First Anniversary

Rather unbelievably, it's been 5 months and two changes of exhibition the last blog entry.

The fifth change in September started off very well with some wonderful pastels by Anthony Barrow, intense landscapes by John Ryan and incredibly serene work by Paul Smith. Sales then went rather quiet until the end of the exhibition with two works by Paul Smith selling in the last week and one of Suchi Chidambaram's on the day we were taking the exhibition down! A very beautiful painting by Michael Little also sold on the last Saturday as a Christmas present. This was then accidentally collected by the artist as I wasn't there first thing on the following Monday morning!

I'm not sure what happened to the optimism that was bubbling up just before the summer holidays; perhaps it was dampened by holiday costs, but the sales for the September exhibition were not great. A shame really as the work was very much admired and, particularly with new artists to the gallery, it's always a pleasure making the phone call to the artists.

The change of exhibition for our anniversary show was fraught with difficulties. My very lovely father in Law died last month. Because he died abroad, knowing when to take time off for the funeral was difficult. It was completely unexpected. He was fine. And now he's gone. Wherever he was in the world, he always managed to make it to the private views and was a big supporter of the gallery. I miss him.

So, I was very late in organising invitations, selecting artwork and contacting artists. Then during hanging week, not only did the office manager, my right hand man for change of exhibitions, have to take time off for family reasons, but I came down with a very nasty flu - it was so bad, I'm sure it was ManFlu! I woke up with fevers on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings and, on Monday, completely forgot about various commitments, including site visits and the fact that several artists were collecting work. I hadn't prepared poor Abi and she was inundated. I had spent the Saturday late afternoon taking down work and preparing it for collection, but had not told her that the Michael Little painting in the office was sold! Whilst most of the artists were lovely and professional, one made Abi wrap the paintings while she stood and watched. She's off my Christmas card list.

I was sitting on the gallery wall about 2.5m up full of various ibuprofen and paracetamol concoctions putting up the Christmas lights whilst Abi held the ladder in between preparing wall labels, feeling pretty overwhelmed with the prospect of hanging the show in time and wondering how on earth I was going to open on the Thursday night. John Gibson, one of the builders I work with regularly, called and offered help. Not being someone who knows how to accept help graciously, I said I was fine. I'm delighted to say that he didn't believe me and on Tuesday evening he turned up at the gallery with three of his men and completely transformed the situation. They helped hang, they hoovered, they cleaned and they moved work; they got rid of rubbish and they were a god send. Then on the night of the private view, Abi cancelled her commitments to help serve the wine and Adam, my wonderful nanny's fiance, gave up his evening to be barman. The whole week was transformed by nothing less than angels - John and his team, Abi and Adam. I am very lucky to have such good friends.

The other angel - one that has stopped me going completely bonkers - is Mickey Bodimeade. Not only has she designed the invitations for the last two shows, she has also redesigned our website and it is fantastic. Apart from removing huge amounts of work from my to-do list - the invitations were taking so long because I was using an inappropriate programme - its wonderful having a superbly talented graphic designer, one that genuinely justifies the title "designer" as opposed to "selector of font type and size". She has an excellent eye for arrangement, has redone our logo and our identity is starting to come together and look more professional. All this talent and a beautiful person as well! You can see another of her websites at http://www.terra-creative.com/index.html

It nearly went rather horribly wrong when the wine didn't arrive but the guests did - although we advertised an opening time of 7.00pm everyone started arriving at 6.15 as we're the first stop after the lights! Must remember for next year. Majestic Wine had got stuck in traffic but got there just as the first group of guests were filing in through the door. Majestic on Cross Deep have been consistently good in providing a very nice "party" wine and plenty of glasses! Thanks to Alex and his team at the Strawberry Hill branch!

A local cameraman video'd the evening and its on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZUQoVSeS4Q - watch out for the gallery, it appears for about 3 seconds at the beginning, but its a lovely film if you're a local! And I am, very proudly, a local gal!

You can see Andy Waite's beautiful work in the window, and the piece I wanted for myself has already sold. In the first week we have now sold three pieces of work including a Steve Capper work - they are always lovely and do very well. I love the current exhibition - apart from Andy Waite's work and Andrew Hoods, there are some new artists that I'm rather proud of. One is Maureen Stephenson with her impressions of light through rainy glass. Her brush strokes are quite complex and the detail of each painting is quite fascinating and as mesmeric as the whole.

Another artist whose work I'm showing for the first time is Andrew Radomski. Having trained as an artist and art restorer, his surrealist work using pastels is incredible in every sense of the word. I'm amazed that this man is not incredibly famous for his skill, his vision and his classically trained hand and eye. In my view, he is the next Dali and I intend to try hard to ensure that his work does not go unrecognised.

So, two weeks into this exhibition and I'm delighted with sales so far - if the construction side is any indication of the economic situation, then we are on the mend for sure. I'm rather resentful of media misery that propagates a myth serving no one except for newspaper sales and wish they would just leave the economy to start healing itself. Yes, its been an undoubtedly tough year and yes, it was a pretty bad recession and we're left with a huge national debt. But enough. This isn't the first time nor will it be the last. Neither will we learn too many lessons from it. But it is time to recover now. I see us as a resilient and optimistic nation (in spite of Daily Mail readers) and we have reached our fill of negativity. It is time to start rebuilding instead of the economic hibernation that has only perpetuated the problems.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now.....

So, what's next. Two exhibitions are in the offing, both rather short as they include two or three artists each.

The first is a project that I've been trying to move forward for some time. It's not a unique idea I'm told, but it was inspired by a friend, Philip Wells - otherwise known as The Fire Poet. Whilst I love his performances (and he is a superb performance poet, receiving a standing ovation on the 14th November at The Albert Hall), I can't always remember the words. I wanted a painting with one of his poems inscribed into it. I had contacted Kurt Jackson because his artwork is just beautiful and evocative of landscapes and histories and also quite often includes scribed text, although not poetry. Jackson, rather understandably, is booked for the next two years! So the search continued until I came across the work of Lisa Henderson. Having also trained as an art historian, the layers of her mixed media work, their depth of colour, their links with the landscape and recognition of works past; together with the intelligence of her compositions made her the perfect artist for the project. All that was left was for her to be inspired by Philip's poetry and that wasn't difficult. Some of Lisa's new works are hanging in the current show as well - ariel views of Teddington and Kingston, one of which I'm rather desperate to own as its a location map of the gallery, and quite beautiful.

I'm very excited about this project and it is now in the making. It will require apt and timely promotion and that needs to start now.

The second was proposed by Alistair Tucker, another of my favourite artists. He proposed an exhibition of his work together with that of Jason Hicklin and Norman Ackroyd RA. This will be a fantastic exhibition, not just because of the standing of the artists and the incredible beauty of their work, but also because of the uniformity of the show. Having hung several mixed shows, usually with 12 artists or more in each, it has been quite tricky to get the gallery to "hang" well. A unity of theme and media will be a pleasure to hang. Watch this space for complexity - perhaps I speak too soon!!

In any case, I'm also excited about meeting Norman Ackroyd! I've always been a fan of his work.

There is a complexity with Jason Hicklin in that he is tied to another gallery so part of the commission will go to them. Having spoken to the gallery, they do sound rather decent, but nonetheless, I'm curious as to how these agreements are structured and why an artist would agree to them. Is the investment in the artists much greater than the usual made in any artist when they are shown and promoted by a gallery? If so, how? It already costs a fortune to change shows, hang the work, print leaflets and brochures (and that's before starting to print individual artist brochures which I'm hoping to do in the future), advertise the exhibition, promote the artist on the website, print in house information on them, etc. etc. The only thing I haven't done so far is take artists to the Art Fairs - and that is something that is planned for next year, depending on available funds! Different gallerists tell me different costs for showing at the Affordable Art Fair; some say its from £3,500 others say its around £15,000!! For a weekend! I will find out and let you know, but someone has said that if it wasn't worth it, gallerists wouldn't do it. The reports for last year's shows was that they broke even. So its probably worth trying at least once!

Having completed the gallery's first year with a degree of success - measured by the aims, which were to promote the gallery's existence and to survive! - the new year's intention is for the architect's gallery to become one of the best known is respected galleries in London! That, of course, and to become profitable! We have quickly become a part of Teddington life and the regulars to the gallery, whether buyers or admirers, always comment about the excellent quality of the work we show and the interesting variety in every exhibition. I wonder if at some point we're going to have to be shocking to be notable?

Part of next year's resolution though is to also spend more time with my family. I have been averaging 64 hours a week, including working on Saturdays, which is just not good for my kids. I'm hoping that in the New Year I will work every other Saturday and the lovely Julie will do the other two! Julie is a multi talented artist in her own right - an actress, a poet (of erotic poetry for vegans and vegetarians - her latest book, of which I have a signed copy, is printed on elephant dung paper!) and a gallerist having worked at another gallery before. She is also a complete charmer and a delight to speak to!

It is one of the unexpected delights of the gallery - I have met a plethora of people, some of whom are just a pleasure to know and definitely life enriching.

The next exhibition is planned to open on the 30th January 2010 with the PV on the 29th. I'm looking forward to it. I will update this blog with some images of work later.

Fragile Landscape - our third exhibition

New rule no. 3 - don't speak to anyone, don't answer the phone and don't open the doors to the gallery during change of exhibition week.  It will, simply, drive you mad.  

The number of people who call to offer us IT services, accounting services, alarm systems, insurances and changes to our energy supply is just ridiculous.  Why anyone would bother I don't know - if I wanted any of these services I would simply find them for myself.  That is why God invented Google!.  The man from the accounting company asked to speak to Sam Kamleh, when I said that Sam was not available and we already had an accountant we were happy with, he said "....but I have already spoken to Mr Sam and he said he was interested".  Caught out the little so and so.  Perhaps it isn't fair to pretend to be my own Secretary, but serves the sexist toads right for presuming that if you're a woman you must be the totty and not the top dog! 

I've become quite sharp with them which I don't like to do because of my brother in law who does a similar job.  Hey ho.  Someone has to take the stress and its best that the phone sales people do - why pay for a therapist when you can be cured on their phone bill? 

Now to the Fragile Landscape exhibition.  The private view was great and very busy, I'm delighted to report.  I always see it as a nice social evening and was delighted that we had some sales on the night.  Martin Goold's work sold very well and so did Alistair Tucker's.   

Sue Knight's exquisite Fragile Landscapes paintings are just wonderful and look amazing in the space.  Combined with Miles Bodimeade's Lycanthropy sculptures the gallery looked like it had been lifted from Cork Street (in its hay day).  Teddington IS the new Cork Street!

  

There is such a high standard of work in this exhibition that it really does set the tone for the gallery's future.  Suchi Chidambaram had painted two new paintings especially for this exhibition and they are wonderful.  Others had been on show at The Royal Academy Summer Show 2007.   I'm delighted with all the work and rather honoured that these wonderful emerging and established artists want to exhibit at the architect's gallery.  

Getting everything up on the walls is entertaining.  I hadn't arranged time slots for artists collecting and delivering work, so at times it was like Clapham Junction and it might have been frustrating for artists who'd come a long way.  Richard Watkins and his friend Morgan helped move the steel hoops to the garden, Kate came all the way from Cumbria, Barry from Manchester, Sue's very large canvases needed a truck and Miles had come from Bath.  Alexander from Brighton and that's only some of them. Various works coming in and out, various works still at the gallery to be collected later some are still there but I'm not sure why.  Jon Adams fantastic works arrived on Friday morning requiring a reshuffle of the hanging.  Luckily, not only are they just beautiful they were also beautifully packaged, nicely framed and ready for hanging.  Whilst I like all the artists I'm working with one can't help the moments of irritation with them when we start having to string everything - its incredibly time consuming.  New rule no. 4 - state that we will charge for any works we have to string or prepare for hanging!  

Then there are the large works - I tried to hang Sue's by myself and although they are relatively light for their size, they're not designed for holding up with one arm whilst trying to get the hook in the other.  I also had to wear gloves and keep the bubble wrap on to avoid staining or damaging them.  The largest one could not have been done without Kurt.  Standing at the top of the tall ladder trying to get the hook in whilst I was on tip toe holding the other end up invited a goodly amount of expletives from Kurt - some more X-rated than others.  Nonetheless, the stretching was a good substitute for exercise and helped flatten my stomach for the evening.  

Without Kurt there is no way this exhibition would have come together on time - in fact, there are still labels missing on a few paintings and all of the sculptures.  Miles had to write them by hand at the Private View!   Kurt didn't stop picking up cardboard boxes and packages, clearing up the space, mopping the floor, ordering wine and glasses, clearing the garden, taking irritating phone calls, moving paintings up and down stairs, going to the shops for various missing bits and pieces helping with the hanging, helping Max Jacquard bring down the scarecrows from the window and then serving drinks and clearing at the Private View.  He didn't even swear that much and only lost his temper once or twice.  

Without Glenda though, the labels and biographies - which are incredibly time consuming - were not completed.  My beautiful friend Elizabeth Healey came to help but it's tricky to learn photoshop in 10 minutes.  I was delighted that she and Philip came to the do in the evening.  The actress and the poet - excellent duo.  You must watch her film real on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2195416183453095626.

As for the Fire Poet http://www.thefirepoet.com/ I'm planning something interesting for him at the gallery.  More as the idea develops!

  

The opening then started with the children arriving with Mirka - my amazing nanny - to help with serving the drinks.  I carried on doing labels until my daughter called up "mummy the posh man who came last time is here"!.   So I decided to abandon the remaining labels and go and greet people as they arrived.  The posh gentleman was Councillor Martin Elenghorn - the design champion in the Borough - who has been very supportive of the gallery and I am delighted that he comes to the Private Views.  But as I am slightly in awe of his intellect I, of course, venture to sound like an ass every time I speak to him.  Of course, it isn't nice or decent to wish that someone would develop Alzheimer's just so that they would forget the idiotic things you said and now that I'm reading The Secret (again) I am making a conscious effort to only thing positive and loving things about myself and other people.

The week was made more special because of Suzanne's visit with her rather improved fiance.  They make a fantastic looking couple and the wedding is quite soon. I don't know who will look after the gallery on the day but am mentally assessing various candidates.  Suzanne is a former employee and a very good friend.  

So, now that Private View no. 3 is done and I only ache in two or three places I need to tidy up the labelling.  I tried to do this and to design a poster for our new external board on Saturday but it was very busy.  I must rearrange the set up so that we don't have the invoicing in one room and the card machine in another.   This would also help any future employees.    More tidying up next week when Kurt is there.  We do need someone else, but I haven't found them yet.  Several people have applied for positions with the architecture practice and with the gallery, but none that possesses all the skills necessary.  Some have been lovely ladies but the technology would probably be quite tricky, others are quite young and would not be appropriate sales people for the gallery. Others are skilled in some areas but don't know how to use design programmes or how to update the website.  As the architecture practice is now picking up we'll definitely need someone there and I would prefer to employ an architect - they tend to be better all rounders with skills in several software packages - than the many who have applied to the gallery because they "love art".  If only Vincent was here.

So, now for the preparation for exhibition no. 4 - the Summer Exhibition.  I already have a list and have contacted several of the artists and one has even delivered her work already!  Our invitation list is improving although its still a bit messy, and using the Post Office on line has helped us collate the postal list in one place.    

Next week also sees the start of the painting and life drawing classes.  At the moment it is largely defeating its objective and we're rather going backwards having underestimated the costs and the fees charged by life models.  So, we need to update the prices which is always a little awkward yet it has to be done for it to be a viable enterprise.  I have no doubt it will be.  All is in place - easels, space, screen, teachers, life models and the coffee is on order!  We have two students per night at the moment and our break-even is 8 per night. But, you can't move forward unless you take the first step, so step we must.  I'm very much looking forward to it - although for a while I'll need to be there late every night to lock up and clean up.  Eventually I'll arrange something else - probably with the teaching artist - to lock up.  It does make more sense. 

Its exciting and rather non stop.  We also have the sculpture competition to launch and I need to chase up Cleve West.   

All good things to come.