Tuesday, 8 January 2008

First Show of the Year

We've been setting up the first of the 2008 Figure 8 shows this week.

For this new show opening on Thursday night, Gateshead Library offered us transport, which we initially turned down. However, as the deadline for the show drew nearer, I started to realise it offered me the opportunity to show a painting I originally did for my Degree Show in 2001. The tutors didn't like, so I withdrew it, but I always liked it. Because it's 5ft square, it wouldn't fit into anyone's car, so it's never been shown before and has sat in my bedroom ever since. At most, about half a dozen people have seen it.

It was a wonderful sight yesterday - a huge pantechnicon arrived at my door and we carefully carried my one big picture into the echoing vastness of the van. The four others are only 20 ins square and hid in a corner.

I'm pleased with the way it looks in the gallery. It has a wall all to itself and during the day is nicely lit by a big adjacent picture window.

This is the painting. It's not a good photograph, a little faded due to the low light and no flash, but it gives some idea of how it looks.


Capriccio (Digging up the King) (Oil on canvas; 60 x 60 ins)

A capriccio in this sense, is a painting representing a fantasy or a mixture of real and imaginary features. In this case it's made up of buildings in and around Newcastle, reconfigured to give a new city.

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