Page 13 of The House on Waterfall Hill
‘What do you have in mind?’ Ethel said, folding her arms across her chest as if she would say no to anything that was proposed.
‘Firstly, I want to say that your work is stunning,’ Flick said. ‘All of you. I had a good look around your shops this morning before you arrived and the quality of the work is exceptional. That is not the reason for our lack of sales but some of your rooms or shops could be presented better. For some of you your area is just a workspace, not a space for showcasing your wonderful art. I’d like you all to look at Katherine’s studio and see how her space is laid out. Every mosaic is displayedbeautifully with clear prices on all of them, they aren’t stacked up in piles with no prices. Some of you don’t have any stock at all. You need to think about what your space looks like to potential customers and whether it appeals to them.’
‘I suppose we can do that,’ Rose said.
‘Some of you need to diversify. Aidan, your sculptures are stunning but most of them are dragons.’
‘I like dragons,’ Aidan said, grumpily.
‘And that’s great for fellow dragon lovers, but some people might prefer to see a dolphin, a deer, a puppy or an eagle. Could we try doing some other animals, alongside the dragons of course?’
‘I’ll think about it.’
Flick ploughed on. ‘Rose, your landscapes are lovely but maybe you could also paint some animals, portraits of celebrities, pets, flowers just to try to appeal to a wider audience.’
‘I suppose.’
‘Footfall, or rather the lack of it, is one of our biggest problems. We need to give people a reason to come up here. To that end I want to reopen the café. Well, not me personally, I don’t know the first thing about serving food, but I’ll find someone to run it. If people are up here for a coffee they might be inclined to wander round your studios. We could even offer a voucher, say five percent off to spend on your art for every time they spend twenty pounds or more in the café.’
‘I’m not sure I want my work discounted,’ Katharine said. ‘It devalues it.’
‘It’s only five percent,’ Luke said.
‘For every customer who spends twenty pounds. That’s a lot of customers.’
‘It’s also a lot more customers than you’re getting right now,’ Luke said.
Katherine pulled a face and muttered something under her breath.
‘I’d like to give them other reasons to come up here,’ Flick went on. ‘The fact that you create your masterpieces here and that this is a working studio is one of its attributes. I’d like a day a week where you’d be demonstrating your work and we’ll advertise it to try to encourage people to come up here. That could be every Saturday for example and it would be a demonstration day for everyone, or we could have a quilt demonstration day on the Monday, wood carving demonstration on the Tuesday for example. People can ask questions and talk to you about your process. How would you feel about that?’
‘Do you want us all to be topless?’ Luke teased.
‘I beg your pardon,’ Ethel said.
‘It was a joke, Ethel, just a joke about something me and Flick were talking about earlier. No one will be topless.’
‘I should think not. No one has seen these breasts for forty years since my husband passed. I’m not going to whip them out just to sell a few quilts.’
‘No one is asking you to do that,’ Flick said, passing Luke a glare.
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Luke said, quickly. ‘Peoplelove that kind of thing, watching someone work, and it really gives them an appreciation of how much work goes into one of our pieces. And it’s only one day a week, what harm can it do?’
‘I don’t work well with people staring at me,’ Rose said.
‘I’m not really a people person,’ Aidan said.
‘You kind of have to be if you want to sell your work. Or at least pretend to be,’ Flick said.
None of them looked particularly happy about this. Flick wondered if this was part of the reason for the lack of footfall: grumpy faces and bad attitudes.
‘We need more artists too. If you know anyone who offers something different to what is already here, then please ask them to contact me and we can discuss getting them a space,’ Flick said.
She looked around at them. None of her suggestions was being met with joy right now, so she was dreading saying what she knew she had to say next.
‘I also think we need to offer something that the average person can afford to buy. Most people do not have enough money to spend three thousand pounds on a painting.’
‘I’m not lowering my prices,’ Rose said.
