As you may or may not know, SALA (South Australian Living Artists Festival www.salafestival.com ) happens every year for the entire month of August. Something I had wanted to participate in for many years, but always managed to miss the application deadline. 2022 was the first year I held my own exhibition here in my home town of Wellington. From my personal perspective, it was an amazing success. I was incredibly humbled at the amount of support from within my own community, and so excited to be a part of something I had dreamt about for years.

One year on and the race to the deadline was upon me again. Having had such a wonderful experience the previous year I was determined to go big this year. I added myself to the ‘Artists looking for a Vendor Portal’ on the SALA website and checked regularly for vendors who had also listed themselves as looking for artists. Eventually I found the perfect fit, an absolutely stunning heritage barn in Dawesley that doubles as a wedding venue www.thebraedawesley.com.au A total of seven artists exhibited in this incredible old building. The photos above will give you some idea of the size. Truly I wished I could just pick the building up and take it home with me, it was that gorgeous. As well as exhibiting there, I also held my own solo show in my home town again.

It was a mammoth effort to have enough to support two exhibitions. I had told myself last year that I would be organized leading up to the festival for 2023. But yes, you guessed it, that all went out the window. Being an absolute busy body working in the vegie garden and attending a number of market events meant I really wasn’t as organized as I had intended. There was a frantic amount of creative cramming before I had what I thought, was enough to hang for the two of them. At the very last minute I also decided I would like to frame a number of my pieces (which were quite large). Thankfully my incredibly creative and talented son helped me with this. Now we can also add ‘picture framers’ to our resume! I must admit the Tasmanian Oak floating frames certainly do give that fine finish to the paintings, taking them to another level entirely.

All in all it was a great experience and a huge learning curve. And that is what life is all about afterall, learning! Now I am sitting back and working quietly on all the things I had no time for whilst I was crazily cramming, with a view to actually being more organized for the 2024 Festival! Watch this space for next years report. And I would certainly encourage any artist out there who has been thinking about having a go, to just do it! It is an incredible experience that does amazing things for your confidence in yourself as an artist and creator. Just go for it!!