Private View

I thought the show at Gateshead Library Gallery looked really good last night. In fact, I believe this is the best looking show we've put on, in terms of gallery space. The lighting is excellent, the walls are clean, white and even with no unfilled holes and the staff couldn't have been more helpful.

Despite our having opened on the same night as the annual Norman Cornish show over the river, there was a respectable turn out. It was made more interesting for me by the arrival of my cousin whom I haven't seen or spoken to for 35 years. We live half a mile apart.

Comments from people I spoke to were uniformly positive and in particular there seemed to be a lot of approval for my painting of the Central Station. The title of my Capriccio painting seemed to inspire a great deal of thought and puzzlement and I was asked several times through the night to explain "Digging up the King." But I didn't.

Not everyone was thrilled, of course. Before the show officially opened, one or two punters wandered in from the library section next door and left their thoughts in the comments book. Mostly they seemed to be on the lines of, "pretty good but vastly over-priced." So don't buy one. Stick with your Vettriano print from Boots. I'll check in later in the week to see if the comments have become more warming.