Imagine Gallery

So much for showing "a little but often".

It seems that Instead I am opting for "very little and certainly not often",

But I would like to think that quality is worth more than quantity, or perhaps its just called being lazy.

However at the moment I feel anything but lazy as there seems like I have so much to achieve with little time to do it.

I feel like I have done a days work just getting out of bed lately.

Of course that is meant to be my "little joke" but there are days recently when I feel tired before I even start.

Perhaps that is because I am staying here too late before going home and the fact that my "evening"

isn't starting until around 11 pm.

There is a lot to be achieved before our next event and I am only too aware from past experience

that a month suddenly seems to turn into hours with much still to do.

So, with the approach of our next really important exhibition

and the minor event called an 'Art Fair'

I felt that it would be best to put in some hours now in the hope that I will be relaxed and prepared

come the events.

Even as I wrote that I could hear 'Jiminy Cricket' on my shoulder telling me

"you gotta be joking, you relaxed"?

I tell him that there is a lot to do and little time to do it.

Which of course is yet another excuse for never writing the blog.

Although at the moment I am very focused on our next exhibition there are daily reminders that the

'Cambridge Art Fair'

is approaching at a rapid pace, and apart from the unexpected amount of paperwork

[I should have anticipated that as I have said before, having a gallery is like working in an office]

there are still many details to finalise with the different artists whose work we intend to show.

Because we don't specialise in local artists it makes things more difficult

as there are different works to be collected or sent from artists far away.

The first of these [shown above] is Rob Van Hoek the Dutch artist.

I have desired his paintings for a very long time, which is strange because his work is so unlike

that of other artists that I admire.

I find his paintings very moving and evocative of the English landscape,

It is his "grey" paintings I like the most, they really remind me of everything that I complain about

in our country, because if asked to describe England I would just answer "Grey".

Perhaps that is why I like them so much.

I have been "courting" Rob for some time now and although he had agreed to let me exhibit

a couple of his paintings I began to wonder if that day would ever come.

Simply because he has become so popular and is in very great demand and does not have enough hours

in the day to create sufficient work to appease his many clients.

But

He didn't forget me and recently contacted me saying

"I think it is time that I concentrated on your two paintings"

The two then turned into three, four and now, I think that it is six that are on their way to us to be

shown for the first time in Cambridge.

I hope that they will be the first of many to make their way to us during the coming year.

They paintings are being sent so that has made life easier for me.

Then.

There is my friend of long standing [I nearly said old friend which she wouldn't like] the sculptor

Nichola Theakston

She has shown with us on many occasions over the years and her and her equally talented husband Tony are people I regard first and foremost as friends.

What has been wonderful to observe is how her work and fame has evolved over a slow period of time.

Although she has always been highly regarded and collected I think that she has now reached

the point where she is really at the "top of her game".

Producing a collection of wildlife sculpture that now features at regular London auctions.

Although she is now becoming [dare I say it] famous, I just knew that she would create something for us to display at the Art Fair.

Still haven't worked out how they are going to get here,

I will worry about that at 3 am when I lay staring at the ceiling making a mental list of problems.

Let's face it if I didn't worry what else would I do?

The arrival of the paintings by the French artist 

Agnes Boulloche

Is still a problem I am working on, I think we have it solved but there are still a lot of "ifs and buts" to be sorted out.

I suppose I should be working on that instead of writing this, but my thoughts were

"write now while you still remember".

That is because I know that if I didn't it would be a few more days before I remembered that I was overdue to write [which I am now].

Discovering the existence of Agnes was a great and totally unexpected pleasure.

She wrote to me asking "does my work interest you"?

Four hours later we were making plans together [not marriage as I am playing hard to get].

I have yet to meet her, and I am unsure where that will happen because although she lives in the very centre of Paris [spitting distance from the Eiffel tower] she also has other homes and studios.

She is a total enigma, and I am so very happy that she [I don't know how] found me,

then recognised that I would be drawn to her art.

Art, that has somehow to be collected and delivered here very soon

If only the logistics of getting it here were easier.

Of course it would be lovely to "pop over" to Paris for the day and come home with them

but I think my fear of the French traffic is greater than my fear of the language.

Yes, my fear of the roads around Paris is definitely a lot greater.

Perhaps I am spending too much time in the gallery and not enough time travelling as now even

the thought of driving to that "strange" town London fills me with dread

So the thought of driving the wrong way down the Champs-Elysees is more than I could cope with.

Mind you I could imagine the Parisian women exclaiming

"who is that man who drives with such an independent air, he must be a millionaire,

et aussi he is so handsome".

Non!

He's just owns a gallery and worries far too much.