Imagine Gallery

It has been one of those unproductive days.

What I suppose I mean is I got a lot done but none of it what I really wanted to be doing.

So much time on the telephone takes up about half my day, every day.

I know it sounds impossible but it's true, and in a way I suppose I do enjoy it, I should do as it

is the telephone and the computer that are my window and link to the outside world.

So much of the beautiful work that we show comes from long conversations and many emails.

It is strange to find that you can be so close to someone and have a friendship and good working relationship without actually meeting the person in the flesh.

It is also such a strange sensation meeting someone for the first time

knowing that you are already good friends.

So I suppose what I mean by unproductive day is that I didn't get around to changing different displays in the gallery.

Over the past couple of weeks I have collected many different and varied pieces of art,

and though it is all on display I know that there is a lot of tweaking to be done before I feel content that I am showing everything to its best advantage.

This is one job I do enjoy, in fact it seems that it is what I should be doing more often.

Many people will think, "no, you should be writing to me", and if you are one of those people

I apologise, it will be done just as soon as I tick off a few more 'things I must do' from my list.

One of those must do things today was finishing off the invitations for our next exhibition.

I bet you think, "that's all he does".

In truth, at times that's how it feels but it is just a case of remembering that other peoples deadlines [printers, publishers, etc] are different to your own, so it does feel very much like going from one exhibition straight into another, which isn't really the case.

These things need a lot of thought and planning, of course the end result is all in

"the lap of the Gods"

but I must try and play my part as best I can.

So in between calls today I have finished and at last sent off the latest invitation to be printed,

I know that when the boxes full of them are returned I will wish that I had tried "this" or done "that" as I always do, but after doing five different versions "enough is enough".

In truth, I like what I have sent.

I would show you pictures of them but that can wait for a day or two as I am very overdue to

show some of our latest acquisitions that are on show in the gallery.

I still have many, many things to photograph and I will try and fit them in while I am not on the telephone tomorrow.

Talking of photographs you may remember a little while ago I showed "work in progress"

of a book cover I had been asked to produce.

After hearing nothing from the publisher for a couple of weeks I had a call [telephones] on

Monday saying that they might be able to use it but they had wanted the girl in a red dress

not a blue one, but maybe "their" man could do something with it.

No way, if anyone was going to play with the picture it would be me, so half an hour later I sent them 'Tudor girl in red dress'.

Then nothing.

Until today when they sent me a copy of the printed cover.

Blimey! It was cropped so much there was nothing left, but it did give me an idea of what they had been looking for, which is just as well because they want another two covers this week.

Perhaps I should have explained about "telephone calls and emails and letters to send".

Instead my ego jumped in, "leave it with me".

Idiot.

All of that nonsense aside I will have to give you a peek at some new work that I am showing.

I have collected some beautiful textile pictures from an incredible woman, Susan Macarthur,

I have long wanted to show some of her work and now after a two year wait I have some.

Without a doubt good things are worth waiting for.

Some totally different art came from an unexpected chance encounter with a sculptor named Ann Goodfellow.

One glance and I fell in love with it.

After a long chat I asked if I could leave with her work there and then.

" I have never heard of such a thing", she told me.

"Never say Never" to a man who is in love with a piece of art.

I now have some on display in the gallery and I am very proud to be showing it.

So here is just a glimpse of what the last week or so have been about.

I will show more pictures I promise just as soon as someone takes that telephone off me.

Above are two of Susan's incredible textiles, a sculpture by Ann, and of course my book cover

before and after crop.

Maybe an odd mixture, but so is my life.