Mainsail was last weekend at a waterfront park in downtown St. Petersburg,FL.
This is my hometown, although I live across the bay in Ybor City.
St. Pete has blossomed.
There are trendy restaurants and galleries everywhere.
Tall high rise condos sprout up faster than you can say “Jimminy Cricket”.
There are a lot more monied people running around town.
Some of them actually buy art.
What a concept.
I last did this show five years ago, and it was my best ever, over $7K.
Then, the last four years I got into Main Street Fort Worth.
Nobody, in my book, tops MSFW. I have had career-monster shows there every time. Better than St. Louis or any of the others.
So this year I got the F/U from FW, but I got Mainsail. I figured if I pulled $4K out of it I would be happy. Plus, I was sleeping in my own bed.
Well, I almost doubled that. Holy shit!
On Saturday, the hits just kept on coming. Sold four one-of-kind pieces. That never happens.
BTW, in case you are a newbie, I sell photography, sometimes color images of architecture, or like this year, I was selling my hand-colored black and white images of celebrity icons.
I cleaned up. My price range is $30-$700.
One of my top sellers was a local image. I will digress.
One of my best friends who I have known since Little League day’s lives in a condo across from the Vinoy Hotel.
I do not know how this wide space happened, read on, below.
The Vinoy is across the road from Mainsail.
Anyways, me and my buddy get together about every month at his place.
He has a fabulous wine collection, 2,000 bottles plus, all good ones.
Usually we will drink a number of them and then walk down to a nearby wine bar or a restaurant.
So this one time we are drinking reds at the Madonna Wine Bar in downtown.
As we walked out of the door, it emptied into an alley, I happened to look down at the ground.
I then spotted this cast iron sewer cover below. Emblazoned upon it was a pelican and the city seal of St. Petersburg.
Although I had been drinking some healthy reds, I had the presence of mind to whip out my digital Nikon and capture a few images.
Later, long after wine hangover, I made a black and white photo of it. I then handcolored it and called it, “Saint Pete at my feet.”
Well, I sold $1000 of that shot at Mainsail.
I will give you some show details.
Setup is on Friday, you can usually drive close to your space.
One big negative of this show is that the park has no grass. We all had to setup on dirt.
You would think the City of St. Petersburg could do better.
Also, they have a curious waitlist policy. Up to a week before the show they will fill from the list. After that they do not fill.
There were more than 25 empty spaces at the show. On a row where my jeweler friends were, there was nine empty spaces in a row. That sucks royal canalwater.
Other than that, the show has really great artists from all over.
My neighbor, a craft artist from North Carolina, sold a goodly number of his handmade lamps which are in the high $800 range.
My other neighbor almost sold out with his hand-turned wooden bowls.
A great well known painter at the top of my row sold at least four giant abstracts.
For every great success, there were equal failures.
A lot of artists I talked to shrugged their shoulders when I asked how they had done.
It was a very hot, humid weekend and the crowd was a little thinner than usual.
Trouble is, Mainsail is no longer the only art show held downtown anymore. Could be a little of the “Naples effect” starting to show here as well.
But, if I can’t be in Fort Worth then Mainsail will do very nicely.
It was a great feeling to leave the show Sunday night with a full wallet.
June 8, 9 & 10
September 1
August 18 & 19
July 28 - August 19
Durham, North Carolina
This is the first year for the show. The town of Silverthorne is very excited about this show as they are building up the arts in the community and we are thrilled to be able to bring one of our high quality festivals to Silverthorne.