Work life balance

The above painting is a very old one but is quite appropriate to the topic. We used to have a business model (yes painting is a business and we had a business plan, marketing strategy etc.) that involved up to five exhibitions a year, and exhibiting or showing work in a number of galleries across the South and West of Wales. It was a successful model that worked well for us for a number of years but it was work intensive.
As time has gone on we have been able to reduce the outlets and maintain our income. We have turned down some work and undertaken only one main exhibition a year, at Aberglasney. As a consequence our work life balance has improved.
This year we had our most successful year ever at our main exhibition but found we didn't enjoy it for a number of reasons. It was a difficult decision as we have had 8 or 9 good years there but we have decided to not apply to exhibit there again next year and have informed them accordingly.
Our main source of work now is from private sales and commissions and the internet which is far more manageable.  We only sell work through one gallery, Origin in Carmarthen so maybe we will be spending more time on the deck chairs at the beach, in the rain!