Putting Together An Outdoor Home Show

This coming Sunday the 16th of August is our 3rd annual watercolour show that we put on in our yard. We live on 2 acres of property on the shores of Lake Erie near Windsor, Ontario - across from Detroit. It is quite an effort, but the last two years we drew about 100 guests each. It is not open to the public but to invited guests and their friends.

I put together a slick postcard and mail to our list and also use social web-media, email marketing and blogging to get the word out. My wife Rose also distributes some to tourist spots around town. (this is about as public as we get).

I had a cottager in the area call to see if they could attend. Like I'd deny them :) We advertised that $50. from each original sold goes to the local hospital fund.

Also this year we are putting in a couple of classic cars to amuse husbands who are dragged along by the art loving women in their lives. Since I have moved on to large scale watercolours, I had to construct 10 easels out of 2X4's and stain them (they look great). The last few years I used what I call tree easels which were black wooden easels that attached to trees with black bungie cords. Very nice.

We serve wine and refreshments and finger food. The paintings are arranged with seating positioned so that a patron can sit and admire the work. Last year we had one couple come from Toledo, Ohio (2 hours away) and spend the afternoon relaxing a chatting.

Once the event is over I will document here how it went with accompanying pictures. We ask friends to stick around afterwards for a barbeque and fire.

At the show we always offer a free print draw to help build our list further. My goal is to offer a draw here on this blog as well. If you'd like to see how we do the "Living Large Show" come back in a week or so and see how we did it.