May ‘22 - round up

(Too long; didn’t read - I’m releasing a monthly newsletter to my subscribers and adding to my website blog more reguarly)

About half way through this month I met with someone about a potential business collaboration. Unfortunately the collaboration fell through (they decided they couldn’t juggle a work/life balance and build the business simultaneously) but I did have a frank conversation with them about social media and its importance.

If instagram/facebook/tik tok suddenly died off and the majority of its users stopped using it, a lot of my customer base and means to talk to my customers would disappear, instantly. I rely heavily on social media to connect with potential clients and customers - if this was to disappear I believe I would struggle.

Hence this random block of writing that has just landed in your inbox/on my website blog. I’ve been meaning to start writing something like this for a while - which I’m calling my ‘monthly round up’ and this is the first edition.

What I aim to do is give a more personal insight into how I’m building the business - my monthly goals, events that I’ve done or are coming up in the near future, positives, negatives and anything else that may (or may not) interest you.

My hope is that, if/when social media dies, I’m one step ahead of the game, releasing news and content via my website so that my customer base can continue to see what I’m up to and hopefully continue to engage with me.

So, the May round up, I’ll keep it concise as I don’t want this blog post to be a chore to read through.

I started a new personal piece of Rogie Falls which is north of Inverness - it's a place I’ve visited many times with family and I have strong connections and vivid memories of the place.

I did my 2nd and 3rd markets of the year - Wildwoodz and Crathes Castle. Both were very successful in terms of sales and networking with potential clients. If you’re thinking of doing a market please don’t hesitate to get in contact and I can share with you everything I’ve learned over the past 2 years.

Larger prints of my work are available here: https://nationalparkprintshop.com/collections/jack-spowart

I launched a review system on my website, any new orders will now be available to review - woo hoo!

I completed a commission for Househill cafe in Nairn. Prints are available of this piece at the cafe - I’m really, really happy with how it turned out and so are the owners!

Househill Cafe, Nairn

Highlight of the month

I submitted work to the Banff Mountain Film Festival to be picked as their artist for the festival. I was completely overwhelmed and deliriously happy when I received an email back telling me I had been chosen as the festival artist. I’ve had some time to process this now and can’t wait to get started creating work for the festival and its partners. This is a huge, huge opportunity for me so I’m pretty nervous but I’m going to work super hard on getting it bang on. I’m not 100% sure on all the details but I believe I’m going to be working with Rab, Buff and Banff Mountain Film Festival, with a potential opportunity to go to Banff, Canada for the festival?!?!

https://rab.equipment/uk/banff-artist-search

Next month - June

Notable dates:

Wildwoodz Market Inverness: 11 - 12th June

The Royal Highland Show: 23 - 26th June (I’m exhibiting my work along side 12 other Highland based makers/creators in 1 large gazebo) - I’ll be in the ‘home and gift hall’

www.royalhighlandshow.org

If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading, I hope it’s been interesting. I wouldn’t consider myself much of a writer but I’m going to try and improve.

If you have questions please don’t hesitate!

Cheers ~ Jack