Welcome to the Gallery

Imagine is set in the Suffolk village of Long Melford.
This is an attempt to record the daily trials, tribulation and pleasure of running an art gallery.

Tuesday 31 July 2012







Before I get any further behind with my journal I thought I had better do at least one quick post so that I can start catching up with events.
It feels strange having to record older events when everything since then is so fresh in the mind.
Whatever, here we go.
I deliberately have not recorded anything for a while and part of the reason for this was reflected in the last post, where for the first time I omitted to mention the name of any of the artists whose work was shown.
The reason for this is that I run a gallery, a business, and so far the reason for its success has been because of the variety, and quality of the work the work shown, from various artist/makers from around the world.
All of the time I am searching for different artists whose work I can fall in love with, as a result I am frequently amazed at the quality of the work we are so fortunate to receive.
If I find four or five new artists a year then I consider that a really good result, as I am only searching for the best and of course the best need to be convinced that we are good enough to show their work.
What I had never considered or worried about was that my BLOG and the web site are used as a shopping list for lazy [and I will add money grabbing] gallery owners.
Recently we have had artists that we exhibit approached by another gallery just a few miles away and this has made me aware of the foolishness of showing the art and naming the artists that we are fortunate to have.

So the last time I showed the different pieces of art that we have here I excluded the names of the creators.
For that I apologise to them and anyone who has a serious interest in seeing their creations, but it is something I may continue to do.

However, as with everything in life there are exceptions.
Most galleries take the easy/lazy option so I don't think they will be interested in this artist.
He is a man I met a recent art event, but I will hold the name because I am sure that "Lazy Gallery"
doesn't have it on their radar.
At this event I discovered an incredible 'Calligraphy' artist.
A Calligraphy artist and much more, I can only describe his work as paper sculpture and it is so different to anything I had seen before.
Alongside many other pieces that he had on display there was one piece I coveted.
The one above of course.
Apart from being so clever and beautiful it also carried a poem I remember from childhood.
I just "had" to have it.

I decided after a long deliberation that I would approach him and try and put a reason to him that he
should allow me to leave with this piece of unusual work.
Every time I found courage to approach him I found a queue of people waiting for autograph's so I would walk away with the decision to try later.
As the day turned to evening I eventually joined the line of people waiting to talk with him.
At last my time came.
"What can I do for you young man"?

I won't tell you my exact words but they amounted to,
"can I show that piece in my gallery"?

He looked into my eyes for a few seconds then replied,
"of course you can it will be a pleasure".

We spoke much, much more and I left with for home with the paper sculpture for the gallery plus a glow deep inside for the pleasure of having met such a nice artist and gentleman.

It now hangs in the gallery and is attracting much interest/comments and it is giving pleasure to lots of visitors.

But, unfortunately for "Lazy Gallery" they will have to journey to Australia for this artist.

Dave Woods, a lovely man and a genuine artist.

Sometimes I really do pinch myself to think how fortunate I am.

4 comments:

  1. Dave Woods is brilliant, way back in the 80's I started a calligraphy class with this kind gentle poetic soul of a man & he was such a patient teacher. I was absolutely hopeless and dropped out after a month of trying to use a left handed nib to no avail but he taught me so much in those few weeks about the flow and form of letters & how they can be transformed into poetry.

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  2. I will have to consult you in future Mo about what artists to show,
    you seem to know of everyone.
    You are right Dave is a very nice man, he made me feel as though I was doing him a great favour taking this work off him, he also let me take a smaller piece which I am tempted to buy for myself.

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  3. Here's a toast to you John & your wonderful gallery, one day I will get over there and see all the wonders you have unearthed in real life!

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  4. What stunning piece, John, and it includes so many of my favourite things. sailing ships, for a start, and that poem too. Kavisha Mazzella, a wonderful Australian singer, has recorded a gorgeous version of it, Dave might even have heard it. And I've loved calligraphy ever since I discovered it at high school and became a bit obsessed with calligraphing everything! I just last week bought a basic dip pen and speedball nib for my daughter's birthday, as she's always loved beautiful writing, even before she actually knew what the words said! As for Dave's paper sculpture, wow...just wow!

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