And a Scholarship to Boot Conversation With Keith Salmon - Part 2 Seven months on after winning 2009 Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting, Keith Salmon continues to share his experience in his ongoing effort to develop his art practice, ''... but of course not without the help of many other people. I guess this is where I’ve been so fortunate with winning the Jolomo Award last year.'' ... he humbly admits to Ali Abubakar. Ali - Before we start Keith, I'd like to catch up with one thing you mentioned in our last conversation. Back in August I visited your exhibition at Great Glen House in Inverness and was very impressed with both the quality of your show and the venue that presented your work so well. Then, resulting from your association with Scottish National Heritage you embarked onto a new field as well ... giving talks and seminars on hill-walking courses for people with visual impairment. Does this new experience bring any real benefit to you? Keith - Yes it does. SNH asked if I'd a talk about my work and how it’s linked to the hill walking I do. I’ve always walked and climbed in the hills, (well, from the age of 10 that is) - but strangely it was only when visually impaired that I really started getting out on a very regular basis. This was due to my attending the Mountain Skills course for visually impaired people held at Glenmore Lodge. The talk I did for SNH was about these two passions of mine: painting and hill-walking and just how the two are connected. I hope to do more of these as I feel they provide a good way of increasing my audience. At one talk I suspect I was attracting both those who love art and the outdoors ... I hadn't connected the two before. So that’s my main reason for doing the talks. But I’ve been so busy of late that I have only managed one other talk for our local mountaineering club, Air na Creagan last year. Interestingly, if you've visited my website in the last couple of weeks you will have noticed that things have changed a little. We've been re-designing the site and have added a link to Facebook targeting the hill-walking and climbing fraternity. Around 20 folk have already signed up as ‘fans’! Developing this type of group could be a vital part of expanding my customer base. Ali - That's interesting and useful to learn - I'll check out Facebook. Now, bring me up to date please - what else have you been up to? Keith - Well, it’s been a busy few months and to be honest, by the start of November I was feeling pretty shattered and decided to take my ‘foot off the gas’ a little. I'd been working flat out since March last year when I was short-listed for the Jolomo Award. Not just painting but also spending hours on the computer doing all the paper work and attending to emails and letters with increasing regularity. Ali - Of course - this is one of many challenges one faces in growing a business. So you still haven't got that secretary yet? Keith - Well, that's still to come some day I suppose. Any way, during November and December I spent most of my time painting - producing new work for the three group exhibitions I’m taking part in this coming spring. That's been good. Of course now January is with us, I’m playing catch-up on the computer again! Ali - And apart from painting for these exhibitions, are your sales improving in any way? Keith - Yes, indeed, That's been good, generally. I’ve sold almost twice as much work in this first six months as I had estimated in my business plan. But of course my expenses have been considerably higher than I predicted too. So, I need to keep an eye on that aspect of the business. At this stage I guess I’m breaking even and this is exactly what I forecast. I’m quite happy with this so far. This has been one of the good things this year. I have work with five galleries at the moment and have been selling through them on a fairly regular basis. I'd be lying if I said sales were huge but they've increased well this year, which can’t be bad especially with the economy as it is. At the studio though, it is as you say very seasonal. Not so many people walk around the harbour in Irvine during winter days - so even less to visit my studio. This is one of the reasons I’m trying to improve my website and to develop sales directly through the site. Ali - And that's not an easy task, is it? Do you feel free to talk about how you are improving your website or is it hush-hush at the moment? Keith - No I don't mind talking about it, especially if it helps even one other artist like me. We are all in the same game after all. Quite a while ago, John, who runs my website for me, and I discussed the possibility of selling work directly through the website. We decided to start with simply having a ‘Work for sale’ page on which we would placed images and information about paintings currently available for sale through my studio. We put contact details and asked anyone interested to get in touch with me. This proved to be limited in its effect and although people can get a reasonable view of the work, the images still aren't of that high a quality. Back in December I was able to discuss my plan with our local Business Development people and as a result I've secured 50% grant for John's proposal to re-design my website. This is tremendously helpful and John is in the process of putting things together now. It'll probably take a couple of months to complete the work. Painting enthusiasts will then get much clearer view of my work online, and secure purchase of any painting they like immediately by paying through an internet account in minutes, if not seconds. Ali - Well, you are certainly showing progress in your efforts, Keith. Is this part of what you meant by 'going professional' as we talked about in our last conversation? Keith - That's right Ali. And there’s one other project on the go linked with the website which is being supported in my Business Development plan. It brings in a local film-maker, Jim Crossan, whom I mentioned briefly in our last conversation. Jim is making a short 4 – 5 minute video about me and my work - kind of an advertorial on my website ... you know what I mean? Ali - Yes, I think I do - and you are talking like a true professional now, Keith. Go ahead, I'm with you. Keith - Well, it's kind of a subtle advert people would see on my website. We'll also produce quality CD’s with a small printed booklet to send out to galleries and to potential customers. The video contains a short section showing me painting in my studio and talking about my work. This is cut with stills taken on the hills along with images of some of the sketches I’ve done. It then moves to a short section showing me sketching outdoors and again speaking about my work and my love of the Scottish landscape. It ends with a short ‘Gallery’ section showing around 20 recent paintings ... and we'll probably change these every six months or so. Ali - It looks like you've decided to embrace this new technology in a big way - grabbing the bull by the horns, so to speak - yes? Keith - Well yes, but of course not without the help of other people. I guess this is where I’ve been so fortunate with winning the Jolomo Award last year. It has allowed me to invest more on some important areas of my practice, like my website - which I’m absolutely certain is vital to developing any business these days. Ali - I'm glad to hear you acknowledge other people's help in moving you forward. And is it not interesting to realise that you don't have to own all the skills and resources you need to move you forward? You can beg, borrow or buy all the skills and resources you need ... at the right time. And what also impresses me so much is not just your ability to make so many relevant decisions but the speed with which you follow with ACTION so well - even if some of the moves you now make may not necessarily produce the results you expected. I think taking relevant actions and testing results is a wise thing to do in growing a business - do you not agree? Keith - I haven't a clue what you are talking about. Ali - I forgive you. What about the painting side of your whole business shebang itself - have you been making any changes in your actual painting process ... you know - medium, grounds, technique, style, size and what not; and are your paintings still based primarily on Scottish mountains? Keith - I had a good year of painting in 2009. I think my painting is developing well in general, and yes, the paintings are still all about the hills. Some of my recent trips out into the hills have been primarily to get new information in the form of photographs and sketches, and these are starting to feed my new work. About a week before Christmas, in particular, we drove up to the edge of Rannoch Moor and did a short walk up a low hill overlooking the moor and the surrounding hills of the Blackmount and Bridge of Orchy. It was quite an incredible little day with stunning light and colour. This was just before that recent cold snap and although there was snow on the highest tops, the moor itself was basically free of snow. There were occasional snow flurries that settled white on all the frozen lochs on the moor - and I came back with masses of new ideas and have already started work on a new painting based on that day... I’m putting paint down in almost horizontal stripes of colour, so the painting, although still landscape, is definitely erring (or developing) towards the abstract ... something I’ve been working towards for the past few years. It’s not finished yet but I’m getting quite excited by it. Ali - I look forward to seeing that when it’s finished. You said earlier you were taking part in several exhibitions this spring. Where are you showing? Keith - Thanks for reminding me. Very briefly though, I have work set out for joint exhibition of the seven finalists of the 2009 Jolomo Award for Landscape Painting. This will be at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff showing from February 13 to March 20. And I'm sending a few pieces to Woodbine Contemporary Art down in Rutland for their ‘Scottish Collection’ exhibition. This runs for two weeks in February (13th - 27th) at Falcon Hotel Courtyard in Uppingham. And there'll be some work for the Atholl Gallery in Dunkeld in April. And you remember just before Christmas there, I was invited to put several pieces in Scotlandart.com Winter Exhibition in glasgow. It’s been all go - and such an exciting and busy time. Ali - You know how much I enjoy hearing such positive stuff about any Scottish artist ... but a little birdie also tells me there's still more to come from you. Is there more, Keith? Keith - It looks like it. Back in September 2008, three visitors from Germany, spotted my studio sign here in Irvine and dropped in to see my work. Little did I realise what that visit would lead to. After about half an hour of what seemed like just a casual chat one of them explained that he was a member of the Speyer Art Association and that each year they awarded a scholarship for an artist to live and work in the city for up to five months. He asked if it was something I'd be interested in - and of course I was. He took my business card and details of my website and promised to pass these on to their group committee. Then in January 2009, I had a phone call from them urging me to apply for their 2010 scholarship - which I did. To be honest I didn't really expect anything from it - it being such a sought after scholarship. Ali - And YOU ARE ABOUT TO TELL ME YOU GOT THE SCHOLARSHIP. (A massive smile and two affirmative nods of Keith's head followed.) Ali - Well... CUT MY LEGS AND CALL ME SHORTY - you jammy ... Keith - Yes Ali, my application had been successful. The Mayor of Speyer has approved it and the funds are there. I'll be going over for four months - May to August. I'll have the use of a house with studio space in the centre of the city to live in and work from ... jammy for sure, as you say. Any way, it’s only for a relatively short period of time and as I see it, it'll be a great opportunity for me to export a little bit of contemporary Scottish landscape painting into Germany - and a chance to promote Scotland with its wonderful landscape. To start with, I'll work on Scottish based paintings and then as I get to know the area, I'd want to produce works based on the ancient city and the Rhine landscape. It'll give me a chance to test out new things which can only help me develop my work further. I’m really looking forward to this, though to be honest, I'll be missing the Highlands. By the way, I've just got my basic 'Learn German' CD's through the post so I'll will be working on this while painting from now on. No more music or talking books! Ali - Good for you Keith - and I'm just about to order my 'Learn Kiswahili' CD from Amazon - just in case someone offers me a scholarship to Zanzibar. Jest aside Keith - I congratulate you again, and thank you for spending so much of your time for our readers. I am confident there is much to be gained from this account and I'm sure many of our friends will be impressed and inspired to take right and relevant actions in the interest of their own art activities. Maybe we can have another chat sometime in the autumn and you can share your Speyer Experience with us - will that be OK? Keith - Sure. And thank you too, Ali. To contact Keith Salmon...
If you've enjoyed this Conversation With Keith Salmon, please email us to receive advance notice of forthcoming Conversation with Scottish Artists - or just send your comments. Top | Home | Conversation Part 1 | Features # ks10con 2 |
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