Welcome to my spring newsletter!
So much has been happening in the last few weeks, I’m not sure where to start, but here goes! I’ve recently moved out of Studio 208 at Wimbledon Art Studios. This was a real wrench for me but for various reasons, was necessary. I’ve taken a smaller space within the studios, just down the corridor, Studio 288. I will be painting both there and at home, yes, TWO studios, maybe I will branch out into two different subject matters, or two different palettes! I will let you know. For my next Open Studio, you will find me at 288, still up on the top floor of the RED studio. That was a monumental clear up job after 7 years in one space.
March was a month of many rejections from the ‘establishment’ which is tough, hard to swallow and I’m not sure how it serves me, and also why I keep applying. However, I have many awesome friends who have outrageous talent, and they get rejected also, so who knows how these open calls and summer exhibitions actually work. I fully expect to be rejected in April from the National Portrait Gallery, as you may or may not know, I’ve worked as a photographer for many years, and for the first time, I decided to enter a call out from the NPG. Images are below, taken last summer, mostly in France of my children, my son giving me so much ‘shade’ on a blistering hot day (but I can see a glimmer of the man he will one day grow into when I look at this photo), secondly his idle reading, utterly lost in a book (as usual) and the detritus you expect to find in a 10 year olds holiday let room, and finally my daughter, caught in a moment, an unforgettable photo for me of her, and all her hair, let loose, transient. Maybe I will not be rejected, maybe they will embrace my vision and let me show it on their immaculate walls.
Finally, some lovely news! The Square Gallery in Dover is showing my Sky Landscape Artist of the Year painting and the print of ‘Ever Mine’ in a group show entitled ‘A day on the Cliffs’ alongside all the contestants from that sunny day last June atop Dover Cliffs. The show opens April 4th and lasts for a month. The owner is a fabulous lady and has grabbed the ball and run with it, showing initiative and vision, I’m thrilled to be a part of it. If only all gallery owners had this kind of energy for trying something new.
If you are a Londoner, the delicious and seriously inviting ‘Joes Brasserie’ on Wandsworth Bridge Road, has just taken some of my work to hang on their restaurant walls. I’m delighted to be invited to show my work there, for me having my work IN the community, outside the restraints of what can be a rather highbrow idea like a gallery, is a victory. Having my work in a café or restaurant (or even an office) is more like ‘known’ environment and people feel more comfortable looking at it, getting lost in it and even thinking they might like to buy it and take it home forever. So, if you have a location for me that you think would benefit from some original artwork, let me know, I just want to be seen and collaborations are a great way for me to facilitate that!
Lots of new work on the go, including a small series, which I plan to finish in time for the next Open Studio, 14-17 May, in total comparison to probably the biggest series I have ever undertaken, but boy it feels good to paint without limits, to really express myself. The joy of unrolling a 10-meter-long piece of canvas and starting to use it, well, I’m like a child in a toy shop again.
Last but not least, my daughter has, under her own initiative, decided to cut off her extremely long thick (frankly stunning) hair, to raise money for her school and to donate the hair to the Little Princesses Trust that gathers beautiful hair to turn into wigs for children with cancer. If you would like to help, feel free to donate to her ‘sponsored snip’!
Sending very best wishes for Easter, for good health and happiness as we muddle through to Summer.
Alison
