'The Road', oil on canvas, 15 x 15 cms, 2015
Private Collection
I was packing up my small paintings on
Tuesday evening in the Upper Gallery at The Artists Workhouse at the end of the
‘A Minor Place’ exhibition when I noticed that there was a red dot on the label
for ‘The Road’. My heart beat a bit faster as I went through my box, which I
thought I had been packing with this and the other small canvasses that had
accompanied it. It wasn’t there but I hadn’t noticed until now. My heart now
sank. Not that one, I thought. ‘The Road’ was my personal favourite, one of
those paintings that only come along every few years, and a painting I had
deliberated for ages about before putting it in the show as to whether I should
label it ‘not for sale’. But I hadn’t
and now it was gone.
And I never had chance to let it go
personally as it had been sold by Dawn at the gallery just five minutes before
the exhibition ended altogether on Sunday afternoon, so it had been wrapped and
taken away there and then. I’m aware now of sounding a bit mawkish, and it is
great Dawn managing to sell it; to an Australian visitor who lives in Stratford
but works in London, the painting reminding her of her commute but also
possessing something unidentifiable that drew her in. The same unidentifiable
quality I loved about it too. It’s nice that someone else ‘connected’ with it
enough to want to buy it. ‘Just do
another one’, joked Andy and Hugh.
'The Wait', oil on canvas, 15 x 15cms, 2015
Private Collection
I also did a nice swap with Hugh with ‘The
Wait’, another favourite from this series, for one of Hugh’s artworks, so now,
having sold another in January from my ‘The Lie Of The Land’ exhibition, with
this set of paintings being now quite depleted it does feel the time is right
to do another one. Or more. It’s always best to look forward, not back.
As Hugh, Andy and I slunk to the pub after
packing up our respective artworks, with each of us having sold a few pieces,
and the positive reception the exhibition has received, there was a pleasing
satisfaction with the whole experience felt between us and a feeling that we
had pulled something off, with a little help, that had been really good.
I could write more about it all, but I
never took many photos, so I think it might be better to direct you to some
great posts by Hugh on his blog about it. He shares some great photos and as
ever, some thoughtful ruminations about it all too:
