Busy weekend.....

Last weekend was pretty manic. We started off on Friday setting up the Open Gardens exhibition. Then, on the Saturday, Nina and I took a stall at the Eltisley Fete, displaying our cards and mounted works:

My work here - browser had quite a few works, but reserved my newest work for the Open Gardens the next day.

And Nina had her works on the other side of the table.


A very exhausting day - extremely hot, but luckily it was an open marquee and we grabbed the end pitch, so had a nice breeze coming past us! The cards were, as usual, popular. However, it wasn't quite the event to sell paintings - even mounted ones. It was officially a donkey derby with added attractions and we were doing it as a favour for one of Nina's friends.

On the Sunday morning we returned all the Eltisley stuff to Angela's garden and finished setting up. We had been asked to keep to the theme of gardens and plants - and looking through the windows at our work, it blended in very well with her garden.

My paintings were directly in front of the door, with Sherry's table, with her cards, just in front. Our biographies were on the table outside and the board leaning against the plants on the right was there to announce when Amanda and Gareth were performing.

A view past the table looking down Angela's garden. This was before the event started - it got quite crowded, as over 200 people attended the Open Gardens and I am sure most came through Angela's garden!

The three artists (Nina, Sherry and myself) were allocated two stands each. As my paintings are rather large, I only managed to get four paintings on each stand, whereas the others got more on. My technique is easier when done large, but I am starting to do some smaller works, as not everyone wants such a large painting in their house. The latest ones (nigella, hibiscus and calla lily)  are smaller, but by the time I had done those, I already had enough for the stands (and I only picked them up on the Saturday morning from the framer, so cutting it very fine....)

This is my second stand.

Just inside the door was my table and browser - which was now full of the new paintings I had done over the last month specifically for this exhibition. I had ordered new cards as well - they worked particularly well in this small size and gave a vibrancy to the display.

We received good feedback on the paintings and managed to sell a few cards - thank you MOO.com for making them look so professional!

Sherry was sadly away for the event, so we manned her section. This is Nina and Amanda. Amanda had done a beautiful poem, which was written out in calligraphy and put into a wonderful picture with cut-out flowers. Unfortunately the sun was shining on it when I was taking photos beforehand and so the photo doesn't come out well. Didn't realise until we were dismantling and it was too late.

She and her husband, Gareth, also performed quite a few times throughout the event, with a piece that Amanda had composed especially for this occasion.

They started off near the exhibition, but later on moved to under a tree (it was a very hot day). Lovely backdrop of climbers going up the tree behind them. Should have taken a photo of that, but by then loads of people were milling around and didn't get a chance.

A lot of the visitors said how much they enjoyed the fact that Angela's garden had all these other things going on. Obviously her garden stands well by itself (she is, of course, a Chelsea award winner), but I think the music lured people in, as they heard it over the garden wall and then we added another dimension with all the art work.

We knew that this was not the forum for selling paintings, as people were specifically coming to view the gardens. However, I think it was worth doing - not least because it was raising money for Macmillan. It was great to show friends and neighbours what we could do and, with the sun shining, the whole day was very enjoyable, albeit rather tiring!

There were quite a few other events going on in conjunction with the Open Gardens - one gentleman has a steam train in his garden, giving rides to people (shame I missed that, as I was manning the art show). Then of course the ladies from the committee for the Village Hall put on a great afternoon tea, which I believe was extremely popular! The people involved in the Open Gardens raised a lot of money for Macmillan Trust, which is absolutely brilliant and was, after all, why we all did it.