There is just a week to go until I deliver the paintings to “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh, ready for my exhibition, “Highland walks” which opens on Friday 7th August. This of course means that I’m currently in panic mode!
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks slowly deciding which paintings to include and panicking that I might not have enough work…..despite the fact that I know that I have ample. I always want to include the newest pieces and so have been trying to finish several paintings and drawings and get them framed ready for the delivery date. After much thinking and looking I’ve got it down to 29 framed pieces of which I’ll probably take 25 in the end. It’s so difficult to decide and I find the best way is to copy images of the paintings into a separate file on my computer and then just keep on viewing the selection. If helps me root out pieces that look great on their own but might not work with others in an exhibition. It’s very time consuming and I’m a terrible one for changing my mind! I put this down to the visual impairment but in all honesty I’m just terrible at making decisions!
Selling three pieces over the last month has actually made the decision making process slightly easier and I now think that I’ve got a good selection. When I last had an exhibition at “the gallery on the corner” a few years ago, the emphasis was probably on the more traditional landscape views. In “Highland walks”, the emphasis will probably be on the slightly more abstract work.
I’m also planning to include a good range of sizes of work, from one of my 125 x 85 cm graphite drawings of Glen Rosa, to five of my small post card size, (210 x 148 mm) paintings. In between, there will be several of the 30 x 30 cm pieces, two 40 x 40 cm pieces and a number of the long thin 76 x 23 cm paintings. Finally, although I haven’t yet decided which, I’ll be taking three of the 80 x 80 cm works.
As well as the framed pieces, I’m also creating nine small graphite drawings on board which we plan to display unframed. This is another cause for my current panic…..I have completed six of these but still have three more to do!
Thankfully, Paul the gallery assistant manager, has said that he is happy hanging the exhibition and so once I’ve delivered everything I can start to relax. That said however, I’ve agreed to saying a few words on the evening of the Preview and as I don’t want to say the same thing as I did at my previous show, I’ll have to write something fresh and then get it into my head ….. I can’t read notes, so any speaking at events like this, has to be done without them.
I’ll probably start wrapping the work early next week so there is no mad rush on Friday. All I need to do then is send out the email invitations to the Preview on Friday 7th August. This always takes a lot of time and I usually call in my secretary Nita to help. As you are aware, Nita has lots of different hats, including those of art critic, frame painter, secretary, and chauffeur among many others! She tells me that the pay is awful but is always there to help. I really couldn’t do all this without her….so a big thanks to Nita.