It's been a fantastic two weeks or so since I updated this blog. A lot has happened and it's more than a little surreal.
I decided to increase my profile by running a competition on my Facebook page. This entailed an entrant to choose from one of 5 photographs I had taken, and then sharing the album. The idea was to Like the photo you'd most like to see painted, and if it won, you stood the chance of being picked to win the resulting painting.
The response was incredible, and I'd had almost 2000 people engage with the post in the first 12 hours. It was so exciting to think that those people were seeing my work, and showing their friends. Something like this would've been impossible 20 years ago.
A week later I was feverishly painting the winning image, and congratulating the winner on her good fortune. The painting has since been completed and is being proofed by Elgin Gallery and Framers. who provided me with the proofs of the prints you see in the photo above.
At the same time this was happening, my work had been shared with Jodie Bews, owner and curator of Everlong Art Studio and Gift Shop in Alford. She had been thinking of having a monthly featured artist, and approached me to see if I'd be interested in being the first one, in July. After I'd bitten her hand off, I took the drive up with two paintings in the ponderous Campervan.
Jodie was lovely, enthusiastic and experienced in working within this business. It was great to meet her and to see all the various creative pieces she had collected from other local artists. So with that agreed upon, I drove off with a huge smile on my face and had a lay-by dinner in the van, with the evening sunlight glinting off the bright surface of the River Don, planning my next group of paintings for July.
A few days passed and I was putting some finishing touches to the Facebook painting, and I got a reply to an old message I'd sent to Lesley Ann Parker from Leap Gallery in Rothes.
She wanted to know if I'd like to visit her, as she'd like to see my work. Yeah, I was excited. Back in the van and off to Rothes. Her gallery is gorgeous. Very spacious and airy, which allows you to feel you have the space to take in the stunning paintings she has. Douglas Heggie, Chris Sharp and Ian Faulkner. Artists who's work stops you in your tracks and makes you wonder how they crafted such incredible images from paint and brushes.
I got some good advice from Lesley, and I will return with some completed work as soon as I can, as her gallery looks set to be very busy.
And so I ended up in Elgin Gallery and Framers, once again talking up a storm with Jean and Andrew, telling them all my news. It felt good to see them again and to share all that had happened since my first visit. Then I saw my prints and I'm not ashamed to say I felt a lump in my throat. It was as if it had suddenly become real. Like I'd become a serious Artist. Which sounds laughable, but here was a finished product I had (mostly) created. It was overwhelming. The clarity was stunning, and if you were prevented from seeing the paper outwith the image, you'd swear it was a canvas. I couldn't wait to have more, to sign them and send them off to new homes.
Got to sell some first, but that'll happen soon enough....