Over our garden wall: just before sunset.
I imagined myself going into an enjoyable hibernation during January and February, emerging at intervals to paint a picture here and there. Instead life has been a hurly-burly since well before Christmas. Not all stressful; I’ve been to some very interesting exhibitions and other good things. The Sussex Modernism: Retreat and Rebellion exhibition (picture below) is on for some time yet, in an extraordinary house near Temple Station on the London Embankment, built in grandiose style by Lord Astor. I went to school just round the corner so a lot of memories (best expurgated).
Sussex Modernism , 2 Temple Place
We stayed overnight opposite my long-ago university Hall of Residence (more memories), after an amazing concert by the pianist Mitsouko Uchida. We also enjoyed a meal overlooking the Thames. The illuminations always lift my spirits. You might have noticed I’m keen on blues….
South Bank at night
In the usual feast-or-famine way, art events are bunching up and approaching fast. Some of my new work is going to the Affordable Art Fair on 9th-12th March, and some more the very next weekend to the Talented Art Fair in the Old Truman Brewery, East London. This is rather exciting as it’s the inaugural event, intended for established artists, by the dynamic team who have organised the very successful New Artists’ Fair.
Tree Quartet, Hove trees in the mist
On the downside, it means getting into Central London by car and doing all the donkey work (bar the main publicity). Hanging, labelling, being there…of course that’s why we normally pay galleries such hefty fees to do it for us, and I do believe it’s worth every penny!
However this is a chance to meet the public – a new public – and, should I sell any paintings, actually know where they’ve gone. If you sell via a gallery you rarely know. And I love it when a buyer sends me a photo of my painting in its new home. Where will this painting of trees in a misty Hove Park end up, I wonder?
There’s lots more in the pipeline – a new gallery and Artists’ Open House just to name two – but I’ll report more on future plans when this particular challenge is over.