I think that I may have mentioned before that I am easily distracted.

So although it had been my intention to show some RELIQUARY pieces that have been arriving,

I got distracted.

For some time now I have been intending to put some beautiful pictures on the blog of different

artworks that have been "tucked away" for our opening, but with so much happening in a short space

of time this has never come about, until today.

I have mentioned the amazing paintings that we have received from the French artist Anne Bachelier.

Well to my great delight she has created another 'Reliquary' painting for the opening,

at the moment it still lives in France but tomorrow it will be on its way to us.

This was enough to have me excited, but my good fortune doesn't stop there.

I have been corresponding with another French artist,

Christine Aurel-Petit.

She has sent me a book of her paintings that I love and which are very different to anything we have shown before. Today she has said that she will try to have two paintings here in time for our opening.

To say that I am excited about what will be on show would be something of an understatement.

I can't wait.

Unfortunately I do have a tendency to think that everything on show is mine, and it is with mixed emotions that I understand that it isn't when pieces find new homes.

But, for a moment in time everything is mine.

So I will look forward to receiving "my" new paintings.

The gallery opening is going to be a little unusual for us, as normally it is an "exhibition" that we invite people to but this time the invitation is almost for two events.

The RELIQUARY exhibition plus the opening of our new space.

Because at last we do have "space" this means that everything will be different.

So even though the exhibition will be under way it will also give people, who usually only attend exhibitions a chance to see the varied art that we show on a daily basis.

This is the reason that I am showing the art above.

Only the painting by Anne is specific for the exhibition, the others are things that I have held back

plus of course the new paintings by Christine.

Two of the above are by another female artist.

Jane Lewis.

Someone who creates the most magnificently disturbing pictures that I have come across,

for me it is immense personal pleasure that at last a few pieces by her are upon our walls.

The last picture is equally unusual.

'The Angels of Salthouse' by Alan Page.

Salthouse is a location in the county of Norfolk, and the church exists as in the painting.

The meaning of the host of Angels surrounding the church I don't understand.

But it is said, that the graveyard is very large and extends towards the sea which means that there is space for many lost souls within it.

Who knows? I don't care I just love it.

It is beautiful, very simple yet it is easy to get lost for a long time staring at it, and becoming part of it.

So Above are:

Anne Bachelier

Christine Aurel-Petit

Jane Lewis

Alan Page

"Kids, what are they like"?

Those 'wizzkid' youngsters at Blogger almost stopped me writing this.

They used to say "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

To someone like me, it now seems it's a case of "lets **** it,  just because we can and they pay us".

Which is obviously a sign of my age or their admittance that it wasn't very good before.

Anyway, lets give it a go,

although I'm not going to use any of those fantastic new templates and stuff,

they weren't there when I needed them, and having to "make do" then, I will continue doing so.

Back to the real world.

Which of course is not true as I do appreciate more and more that "my world"

is not really the "real" world and for that I am very fortunate, and I never forget or cease to think

"how lucky am I"?

With the fast approach of our opening exhibition things are becoming a little bit fraught, and I confess

at the moment I just can't imagine how everything will be completed and ready on time for 

June 10th.

But, somehow I just know that it will be.

This is only because there are people involved who I know I can rely on, and that is a blessing.

Getting the building finished, decorated, and ready to hold an opening exhibition is a "full on"

experience, but, at the back of my mind I have had the concerns that I might be let down by artists.

Why? You might ask.

Because I haven't had enough time to correspond with them, and to remind them how important this is to us as a gallery. Normally I would be in contact with all artists involved in an exhibition to discuss

and plan things, but this time I have had no time to do that and it has concerned me.

I need not have worried.

Different artists from around the world [literally] have been in contact and at the moment there is a wealth of beautiful artifacts on there way to us.

In fact they are not all "on route" as some arrived here today.

Margaret Brampton delivered her beautiful, gentle Reliquary's.

Some in my opinion the best she has made, although she has never made a bad one.

In all honesty, Margaret was the biggest inspiration behind our opening exhibition.

I am not only a great admirer of her work but also her 'blog', where she spends more time promoting the work of others rather than her own.

That is a rare thing, and I have been the lucky recipient and reader of her trips to different museums,

where she photographs the wonderful creations she admires.

Her words, work and photographs inspired this opening exhibition.

From her inspiration I became excited and that excitement took me to many destinations around the globe, and to my amazement I found many artist who were creating Reliquary's.

As a result I have had lovely conversations with people that I have never met but who are creating incredible art that can only be described as a "Reliquary".

One such person is Sim Taylor who arrived today with his sculptures.

I will talk more of him and his work when I have photographed it, but I fear that no photographs will capture the "magnificence" of his creations.

But, more later.

So not only did I have the arrival of Margaret and Sim's work in one day, I also had confirmation that

other pieces of art were on their way from France, America and even Alaska.

Not bad for a gallery in rural Suffolk, but not something that I take lightly at all.

These are "world stage" artists and I consider myself very, very fortunate.

So the work above that doesn't belong to Margaret is by three different artists.

Anne Bachelier, the French painter.

Anne to my great amazement and delight asked "could she contribute a Reliquary painting"?

I'm still getting over the shock and delight of such a request.

Another is Daniel Essig, the famous and so incredibly talented "book maker" from America.

His work has long intrigued and delighted me, so to think that some will be on show here is such an

incredible personal pleasure. Plus he is such a nice man.

Lastly, but by no way least is Stephen Godfrey.

A ceramist who lives in Alaska.

The very thought of showing an artist from there, "here" in rural England leaves me feeling numb.

Although it is hard to find much of his work on the Internet, everything that I have seen I have loved

and it became something of a personal crusade to track him down and to ask him

"would he be involved"?

He is.

Today he told me that after the snowiest winter on record spring has at last arrived, the trees are budding and the snow is melting from the trails.

He attached a picture of one of his favourite places 'Matanuska Glacier'.

Even though here we have had a hot English summer's day I find it moving to think that we are all so close and connected by the love of and the creation of art.

Thank you.

I really did intend to spend a little more time writing my blog but I hadn't expected to write again so soon after my last post, after all "once a week" would be lots by my standards.

But, different art and pictures of promised pieces keep arriving and I want to share some of the excitement that I am feeling, so here is something new.

As I explained even though we are now open work on completing the building still continues.

I had anticipated having a "grand opening" almost immediately but fortunately Irene is a little more realistic and she tries to temper my enthusiasm with an occasional reality check.

This has been one such occasion.

She persuaded me that my ambition of having an opening within a week was just

"a little bit" unrealistic.

"You know what you are like, you will never be happy. It will be a case of, that's not right,

let's re-do that, I want to think that through, lets move that, rebuild this.....etc, etc".

It's horrible when someone knows you too well.

So it was decided to put back the opening to a date when we felt that we should be 'really' finished

and happy with everything.

That date will be June 10

I have had planned for sometime an exhibition with the title

'RELIQUARY'.

I have searched and have found many descriptions for this word, for me the one most apt is :

"a container for relics".

But I also like to think of them as just being a precious container, preferably with something

mysterious, ancient or magic within.

But then a vase could also be found with the same description.

Whatever way you think or choose to describe a Reliquary, that is going to be

our first exhibition in the new gallery.

In fact we decided to make it the "grand opening".

Of course we will have many unrelated works of art on display at the same time

but it seemed the ideal timing for the exhibition.

There will be several artists working in different mediums contributing their very own interpretation

on the subject, all of them different and exciting.

Today I started to receive photographs from different people involved and although I hadn't

intended to show anything yet I just couldn't resist sharing this unusual contribution.

It has been created by a partnership, Jan & Jon Mayle.

Some people may remember the very unique and unusual nursery rhyme clock

that Jon created for us a while ago. Well this is equally as unusual.

A silver spoon inside a box.

OK, so that is not so unusual but it is when you know of the origins.

The silver spoon was created by Jon, it is totally unique but not entirely original.

The original version of this spoon was buried underground,

not just underground but underground and inside a ship.

The famous 'Sutton Hoo' burial ship.

Once thought to be a Viking burial ship but more recently believed to be the resting place of the

Anglo Saxon King, Raedwald.

Along with his ship there was a fantastic hoard of treasure, included amongst the relics was a

silver spoon. 

Inscribed on the spoon was the name PAULOS.

Using original archaeologist drawings and exact measurements, Jon created an exact replica.

By itself a little piece of history and highly collectable.

Added to this Jan [a ceramic sculptor] created a Reliquary to hold the piece.

Complete with a silk bag decorated with Celtic designs.

For me there combined talents have not only created something beautiful, but also a work

that describes my interpretation of the exhibition title.

I will show other pictures of contributed work, but this is a start.

Not a bad one.

It would be nice to say that "things are back to normal",

that wouldn't be true as we have much to get finished before we hold a "Grand Opening".

But at least now that the doors are open it has allowed a small opportunity to catch up on with many neglected things. One of these has been showing the new and varied pieces of art that have been arriving.

Many times I have had the thought "I must show this on the blog", but time and many jobs hasn't allowed that to happen, but the thoughts have still been there in my mind.

In particular there has been one artist whose work I have really wanted to share,

an artist from France, her name is

Anne Bachelier.

A name almost as romantic and mysterious as her paintings.

Anne is a very well known and is collected worldwide, amongst her many achievements there is one that had really excited me.

She has illustrated an edition of Lewis Carroll's

'Alice in Wonderland'.

It is not hard to understand how such a marriage came about as with all of her paintings,

each individual piece is a story by itself, and her illustrated version of the book truly is a work of art.

I can't tell you just how happy I am to have her paintings to exhibit, I never dared to hope or expected to be able to persuade Anne to let us show her work and I truly thought that it was something that wouldn't happen, especially taking into account that each of us can hardly speak the others language.

So, maybe it was just meant to be.

Luckily her paintings don't need any interpretation, and I think to try and give one would be a shame

as each holds a story from our own imagination. 

This time a lot 'really' has happened since the last post.

We have moved to a new home, or rather the gallery has a new home

The new home is not actually new as like our last premises it is a very old building, but it is new to us.

The move has been "on and off" for nearly nine months and we had resigned ourselves to the fact that it would never happen until a few short weeks ago when I received a call asking

"would you be interested if....................."?

As a result the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of planning, moving and decorating,

I think that it would be fair to say we are exhausted, but there is no time to rest as we still have much to do before holding the "grand opening".

It all feels very strange and a little unreal and I am still awaiting for events to catch up with me,

or I suppose what I mean is that it all feels very normal and I hadn't expected that.

I also thought that I would feel a great sadness leaving the old building.

After all it has been my home [almost literally] for nearly seven years and the events that happened there really changed my life beyond recognition.

Having the gallery has been both the best and worst thing that we have done.

It has taken an awful toll on both our personal and financial lives, but for me it has become my life.

I often think back on my pre-gallery life, I think about the different places that I worked at, and the time

invested in making other people and companies successful regardless of the needs of my own family,

whose only demands were to see a little more of me.

So with having a place of my own, 'Imagine Gallery', I certainly wasn't going to start slacking and taking it easy as this time "it was personal".

It has been bloody hard, a lot of worry but a lot of fun.

But I certainly don't miss the old building.

Anyway, about the "new" building and why we moved.

Although everyone who visited seemed to love our old space,

for a very long time

we have felt that we had out-grown it.

Yes, it was full of beautiful and exciting works of art of all kinds, but, it was starting to feel too full.

Without a doubt art of all kinds needs a space of its own so that it can be viewed in isolation

and for a long time our space was becoming smaller.

Here we were a gallery in a rural area outside London showing different art from well known and even famous artists, all of them fighting for enough space.

Of course, this is how it seemed to me. Actually the artists who travelled [sometimes from Europe] to

see us all liked the place and would tell me "it is different".

So who knows?

All I am certain of is that we felt that it was time to grow.

So, as a result Irene has moved her framing business from Lavenham and now we are together in a

larger building which we feel has the room for us to grow and to bring to fruition some long held dreams and plans.

We initially dreamt and talked of having a gallery 40 years ago, now perhaps at last we can bring our

combined visions together and create a special place.

Of course for us whatever happens it will always be special.

With the help of some good friends we have worked non stop for two weeks to have the gallery

open for this weekend.

It is by no means finished but at least it is open for "business as usual" [or nearly as usual].

Different works of art have been arriving constantly for the past month, so many artists have tried to help and support our move by creating new pieces in time for us to show.

Many others will be wondering what has happened as almost all of my correspondence has stopped as

I have had so little time. So if anyone thinks that I have been ignoring them,

perhaps they will understand why.

Tomorrow will be our first day of opening, only a small part of the building is ready and the rest will need another couple of weeks work before we are ready to show the public but it will all be ready and beautiful in time for our first exhibition.

So below are just a few snaps that I have taken this afternoon.

The displays are still a little disjointed and things will definitely be moved around over the coming days

especially when we start completing the different area's on the first floor.

Oh, I didn't mention that we have a terrace on the first floor where I hope in time to have few pieces outdoor sculpture, plants, tables and chairs [ready for some sun].

Who knows?

We have the plans and the dreams, at the moment these are the pictures of today's reality.

The year grows older although it still seems young, and I find that events start catching up with me fast. Exhibitions that seemed so far off are now almost upon me.

A short while ago it felt that I had lots of time to plan and organise but that has now changed.

Lots of important events are going to happen for us very soon.

'Little things' like, moving from our gallery.

But "much" more of that next time, for the moment I want to focus on something else.

For a long time it has been in my thoughts to hold a collaborative exhibition,

in fact I would like and plan to curate a series of them.

Each year we will still hold our "themed" group exhibition, because these are always really

enjoyable and are usually our most successful shows, but I have been giving thoughts to something slightly different and it has now taken a firm hold in my mind.

Collaborations.

There are many individual artist/makers that I admire, all working in different styles or media and it is ever on my mind trying to think of reasons or a theme to have them show together.

Recently it occurred to me that perhaps some of them might work differently but that they

think alike, or share the same vision.

So, I decided [at last] that on a frequent basis I would like to show artists working in

totally different styles, but whose art I thought would fit together and become a single entity.

I'm not sure I have explained myself very well there, but I will continue.

I had spoken with a young potter [Adam Frew] about my thoughts and he told me that he loved the idea and would love to collaborate with "xxxx" who works with totally different methods

and in a very different style.

He instantly understood what I wanted to do and I would never have thought of the combination he suggested, I was being too tame I needed to think further.

I will definitely re-visit his vision.

I was sure that the general idea might hit a stumbling block somewhere along the line as I felt sure that some established artists would resist working with others they didn't feel were equal to them, in respect of fame and public image.

But maybe I am totally wrong, time will tell as I intend to pursue the idea over a longer term.

I had to start somewhere and in my thoughts for a long time had been two ceramic sculptors,

there styles are totally different but I knew that they were friends and my feelings were that as a collaborative team they would be really good.

'Elaine Peto' the sculptor was the first person I contacted.

I asked "would she consider " doing a collaborative exhibition with Emma Rodgers?

"Wow, we've talked about doing that together for a long time. Can I call her and tell her"?

So much for 'my' original idea's

Emma Rodgers called me the next day to tell me she would definitely do it and was looking forward to working with Elaine, and asked.

" What should we make? It has got to be something different for us both".

I replied that "I have been thing about 'Brothers Grimm' for a long while..................."

That was it.

They both "took it by the horns" and for the past few months we have all been talking about

"Sister's Grimm".

They even agreed that could be the name of the exhibition, fortunately I changed my mind

when it came to having the invitations printed.

So, 'Sister's Grimm', or 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' as it became, is set to open in a week.

How time passes.

I really can't stress just how important and unusual this exhibition will be.

Two established artists producing a body of work unlike anything they have ever created.

There will be individual sculptures by them both, but more importantly pieces that they have created jointly and which truly will never be seen again.

It will be a collectors dream.

What is also good is that they have both enjoyed working outside their own individual comfort zone.

Emma called me a couple of days ago,

[she had just arrived back home from a sell out show in Paris].

"I'm so excited about this John. You know what I'm like? I'm not at all precious about my work

but these are the first pieces that I really want to keep for myself".

How wonderful for me, literally a dream come true.

Emma, perhaps the U.K's most famous ceramic sculptor telling me something like that.

I just can't wait to display everything.

But wait I will have to do, just for a few more days, as Elaine is still working on some pieces that complete the sculptures that I now have from Emma.

I have decided to wait until Elaine arrives before I open anything, then for the first time I will be able to see the results of "their" great creativity and my little dream.

As I have nothing to show you [because I am being good and not peeking] the only pictures

available are the invitations.

Consider yourself invited.

As a total departure from the last post I thought that I would show something totally different.

Me.

Well not actually me but some of the things that I do.

For a very long time I have felt very frustrated that I am not creating anything , or contributing anything of my own to the gallery [although in the next few weeks I do intend to play once again with clay].

But this isn't totally true as occasionally I do take photographs, most of the time it is to capture

pictures of different art that is shown in the gallery.

Lots of the time artists supply their own images which makes it a lot easier but every now and again I am told "you're a photographer, can you take pictures for me".

Once a potter even came in with three boxes of pots and said "I want you to photograph these for me as I need good pictures as I am applying to enter the C.P.A.

Why would I want to do that?

They weren't even going to come here to the gallery, plus I hated them.

Finding it hard to say no [don't ask me why] I spent a long time on taking pictures then about two weeks later called the potter to tell her that I had something ready.

Two days later she arrived, looked at them and told me that they weren't good enough.

I politely pointed out that I didn't need to be doing this and had other things that I would

be spending my time on rather [so far I had spent two whole days on these pictures].

" I want them done again", she told me.

I pointed out to her that firstly I wasn't a photographer and secondly she was wasn't paying for them.

"but I thought that this is what you do".

Suffice to say both she and her rubbish pots left the gallery very swiftly.

However she was accepted as a member at the C.P.A. [Crafts person Potters Association].

But as I was told by a "famous" potter.

"They accept anyone now, once it used to mean something".

Anyway, getting back to my photographs and talking about me

[what could be more interesting]?

I do take photograph's and always have done since my childhood.

In fact I remember as a sixteen year old being questioned by my headmaster when I left school,

"tell me Foley what are you going to do with your life"?

"I'm going to be a photographer, Sir".

I'm not and never will be but sometimes I still enjoy taking photographs.

They give me pleasure and I do it "because they make me feel good".

Which is a line made famous by John Voight in one of my favourite films "Midnight Cowboy".

I seem to be getting "off track" a little, but I am enjoying thinking about the past.

So, yes I do take pictures and on occasions I hang one on the wall here.

To my surprise every now and again they sell, which makes me tempted to show more but that would defeat the whole purpose of having a gallery, so maybe about four pictures appear here each year.

I really hope not for ego purposes [but it is hard to be sure] but because I think they might be good enough for inclusion. It is hard to be objective when it is something of your own, but I ask myself the same question I ask others who approach me.

"Do you think that it will work alongside the other work on show"?

Some of my pictures do some don't, but as they were just taken for "me" it doesn't matter when I reject myself.

However, lots of my pictures get used as book covers.

There is absolutely no money in it but it is fun when I visit a supermarket and look through the book section to every now and again see one of my pictures on a cover.

I feel like saying to other shoppers "see that book? I did that".

How shallow can I get? But sometimes it is fun.

So recently I had a call asking

"could you do a cover of a book about Anne Boleyn, if you can could it be quick as there is no time available"?

They mailed me a picture of an old painting with the brief:

to look like this painting, but we want her with lots of pearls, it is to have a dark background including a sinister looking man".

Considering that I was leaving to travel across the country 24 hours later I should have said no,

but ego is a funny old thing [or big thing] so I said yes.

The next day had me dressing up my long suffering daughter in different wigs and costumes,

driving around different locations [churches and Tudor houses] and getting different people to be involved.

Many hours and late at night [four hours before I was due to travel] I had a completed picture.

it wasn't perfect but it fitted the description, so I sent it off.

Next day [and three hundred miles away] I received a mail telling me it was "fantastic".

Now I could look forward to seeing it in a few months time on a bookshelf somewhere.

"That was Fun", were my thoughts.

Wrong!

On returning home I had a call telling me that the publisher now had more time and wanted the picture taken again.

This time could I have a "glamorous" female, after all Anne was beautiful [what about that painting], and this time showing more cleavage, more make up, and forget the dark background lighten it up more cheerful and lose that strange man in the background.

"Duh".

After a long conversation which basically amounted to me saying

"I don't do tits"

the agent and I parted company.

Two days later I received a call from a publisher asking "have you any pictures that we could use for a historical non fiction book about Anne Boleyn"?

Yes! [punching a fist in the air] a result.

One of the "out takes" of Rebecca is now going to be appearing shortly in a shopping mall near you.

If you see it don't bother buying it as we get no money, but it was fun all the same.

So I thought that I would show you a few of my pictures that have created a little interest in the past.

The rejected "unglamorous picture" and the cover that is coming out.

Shown at the bottom.

I'm sorry about this little diversion I will return to the gallery tomorrow.

We have had the opening of an exhibition since I last wrote, a lot of other things also have happened some good some bad, I think its called life.

As more time passed the less inclined I felt to write,

the more that happened the more I appreciated that I should have written about events,

so I took the easy option and "buried my head in the sand" and pretended that I didn't keep a blog, it certainly gave me more time to concentrate on other things.

However, I have carried on as usual, reading and being hooked to other peoples blogs and I really look forward to reading how my 'unknowing' friends are getting on with there lives.

I find it so easy [because they write so well] to get caught up in their daily events, it all seems so much more fascinating and interesting than what I do.

Let's face it, I am a shopkeeper and we all know that 'must' be boring, it's just that the things in my shop are interesting that gives me anything to write about at all.

I would love to be out and about having adventures or creating like so many other people, but my life is here in the gallery and most of my venturing out happens between my ears, and as visitors know I am deaf in one so where does that leave me?

But a few days ago a friend [artist] called to ask if I was OK?

"You don't write anymore and I was worried about you".

The sort of comment that makes you appreciate that the person is a friend and not

just a working partner.

I explained that I had "been hiding" and felt that I had nothing of interest to tell.

"Don't be daft, of course you have".

She then explained that when she felt down or negative she would just 'post' pictures until

she felt like writing about life again.

"So do that, just put pictures on your blog when you don't want to write".

I tried but I couldn't so here I am writing.

The exhibition that opened and is still running is a group show, which although that may not be as important to the artists involved as a solo show it certainly adds for more interest from the public.

Lets face it if we had a Picasso exhibition [we are not I might add] the only people who would attend would be lovers of his work [and investors], but with a mixed show more people will visit in the anticipation of discovering the unknown. They did.

'Hare of the Dog'

is the title of the exhibition, and before you ask,

Yes, we are showing Hare's and Dogs.

All of them sculptural, by twelve different artists, some very well known and one totally unknown, in fact it was the first show she has done.

So there was a lot of exciting and very varied work to see, and perhaps the most exciting was by the "unknown" sculptor.

Well, she may have been unknown a few weeks ago but I think that she is now definitely on the 'map' as far as collectors are concerned.

There is a new charity in England called 'Adopt a Potter'.

It was set up to fund and find work placements for aspiring ceramists, as of course in these

hard economic times less artists are able to find the time or finance to employ and train the

future generation of craftsmen

[sorry, that should be 'craftspeople', but "what the heck", I'm an old fashioned guy],

so the charity funds the training of people who have the determination and enthusiasm to

enter the crazy world that uses 'mud' to create a living.

Michelle Cox

was our "unknown" sculptor, and she is an apprentice within the scheme.

We were only looking for about 2 to 4 pieces of work per artist.

Michelle must have created about fourteen, not that she expected them all to be included,

she was just that excited and thrilled to be showing alongside

"so many important people".

She travelled from Liverpool to be here at the opening, which was a great success as well as being a helluva lot of fun.

Having someone that enthusiastic and excited here became contagious and I honestly can't remember when we had such a nice warm atmosphere at an opening, everyone enjoyed it.

Her work sold, and importantly has continued to do so even without her personality to promote it. That has been important to us and it will be nice to look back one day and reflect

with pride that her first show was with us.

I know that she is going to make a name for herself and she will certainly be back here with us

in the future.

She has got to because she promised to buy me a 'pint' at my favourite pub.

To talk of Michelle is almost unfair because we had some beautiful work by some some

fantastic sculptors, some we have shown before and some who are new to us.

The result was an exciting exhibition that has been shown in a lot of the local press and has

people coming in daily, some "just to look" but many to purchase, and with everyone asking

"when will you do it again"?

I will show some pictures here, I still have many more to take but here is a sample for now.

As you can see they go from wild to domestic, fun to serious.

All of them beautiful, and there are still a few more to come from my best mate Sharon

who had to run a "little" late so she could give birth to a little boy.

On this occasion I will overlook the "late arrival".