This afternoon I enjoyed a rare pleasure …. a leisurely conversation with another artist about our work. Although this should not be the case, that kind of opportunity seems to occur so very infrequently.
I had to see the man who does my framing, so dropped into the Unit 9 gallery (they are both located in the South Square Centre) to have a look at Patricia Calver’s current exhibition. On her opening night a didn’t have the opportunity to give it the attention it merits. While I was there she happened to call in, and we started to talk. She invited me down to her studio for a cup of tea, and we had the leisure for a good half-hour of conversation about our work.
I find it so sad that life as an artist is usually so isolating. We do meet colleagues on occasions such as the opening nights of exhibitions, but the opportunities for any kind of thoughtful exchange on such occasions seem to be so limited.
What we need to do, somehow, is to recreate the kind of cafe life about which we read when looking at the lives of the Impressionists, in the Paris of the 1890s. I wonder if it might be possible to try to begin some kind of movement here. Maybe I ought to issue invitations to colleagues, in order to meet for this kind of experience.