, by a long way. More galleries, more paintings sold, more turnover, the best Open Studios, and the successful launch of our Anglian Arts Project.

I am extremely grateful to everyone who has supported me, in any way – those of you who have come to Open Studios, private views, and exhibitions; those who have bought cards and calendars, bags and prints, and, of course, paintings; those who have made encouraging comments in emails, on Instagram, and in person. I’m especially grateful to Graham, as without his help I would not be able to hold Open Studios – and the Anglian Arts Project is very much our joint project, and I certainly couldn’t begin to do that without him either!

Open Studios was particularly interesting this year, as we asked all our visitors how they heard about it. Only one visitor had got the information from the Colchester and Tendring Open Studios booklet, or website. Everyone else either received my monthly newsletter, or had seen our A-board outside, or I had directly invited them as they had bought from me in the past. The result of this is that I have drastically changed how I’m doing my Open Studio events next year. You’ll need to come back here tomorrow to find out what I’m planning!

If you got my newsletter this morning you’ll already know about my painting projects for next year. I shall be writing a bit more about them in tomorrow’s blog post, and also about the perfect new venue for our Anglian Arts 2020 exhibition. (You can sign up for next month’s email newsletter at the bottom of my home page. Don’t worry, I only send out one a month, and you can unsubscribe at any time.)

Finally: I wish you all, lovely blog readers, a happy and healthy year in 2020. May it be a year with exciting times and peaceful times, and filled with lots of joy and creativity  🙂


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