My exhibition ’Source to Sea - The. Aln’ has proved a great success, in terms of sales and the public response. I sold much more than I expected and for the first time we produced greetings cards which have almost sold out. I had wanted to use this exhibition as a practice event for a similar exhibition at the Old School Gallery in Alnmouth. However they been forced to announce that they are closing down at the end of the year due to the owner of the building deciding to redevelop it as a residential property. It’s a real shame as it was one of the best galleries in Northumberland. Hopefully they will be able to find another venue in Northumberland .
During the exhibition I did a ‘Meet the Artist’ which went well. I later finished the five paintings I demonstrated during the day and have now added them to the exhibition.
Away from the exhibition I attended the February Dovecote Streets Arts Crit at the Bailiffgate Museum. The Crit was moved from its usual Amble venue so the attendees could view Gillian Lee Smith’s excellent exhibition “The Lost and Left Behond”. Gillian talked about her work explaining its genesis. Artists Luke McTaggart and Jim Donelly organised the event which was a great success.
At the moment I am on holiday in Staithes staying at the impressive Bethel Chapel. I have been to the Staithes Studio where I met Ian Mitchell and viewed his work and that of his wife Stef Mitchell. Whilst Ian’s work is quite hard edge Stephs is much more organic. Both artists work was impressive and is well worth a visit if you are ever in Staithes. I also met the lovely people at the Staithes Gallery and particularly liked the work of Rob Curtis and Chantal Barnes.
I have been making a concerted effort to keep a diary of my artistic thoughts in notebook forms and I intend to post some of the pages online to help me stay motivated.