West Midlands Artist Achieves Big Break With Major Arts Council Grant...!

That’s me that is- the artist in the title of this post. I received news today that I have been awarded a major arts council grant. I can’t believe it and am still trying to peel myself off the ceiling. It’s a research and development grant to support my interest in landscape painting primarily, but with other things too, for the next two years. I haven’t wanted to say much on the blog as I thought the application would likely come to nothing, but…well, here I am today finding a big envelope from the Arts Council on my doormat, not the expected thin, small envelope I received last time I applied and was rejected, and jumping up in the air with excitement. I’m looking forward to sharing some of my plans and the work I hope to make over the coming months. As from today I’ve suddenly got so many things to plan and to start getting busy with….

At last, I’ve achieved a break. I’ve had lots of knockbacks and rejections from galleries in the last couple of years, which is why I ended up applying to the Arts Council, with the thought that galleries are certainly not the only way to support what you want to do. Almost all commercial galleries depress me and seem so limited with what they are prepared to exhibit, unless one is based in the capital. It’s great to get some validation and support for my ideas and work that is not based around making things to sell. Instead, it’s based around the fact that they might just be interesting things to do and hold some sort of wider cultural and social value. That ties in with my own values as an artist and how I go about trying to make things. A new journey begins…who would have thought?