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London Art Fair: Edit in collaboration with Artsy. January 2021
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The anticipation of getting a truly beautiful and spiritual painting hung in a room that befits it actually makes me want to cry with happiness. I love my job.
Gorgeous to spend some of my birthday yesterday with the amazing @cazchalkley and @jfloyd1610 yesterday. I think this photo (taken as a visual memory of some of the catch up discussions we had) sums up pretty much how I feel about a number of things as I get older. I did think I might write a list here but any woman of a certain age might just as well be able to fill in the blanks. It starts with ‘I no longer give a fuck about….’ And it ends with (demonstrated beautifully by Caz here) ‘and don’t fuck with me either’ or ‘and another thing’ 😂
I am delighted with how this Hertfordshire project turned out not only because of how beautiful it looks and how happy it made the client but also because of how it was conceived. The whole thing was done remotely. The client brief was done on the phone and then photos and measurements were sent me. I whats app the ideas, mocked them up digitally, liaised with the artist to make some tweaks to one of the prints and then also arranged framing entirely through looking at photos of mock ups. Hanging was done by a professional hanger sourced by the client in Hertfordshire so I didn’t leave my desk once. I am increasingly working on briefs remotely and I am pleased to say, the results are as good as if I had turned up and had a look myself. If you need some art but have been worried about what it costs to get me up from London - you need not - this project cost the client £150 for the ten ideas for her space and then the cost of the artwork and framing and hanging. I love my (remote working) job.
As a mother of three teens I get called many things these days. Sometimes many things these hours. I take it with a pinch of salt but sometimes, it’s enormously disheartening - I cannot lie. Thank God:
Some paintings are destined to be hung in certain places. I had only seen a swatch of this glorious pink ottoman but I knew the minute I saw this gorgeous painting that I had to show my client. She bravely bought it from a video I sent but neither of us quite knew just how perfect it was going to look until the ottoman was delivered and we saw it hung. Thanks to @zoemooredesign for the brief and for giving me such a wonderful pingy piece of furniture to riff off.
There are two things that I have been left feeling deeply uncomfortable about following my visit to @lynetteyiadomboakye beautiful show at the Tate Britain:
I have said it before - I only work with professionals as they make me look good and holy moly is Lucinda brilliant at her job. It was lovely to spend some time on site with her this week and understanding more about her story and how she got to be so amazingly talented. Arts foundation, BA, MA and then trained to within an inch of her life by her father who was a decorative artist and designer for @colefaxandfowler. Talk about a chip off the old block. It was a honour to see this beautiful work going up on the wall. I honestly felt like I was in the presence of a true master craftswoman. 🙏
As I am not formally trained in art (I am a Geographer for my sins!) I have been studying art ever since I completed the year’s course at the V&A back in 2006. I am currently enrolled in a wonderful 10 week course in Modern British Art through Oxford University Continuing Education. I have loved studying this gorgeous painting ‘The Rain It Raineth Everyday’ by Newlyn artist Norman Garstin. If it doesn’t rain it pours right and what better work to study and appreciate than this one during this wet spell we are all having. I only have to look outside on my road to sense check just how beautifully rendered the rain is on Garstin’s own promenade. 🌧🌧🌧
Oomph. If you want to feel something go and stand in front of this painting. This painting is big (technical art term there) so when you stand in front of it you are aware of your own size and height in relation to it - that you could be transposed into that foetal position and find yourself in the centre of those sheets. I certainly felt this painting was OF me and that caused several of the emotional reactions. You see I have been there. I often still am. Alone in the centre of my bed, hugging a pillow for (dear) life, for some warmth and some comfort and some reassurance that I am not really alone. Pretending that that pillow is something or someone real, something warm, something loving, some comfort. When I hug my pillow like that I can feel quite peaceful and happy, perfectly content even. And this painting would have ended there (emotionally) had it just been of that left hand arm that pillow. But it’s not. The painting lured us with that seemingly sweet (although perhaps slightly widowed arm). But this painting is actually all about that bloody right hand (have you spotted it yet - does it even belong to the same person - it looks more monstery to me? 😱) creeping round and under and from behind that same pillow. And the painting takes on an entirely sinister and threatening new meaning at the moment your eyes spot this. That ‘hand’ represents for me all the ‘things in the night’ that can creep out and get you. Real people can sadly do that for sure. But for me this hand represents the intangibles - The Thoughts, The Worries, The Fears, The Sheer Terrors, The Recurring Nightmares, The Sleepless Nights, The Money Worries, The Heartbreaks, The Loneliness, The I Am Not Good Enoughs, The What Is This All Abouts and The Is This Its. Omphh. That is why I felt like it this painting was of me. Not because of that cunning pillow cuddle or the seemingly reassuring foetal position but because this painting is about the stuff of nightmares. My nightmares. My absolute worst ones. And I love this painting for that.
So lovely to get another kind review on @houzzuk. I can’t thank clients enough for putting the time in to write a review - it makes all the difference and helps get the word out about my business enormously. 🙏🙏🙏 A gallery wall like the one here costs £150 for a two hour session. They are good fun to do, we often reappropriate a lot of your existing work and they do all end up looking very beautiful. 😊
Thanks for the post @heaverhouse. One of the best things about my job is watching transformations of my clients (and friends ;)) houses and you are without doubt one of the most talented interior creatives I have had the pleasure of working with.
It’s degree show time. Soooooo lovely to be see the MA RCA show last night @unit1galleryworkshop . I immediately sent this video to a client and she cleverly and rightly bought this beautiful, luminous painting straight away. I called her this morning hoping she would have buyers regret. But she is no fool and didn’t! People ask me what the hardest part of my job is and it’s times like these. Seeing a painting you want for yourself but you know you have to do the right thing and answer a client’s brief. This work will look amazing in her room that has been gorgeously redesigned by @zoemooredesign and will look stunning next to the velvet pink pouffe that is going to feature.
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