Entering an open art show costs an artist money and risks rejection, so why do it? Landscape printmaker, Lynne Roebuck, explains why she does...

Close-up of art print selected for show at the East Coast Open Exhibition 2010 (Bedtime Stories)

So why Open Exhibitions?

Lynne Roebuck says simply, "My art is better for being out there as much as possible" and explains that all opportunities to show are valuable. Getting prints displayed she says "challenges me, shows me my own art in other environments, as silly as that might sound, but it gives me 'other eyes' to assess it with – and I'm always seeking ways and opportunities to assess it".

But why opens? The printmaker says: "Well firstly, they're a real acid test for artists I think – they really do 'out' any preciousness hiding inside and I like to remind myself of this regularly. They can also generate good art reviews and quite often a very different audience come to see the art". An acid test is perhaps a good description for there is, indeed, no pretending a letter of rejection, or a refusal notice on a website, is anything other than what it is. She says "I'm not sure many novice and amateur artists are prepared for the damage a rejection does to their confidence. I do think it's important to be at the right stage as an artist before risking submitting an entry as the knock can set a novice artist back a long way." Lynne Roebuck observes that no one wants to be precious, that few artists would own up to it, perhaps even to themselves, but it's too easy to be so when a creative takes a personal pride in the quality, creativity, authenticity and integrity of their art. She believes though that being at all precious causes an artist to close-off, ignoring constructive comments, seldom questioning their own work or challenging themselves and suggests it "surely suffocates artistic development" which is why it's important to guard against it creeping in and entering open exhibitions is one way to do this.

Collecting & Choosing art

Artists are required to collect any art which has not been chosen for display. Has Lynne had to do this and what was it like? The fine artist comments that her very first submission to an open exhibition, fortunately, was successful. Of course she does have to collect work, "I am a beggar for pushing boundaries" she says "I like to put something obscure or experimental in just for badness and so far I've had 100% success† in getting those returned" she laughs "it's no big deal". The artist then explains how on more than one occasion, a picture has been sent back from one only to be accepted at another. "Once I collected a print on my way to submit art to another exhibition, down the road so to speak, where it was accepted and it sold". There are many factors affecting the chances of acceptance which are nothing to do with artistic merit, such as the number of entries received and of course the particular judges strategy on that particular day. "It's no black mark against a print" says the landscape printmaker "for a piece to have been allowed out of the studio at all, it's already done well".

So how does she choose what to submit? The artist revealed that it is often obvious, for any number of reasons including how recently an art print was completed, whether it has local relevance and/or it's been entered for an open art show before. "It's the easiest part" she smiles "as it's never about which is the 'best' print I happen to have. As I've said: if I'm allowing them out into the public domain, they've already passed my stringent quality control".

January 28, 2011