Sam B. Kennedy at the Art Now Fair, Peckham
This weekend I took a selection of my paintings to London for Art Now Fair at Copeland Park in Peckham, and I think I can safely say that my paintings felt very much at home there.
Copeland Park is cool in all the right ways: a large, slightly gritty warehouse space surrounded by quirky independent businesses, creative studios and plenty of South London energy. It felt like a very natural setting for a collection of paintings that combines traditional painting with street-art influences, found materials, bold colour and a healthy disregard for keeping everything too neat.
I had a 4-metre-wide booth in the centre of the fair, which gave me plenty of space to create something colourful and, frankly, quite difficult to miss. We filled the booth with a vibrant selection of paintings spanning almost four years of my practice.
And by ‘we’, I absolutely my wonderful husband.
He took time off work to support me throughout the fair, taking on the roles of art handler, install manager, and general problem-solver. He did a brilliant job getting everything installed, aligned and looking professional, and I couldn't have done the weekend without him.
One of the things I really enjoyed about putting this particular collection together was seeing such a broad chunk of my practice in one place.
There were paintings from my Urban Animals series, alongside my 21st Century Woman portraits, next to pieces focusing on games, play, and childhood memories.
On paper, these might sound like very different subjects. A seagull, a portrait of a woman and a painting inspired by board games don't exactly sound like a carefully co-ordinated collection.
Yet when I looked at them together, the thread connecting them felt very clear. They are all about noticing things and deciding that they are important and worth paying attention to. Sometimes that's an animal we might otherwise walk straight past. Sometimes it's an experience, a feeling or a part of contemporary womanhood that deserves to be looked at properly. More recently, I've been thinking a lot about the things that make us happy and how easily those little pockets of joy can disappear as life changes.
My paintings are ways of saying: I noticed this. This made me feel human. This moment mattered to me.
Across all of these different subjects, the visual language remains recognisably mine: vibrant colour that almost sings, street-art inspirations, graphic shapes, tactile surfaces and layers of materials. The subject changes, but the act of noticing and caring stays the same.
Introducing ‘The Dreamer’
One of the newest paintings in the booth was ‘The Dreamer’, a new portrait that I painted while thinking about luck, possibility and that feeling of always looking forward. There are a few little layers of luck hidden beneath the surface- if you look closely you’'ll see that collaged just beneath the paint are a raffle ticket and a lottery ticket. The raffle ticket is number 8, which was a deliberate choice because 8 is considered a particularly fortunate number in many Asian cultures.
The painting itself is oil on acrylic, with a fluorescent pink underpainting that shines through the oil paint, giving the portrait a luminous glow.
‘The Dreamer’ is also the painting I'm currently giving away as part of my Art Giveaway! To enter, you simply need to follow me on Instagram or Facebook and sign up to my newsletter. You can also get an additional entry by sharing the giveaway to your Instagram or Facebook stories.
Enter the Painting Prize Draw here.
I had originally planned to close the giveaway on 25th September, but I've extended it until Sunday 4th October, so it will now run across the Guildford Festival of the Arts weekend too. So if you've been meaning to enter, this is your nudge!
My paintings are often intended to be little conversation starters. I want people to look at something and say ‘this reminds me of…’ or ‘I used to have one of those!’. This weekend people stopped to talk a lot- about individual paintings, to ask about materials and tell me their own stories. That's one of the things I love most about showing work in person. A painting that began as something very personal in my studio suddenly becomes part of somebody else's memory.
I was also really pleased with how the booth itself came together. I had worked hard beforehand to make sure the presentation felt professional, cohesive and considered, and I think that paid off. Having a strong, well-presented booth helped the work stand out in the exhibition environment and made me feel like I was representing my practice in the way I want to be seen.
And, perhaps most importantly, I now know that my paintings look bloody good in a proper booth. That is actually a really useful thing to have discovered!
A quiet fair, and a lesson in marketing
The fair was unfortunately very quiet in terms of overall footfall.
If you didn't know Art Now Fair was happening, you certainly weren't the only one.
There was very little visible marketing around the event, despite marketing and promotion being part of what had been promised, and I think that inevitably had an impact on the number of people who came through the doors.
It was frustrating, particularly after putting so much time, money and effort into preparing for the weekend. However, I'm choosing to take the useful parts from the experience.
I got to see my work displayed in a professional-sized booth. I tested how a larger selection of my paintings worked together. I had some genuinely lovely conversations. I made sales. I gained new subscribers. And I came away with a much clearer idea of what I want from future art fairs. Most importantly, I now know that this is a format that really suits my work.
I'm looking forward to taking that knowledge into future fairs and exhibitions, particularly as I start looking towards larger and more professionally organised events. So come and find me at a future Art Fair- there will probably be a lot of colour involved!
