The names are in. The time is up. My mother has randomly picked a winner. (“I think I’ll go with lucky number 13.”) The stage is set to announce the winner of my very first giveaway. Let’s get started.

Drum roll pleeease!

The winner of my fabulous you-love-your-mother-so-give-her-some-art Mother’s Day giveaway is:

Kelly Parkinson!

Yep, the delightful and wonderful copywriter extraordinaire of Copylicious fame is the winner. And she has already picked the painting to get a print of:

Windmills, © Sarah Marie Lacy. 16x20 acrylic on canvas, $900.00

In my not really very humble opinion, it’s a damn good choice! This is actually one of my favourite paintings. The sky just gets me all excited every time. It instantly takes me back to the hillside where I was standing, the wind blowing in my hair, the cool sea air brushing my face. Mmm…heavenly.

I’m in full on preparation mode this week – it’s the Pelham Art Festival this weekend, so I’m out buying director’s chairs, a rug for the floor, a banquet table to display all of the cards and prints I’m ordering. I’m pretty excited. I had a really great time last year, but it was definitely a learning curve. A year ago, I knew absolutely nothing about marketing. I would actually go so far as to say that 6 months ago I knew nothing about marketing. Now I feel a lot more prepared.

Last year, I had a wobbly table, two bits of old carpet, and a couple brightly coloured lawn chairs that weren’t even mine. (Long story involving patio furniture and stolen trees. Don’t ask. It’s not that interesting.)

Unsurprisingly, while people were interested in my work, no one bought anything. Hmm, maybe because I looked like I’d stolen all of my furniture off the side of the road.

This year, I am so ready for this. I’ve got these gorgeous black director’s chairs, a delicious red Persian carpet, and tonight I’m buying one of those solid, you’d-need-to-tackle-this-puppy-to-knock-it-over banquet tables.

I’m also ordering a ton of cards and prints so that even if someone can’t afford the original, they can definitely buy a reproduction. And then I still make money, because hey, money is pretty nice.

I’m stoked. I love talking to people about my art and I totally had a full page spread in the free newspaper that gets delivered across the entire region. Okay, so apparently they didn’t put the picture online, but I’ll scan it and show you guys. I take up like half a page. It was a little unexpected and I may have had to stifle a scream when I opened it, but I’m still pleased. And last Thursday a reporter from the Voice of Pelham came and interviewed me, so that’ll be a little bit more publicity as well.

Lots of exciting stuff going on and all the while, I’m still trying to rest and relax. I know that next weekend will be a lonnnng weekend, but it’ll be fun at least.

I’ll take lots of pictures and let you all know how it goes!

Tags: Art, Art Marketing, pelham art festival