I visited the Dome in Buxton this weekend, it is the venue of the first part of my current commission for the CADFAS society. The show starts on the 24th November and finishes on the 8th December.
There is currently an artist called Natalie Dowse exhibiting at the moment as the final show of a residency called the Vickers Award. Her work is fantastic, very lovely paintings.
I went to have a look at the exhibition panels and how it functioned as a venue and came away feeling very concerned about my exhibition in November. The problem is that the venue is so wide open and huge and the dome so spectacular that the exhibition area doesn't really have any impact, the work is dwarfed and many people just don't notice it. As proven by my step father in law who when asked about the exhibition after we left the building just looked at me blankly and asked "what exhibition"
The building is just wonderful and it is understandable that the viewer has eyes mainly for the fantastic architecture. It's just very daunting knowing that my paintings will just be lost in that vast space. I think I will arrange a meeting with my fellow exhibitor Mark Redford to discuss options of making the exhibition work with the surroundings.
I was in the studio very little this week. I only managed a small visit during the week and on Saturday morning. Although I did manage to get quite a lot done in the time I was there. I have to start planning what I am going to exhibit in the Open Studios at the end of the month. I have around 19 paintings in various stages of progress at the moment, these will be the mainstay of my exhibition with a few older works. I've toyed with the idea of actually painting during the whole open studio event to allow the visitors to see the work being made but I don't know the practicalities of that.
I just had an interesting idea pop into my head, what if I lay canvas down over the whole floor surface of my studio space and paint during the whole weekend suuplying people with covers for their feet so that they could walk around the wet painting whilst looking at the work on the wall. Just an idea, it would be interesting to see what other people think about it.
