Beach Gallery Orkney

So pleased to have received the lovely work from from Adele Pound.  Shoreline Birds is well suited to our location here on the waterfront of a quiet bay on the beautiful island of Hoy, Orkney.  The collection includes gulls, oystercatchers and eider ducks, which as well as being represented on the walls of the gallery, these birds are also swimming ten feet away in the sheltered waters of Kirkhope Bay just outside the gallery window.  It’s quiet here in Orkney at this time of year, but a Summer programme of workshops & talks is being planned for later in the year which will appeal to local island residents and summer tourist visitors.  The workshops will try to focus on Adele’s way of working, as an avid bird watcher this involves hours of watching and studying and drawing.  This is a stunning location  with an abundance of wildlife – seals, orcas, whales, dolphins, sea birds, geese, wildflowers all thrive here with some of the clearest air and seas imaginable.

Today’s coffee break musing has got me thinking about ‘Value In Kind’.  While drafting a humungous document to support a funding application, I listed in great detail the huge amount of work that I will be doing to create an exhibition of someone else work that other people will enjoy.  I need to remind myself what’s in it for me.   Costing out all the time spent as if I was getting paid for it has totalled up a very large sum.  It leads me to ask myself a question that other less art-enthusiastic friends will certainly ask me… “Why are you doing all this”?  A question to which I’ll need to think carefully about the answer to.  There isn’t a column on my spreadsheet to show the value to my personal creative development.  It’s hard work, often behind the scenes grafting that is unappreciated which may or may not lead to any payment.  You’ll agree that we do it because we love it, but my art-doubting friend will need a more convincing answer than that!   I need another column to put a value on personal creative development, but how can that be valued in such a document?

Made a callout on a-n last year for artists to make contact with me here on the stunning island of Hoy, Orkney.  Waited to see what transpired. Was there anyone out there?  What would happen by just sending out a  tentative ‘hello’?   What’s emerged from this is a plan to show some lovely shoreline birds in our waterfront display area by Adele Pound from Northern Ireland.  Folks in the community here on Hoy are invited to come & see, get inspired & join in.