#61: My First Red Dot: A Milestone at Holmfirth Artweek 2026

Holmfirth Artweek 2026 has now come to an end, and this year gave me a moment I won’t forget.

On the very first day of the show, my oil pastel piece of Castle Hill sold.

That meant that, for the first time, one of my original artworks had a red dot placed beside it at an exhibition or art show. It’s such a small symbol, but seeing it there meant a great deal. It marked the moment when something I had created in the studio became something another person wanted to take home.

A Familiar Subject

Castle Hill has appeared in my work more than once. It is one of those landmarks that feels inseparable from Huddersfield — visible from miles around and instantly recognisable to people who live locally.

I think that familiarity is part of what keeps drawing me back to it. It belongs to the landscape, but it also belongs to people’s memories. Everyone seems to have their own relationship with it.

Creating the piece in oil pastel gave me the chance to interpret something many people already know well through colour, texture and direct mark-making. Selling it made me realise that my version of the place had connected with someone strongly enough for them to want to live with it.

That is a very rewarding feeling.

The First Red Dot

I’ve seen red dots beside other artists’ work at shows before, but having one placed beside my own artwork felt completely different.

There was pride in it, of course, but there was also relief. Making art can involve so much uncertainty. You spend hours making decisions alone, never really knowing how the finished work will be received once it leaves the studio.

A red dot doesn’t answer every doubt, and it doesn’t suddenly make everything easy. But it does offer a small piece of evidence that the work can find a place beyond the person who made it.

For me, that made it feel like an important milestone.

More Than the Sale

It would be easy to focus only on the fact that the piece sold, but what mattered most was the connection behind it.

Someone saw the work, responded to it, and decided that it belonged in their home. It now has a life beyond the studio and beyond the Artweek walls.

That is one of the strangest and most satisfying parts of making art. A piece can begin as an idea, become an object through hours of work, and eventually become part of someone else’s surroundings and story.

The sale made that journey feel real in a way I hadn’t experienced before with an original piece of artwork.

A Print Found a Home Too

I also sold one of my prints during the show.

I’ve recently been putting more energy into producing prints carefully in-house, using archival paper and ensuring each one is signed, numbered and packaged with the same attention I give to the original work.

Seeing one sell at Holmfirth Artweek was another encouraging sign that people are interested in engaging with my work in different forms.

Original artwork and prints offer very different ways of owning art, but both create a connection between the studio and the person who chooses the piece.

The Work That Didn’t Sell

My other piece didn’t sell, and I think it is important to acknowledge that without treating it as a disappointment.

An exhibition is not only successful when every artwork leaves the wall. Different pieces connect with different people, and sometimes the right viewer simply hasn’t encountered the work yet.

The unsold piece is still something I believe in. Its value hasn’t changed because it came home with me.

That feels like an important part of learning how to exhibit: celebrating the work that sells without allowing sales to become the only measure of whether the experience mattered.

A Big Step Forward

Holmfirth Artweek has played an important role in my development as an artist. Each time I prepare work for public display, I learn something about finishing, presentation and allowing the artwork to stand on its own.

This year added something new to that experience.

I sold my first original artwork at a show. I saw my first red dot. I sold a print. And I came away with proof that the work is beginning to find its way into other people’s lives.

It may be one original piece and one print, but it feels much bigger than the numbers suggest.

It feels like progress.

I’m very grateful to everyone who stopped to look, supported the event, bought work, or simply spent time with the pieces.

The red dot may have been small, but I’ll remember it for a long time.

.M.

Be real.

Make art.

If you’d like to learn more about my creative process or see my latest work, feel free to reach out or check out the rest of my website.