It is quite remarkable how little one has to do to an exhibition once it is hung, a quick flip with a feather duster and sort out the two or three wires from the hanging system that have pried themselves loose in the night and you are good to go for another day.
With so little to do in the early morning there was time to draw the Market setting up.
Figure 01 Drawing of Portobello Road Market setting up
Figure 02 Drawing of Portobello Road Market setting up
Fortunately, both stalls setting up outside the gallery were art related, the guy immediately outside was selling acrylic paintings and customised trainers and the guy next door was selling painted T shirts.
Once they were set up and before my visitors started to arrive, I stepped outside to talk to them. A market stall costs £70.00 for the day and the smaller of the two stalls was able to exhibit around 20 paintings, to cover the days rent you only had to sell the one painting and the rest was pure profit. I spoke to the guy immediately outside later in the day and he had sold four unframed works which commercially is not a bad return on the investment, but bringing the paintings all the way from Edmonton, and bringing them back at the end of the day would be such a chore, so as a business model it was virtually a nonstarter.
Saturday was the big day, my brothers were coming down from the North of England, my daughters and their families were coming, Emma had arranged a studio talk visit from my peers on the OCA course and some of my cohort from the Norfolk School of Painting Diploma arrivied as well.
It was great to meet old friends and relatives, and I was humbled that they would make the journey of up to 250 miles to see a collection of just fifty-two of my paintings that they could have quite easily have viewed on the internet.
There are days in your life that are important, everyone has a wedding and a funeral, but only artists have exhibitions, which rank up there with your wedding and your daughter’s christening.
There are of course strict rules as to how a wedding or a christening should proceed, but an exhibition is a case of making it up as you go along. I did an artist’s talk around 16.00 that seemed to satisfy everyone and I fielded the questions that remained after the talk.
Figure 03 and this is how I achieved this little bit of magic
Figure 04 and this is how I achieved that little bit of magic
I remember the nervous energy of getting married, being a best man, being the father or Godfather at the Christening, and felt exactly the same vibe at the exhibition. When the gallery closed, the party continued into the early hours at the Elgin Arms