My feelings about the relative success of my exhibition in Ilkley were given a little boost today by the chance to watch the group of artists in the adjacent gallery. Not all of the exhibitors in the previous exhibition had turned up to remove their work, which was getting in the way of the new show. Symmetrically, not all of the potential exhibitors in the forthcoming exhibition had delivered their work on time. The small group whose task it was to hang the new exhibition, therefore, were having to make educated guesses about the amount of space to be left for the missing participants’ work and its possible resonance or otherwise with neighbouring pieces. In the middle of all of this a press photographer arrived in order to get some pictures of the new exhibition.
Certainly it is the case that (as one of my sons has reminded me pointedly) I am not the most adroit person when it comes to the marketing and presentation of my work. There are occasions, however, when I do feel that I’m getting something right. I do confess that my feelings of smugness were given quite a boost, as I was about to leave the gallery, by the late arrival of another couple of viewers who bought one of my pieces!
I get three days of holiday now, and hope that I will have been restored to a more balanced view of life when I check into the Manor House again.