Advantages in my art exhibition being "local"

The entrance to my exhibition at home

Recently, I put on an exhibition of my work at home and it turned out to be my most successful event ever. Why was this, and what made it such a success?

It's not that I live somewhere with a big footfall of potential visitors - the location is the relatively small village of Holymoorside a few miles outside Chesterfield in Derbyshire, with my house situated in the centre of the village not far from the village hall.

So you wouldn't imagine that this would be a great location however, each Spring Bank Holiday, there are art exhibitions in two locations in the village, one of which is the village hall. Normally these are part of Derbyshire Open Arts but in 2026, with DOA taking a year off, the organisation of the exhibitions was taken over by a smaller group with lots of local connections, and I got involved. I was keen, though, to exhibit in my own home rather than the village hall, as it allowed me the potential to set up my work space as part of my exhibition so that visitors could see my process.

Nor is it that I'm a long-time resident of the village. We moved here just 4 years ago, but, in that time, I have aimed to get involved in a number of community activities and consequently have met lots of the villagers. So during the three days of my exhibition, I knew quite a lot of the visitors but there were plenty who were unfamiliar to me - either from the village or further afield.

For those who were local, much of the significance of my exhibition was my subject matter. My husband and I enjoy walking in the neighbourhood, where the quiet country lanes and footpaths through fields and woods bring us pleasure and gave me the inspiration to turn a photo taken on a walk through a bluebell walk into a piece of textile art.

Bluebells on Bage Hill

Bluebell time textile art

And having made this one, I decided to make other views from walks into pictures using fragments of fabric, overstitched with variegated thread for additional detail. It has become a collection which I call "Walks around Holymoorside". In November 2024, when I had made 7 pictures for the collection and already sold 4, I wrote a blog about creating a themed collection, which you can read here.

Although I have made two other pictures of Derbysihre scenes (Chatsworth and Thornbridge Hall) since then, I have also made five more for the collection and was working on a sixth during my exhibition. Seeing these, and the work in progress, was of particular interest to my visitors and resulted in an abundance of sales, particularly of cards showing them but also limited edition prints and three of my most recently completed original pictures also sold - all of them to people who live in the village or have a close connection with it.

Windyfields Oaks in Autumn 2

#8 The MIllpond in Winter

#9 Millpond in Autumn

So, I conclude that making art about places that matter to people and having the art available in a location that is close to those places and convenient for the people who live there, is a great way to both spread the joy that I feel in making the art and to find future homes for the artworks.

This was further emphasised when one of my local visitors called to collect his purchase on the day after my exhibition and said that he and his wife would like to buy the one that I was working on, and have also commissioned me to make another. I have now finished "#10 In Chander Hill Woods" (shown here) and after it has been professionally photographed and a few prints produced, it will head to its new home in the village.

Now, I'm excited to be starting on a new picture, knowing that it will, in due course, be added to two other local scenes.

To see more of my textile art head to this page of my website and if you would like to keep up with what I am making (and how), you can sign up for my monthly newsletter here.