The Butterfly and St. Paul's
The artist and his exhibition
Having created two previous exhibitions at The Eagle Gallery at its first home on Castle Street in Bedford it was time for a third and final outing at this venue. Final, as the gallery was to subsequently move on to new premises in the centre of town. I felt confidence having staged two previous one man shows but also trepidations that the good will of people to attend will finally have evaporated. I was to be surprised, however, at the warmth that I felt from visitors and the sales achieved.
Right hand wall elevation pre-planned in the computer
The right hand wall as realised
I did not approach this one with any overarching theme. I felt I wanted to anchor the whole on the eponymous two large works. The gallery space is basically a rectangle with two long side walls. I chose to use these two pieces centrally on each wall.
As with previous shows, I used computer generated elevations to position scaled versions of my paintings to plan the show. Not really reaching a satisfying layout, I handed over curation duties to my wife (a museum curator by trade) to get a fresh eye on proceedings. The resultant layout is in essence how the exhibition turned out. I certainly have the tendency to overpopulate the walls with work given half a chance. I think it’s the logic that if you put up enough works the visitor is bound to find a least one that they like. Here the more tasteful ‘selected highlights’ approach seems to do the trick!
As with previous shows, I used computer generated elevations to position scaled versions of my paintings to plan the show. Not really reaching a satisfying layout, I handed over curation duties to my wife (a museum curator by trade) to get a fresh eye on proceedings. The resultant layout is in essence how the exhibition turned out. I certainly have the tendency to overpopulate the walls with work given half a chance. I think it’s the logic that if you put up enough works the visitor is bound to find a least one that they like. Here the more tasteful ‘selected highlights’ approach seems to do the trick!
The back wall
Left side wall
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Series of paintings on the right hand wall
Opening area
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With two of the new works being large, I was not going to achieve masses of new pieces for this exhibition. I did however increase my productivity by working on 20cm square yellow flower pieces in front of the telly in the evenings. These went on to form a nine-piece display which were the only non- red dot sales element of the gallery. Here, people could purchase these and take them away, and I would replace them with a photo reproduction to maintain the sense of the 9 pieces next to each other.
One of the 'star' pieces - The Butterfly
Part of the left hand wall
St. Paul's in situ
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Previous paintings given new life in spacious display
The yellow flower display with its own shop!
The artist mans the show
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Of course, time is often the enemy, and my desire to use a painted logo panel in the window on the display plinth was not possible. I painted the plinth the same brown as the promotional materials and the top to match the fawn colour used for the typography. I had a 9mm mdf panel cut to the size of the front also painted in the brown that I would have pinned on during the exhibition. Following the conclusion of the exhibition, I had to repaint the plinth and top back to white for use in the next gallery exhibition being hung the next day. To celebrate the conclusion of the exhibition, my wife and I enjoyed a celebratory meal in the wonderful Italian restaurant opposite. In between courses, I would sneak back across the road to do another coat of white over the brown of the plinth!
Saturday morning launch party
The poster for the show
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Balloons - must be a party!
The yellow flower display when three had been sold
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With the varying success of the private view evening openings on the Friday night that I had tried previously, I plumped for refreshments and a ‘meet the artist’ on the opening Saturday morning. This meant less pressure on finishing the build on time and attracting attendees.
My window display where I showed the whole exhibition in miniature proved particularly popular. Here, I reproduced each painting within the show as a glossy photoprint on card all sized to be in scale with each other, mounted on a series of miniature easels. These were to entice the visitor in but also proved popular in themselves where people asked to buy them on the final day of the show!
My window display where I showed the whole exhibition in miniature proved particularly popular. Here, I reproduced each painting within the show as a glossy photoprint on card all sized to be in scale with each other, mounted on a series of miniature easels. These were to entice the visitor in but also proved popular in themselves where people asked to buy them on the final day of the show!
Example of labelling in themed groups
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Intended window display (with table top shown in plan view too)
The 'unfinished' window display
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I chose to do my labelling slightly differently this time around. Rather than individual labels, I plumped for little descriptive panels in paintings groupings. I like to keep things fresh and feel this is not an improvement on previous display solutions merely another way of doing it.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome having assumed disaster, it was my most successful show yet.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome having assumed disaster, it was my most successful show yet.
Window easels
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Peering in the front window
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