I spent a long weekend away on the borders of Somerset and Wiltshire. It was the opening of the Frome part of the touring Sketch show and I went; partly because I was intrigued to see how the exhibition would be displayed in another venue and also because it was a good excuse to meet up with my youngest sister and have a good catch up.
The exhibition is at the Black Swan Arts Centre in Frome, until Feb. 8th. and looks good. The PV was well attended too; Meryll was surprised and pleased to see me, knowing I live in North Yorkshire, which made me smile. One of the drawbacks of living in the sticks is that everywhere takes a journey to get to and I decided a while ago that, if I intend to participate more in the art world as a re-emerging artist, being prepared to drive to places is a pre-requisite. It also means I am careful about which opportunities I select to apply to. No bad thing, especially since I have determined not to apply to that many this year and to concentrate on making more work.
I took the opportunity to read the individual pages prepared by each artist and collated together into a folder by Merryl. The information was not included in the catalogue and I didn’t have time to look at it in Marlborough last year when the show opened. They proved very interesting; the artists in the show express thoughts on their approach to using sketchbooks in a variety of ways, the idea of a sketchbook being as varied as the work that was enclosed within them. I would have very much liked to have had a copy of this information as one of the participating artists.
After the PV on Friday: a couple of fun days trawling the vintage shops in Frome and around streets in Shaftsbury, plus lots of chatting and giggling.
It’s back to work now with meetings for Ryedale ArtWorks, a trip to MIMA to meet William Tillyer, who is going to show us round his show and of course, my own work in the studio, if I can brave the cold.
Apart from the w0budong exhibition in Manchester in March I have nothing in my diary until June’s open studios, so I figure that there should be plenty of time for developing some new works. It is time for me to take stock to see if I need to order any materials; there is nothing so frustrating as wanting to crack on with some work only to be held up because you’ve run out of something you need. I know this from bitter experience, although sometimes it can lead to interesting alternatives if you improvise with stuff that you have in the studio rather than wait for an order to materialise. . . .
