Blowing Hot and Cold!

Sometimes I just like a nice picture!

A Monday that has the sun out and the sky blue must be the best way to start the week. I cannot wait to get central heating in the gallery. It bizarrely is not very warm at all. I still have the fire on most days as I am sat still doing admin and it makes me cold. I step outside and it's lovely and warm.

I spent an an enjoyable day yesterday with a terrible migraine. Yes folks I'm being ironic! I get maybe four a year and they just make my left eye close and necessitate me lying in a darkened room. All better today.

I am running a printmaking workshop this Saturday and I am very excited about that. I do miss teaching and any opportunity to do it is always welcome.

Don't worry a workshop specific list of things to do is well underway. Where would I be without them?

I have some blank canvasses for sale at the gallery at the moment if you're interested just pop in. They are incredibly reasonably priced and Daler Rowney so not cheap rubbish.

Would you like to be part of a collaborative art project? If you would then keep reading the blog as I will be putting details on here as soon as I have finalized the idea.

I am hoping that Swanage gets a little busier over the coming weeks and people visit the gallery and go away and tell all their friends.
Over two hours have passed since I started writing this blog. I have been inundated with people wanting to hire the gallery next year. All on the same day wanting virtually the same dates. Which is absolutely typical. Have to do some juggling around and I hope that I can accommodate everybody.
Word to the wise, I am starting to fill up for next year already and if you are thinking about hiring the gallery I would advise you to make contact with me and get pencilled in. Remember that Swanage is a hive of activity from Easter onwards and the Summer months are at a premium.
Wow, bookings rolling in for next year how exciting is that? I may spare a moment to pat myself on the back later.
Nearly 2.00 and I haven't done anything remotely creative, just made phone calls and answered emails. No more blogcrastination for me. 

I'm Kinda Jazzed Out!

I'm not entirely sold on the Jazz Weekend! They are all staying away from the gallery in droves.
Only 11 people through the door so far but as usual the ones that have been through the door have all been very impressed.
I have been making collagraph plates all day and I'm looking to spending next week printing them. Do you remember that leap I told you about it has been well and truly taken. I am well on the way to developing the work now.
I am going to enter some of my drawings into a competition as I think they are quite good and you've got to be in it to win it.
I'm writing this on my iPad because I am indulging in my third dose of thriller action for the day. I love the fact that I can still do my work and have them on in the background.
For the last two days my blog has been receiving unprecedented attention. 320 page views, followed by 220 page views. They just seem to love the blog of whose title I will cease to mention, in India. I'm not joking it's true.
Whatever floats your boat I guess.
It would be nice to see a few more people through the door, but it has also allowed me to develop my own work.
I hope that you are enjoying a great weekend.
Santastu the toilets from yesterday's blog can be found in situ in West Smithfield. Thanks for reading.

Caught In The Act

I know that I have spoken before about certainties but I feel the need to do it again. Today there have been remarkably few visitors to the gallery. In fact at the point of writing this there have been only five. I know that it is because the weather has been far from great. So here is the certainty. Bear it in mind that I have been here since 11.00 and only five people have crossed the threshold and it's now nearly 4.00. Three of those five people have caught me on the toilet. Come on, what are the chances of that? Those odds are crazy. I hate coming out of the toilet to greet people it catches you both literally and metaphorically 'with your pants down'.
I also know that I can't shut the gallery every time I need the toilet.
Enough about that.
Very little to tell you about really, as five people over the course of five hours doesn't really generate that much information.
One of the most popular pictures in this current exhibition is also the biggest. The likelihood of it selling is fairly remote.
Such is life I guess. I am hoping that the weather will get back on track tomorrow and bring more people across the water and more visitors to the gallery.
I have now got a business mobile phone so that when people have made a special visit to the gallery and find it shut they can give me a ring and if  I'm local I will be able to come and open it up for them.
So if that ever happens to you the number will be on my door.
I hope that you all have fantastic things planned for this weekend and that the weather is kind to us all. It is the summer after all.

Sale Of The Century

I know I only told you this a couple of days ago but it has suddenly gone absolutely ridiculous. I have had over 200 page views today and guess what they are all looking at? You know already don't you? The word 'tragic' springs to mind. Seriously, I wish that I could see the disappointment on their faces when they realize what they are looking at is a bout as sexy as reading the weather forecast.
I arrived at the gallery today to find that the window smudgers had been out in force in my absence. Every single pane of glass (I wanted to do a deliberate misspelling there 'pain') bore witness to hands and faces being pressed up against them. They were also covered in the dirty splashes that wet roads kick up. Lovely!
It's all shiny again out there. My thanks goes out to Windowlene and the sun!
I spent my day off looking after a friend who had the most disastrous tummy bug. I will freely admit I am a rubbish nurse because I am far too squeamish and all bodily fluids repulse me. I did my best. I cannot be the judge of exactly how good that actually is.
Good news, I sold a painting today. The first one of this new show. That is always a good sign. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You should come and see it because it is really good. It's free to look.
I had a nice visit from the ladies that do ceramics. They are hiring the gallery for the last two weeks of October. It should be a good little show. A completely ceramic based exhibition, so if 3D is your thing come along. I hope to have a completely glass one next year.
If someone has a magic word or spell that can make artists reply to their emails please can you let me know it. They are notoriously bad at it, which is usually fine but when you are trying to book in people for workshops it is a bit of a disaster.
I sometimes get the feeling that I am a bit too uptight to qualify as an artist. I check my emails religiously and respond accordingly. I am punctual and organized and all of these are qualities I keep being told that artists do not possess.
Please feel free to add to the debate. I really like it when people take the time to comment. Thanks Willie! I cannot quite believe that it is 3.00 but I am also very glad that it is.
I'll be back tomorrow if a certain stomach bug doesn't attack me which I'm starting to think that it might.

You Know What To Do

Rain Washes Business Down The Drain!

Well if the sun keeps the people on the beaches then the rain will keep them indoors. Neither of those things result in people through the door. I am trying to type this without looking at the keyboard and it has already taken me far longer to type than norma. Ha, ha Norma is a really slow typist that I used to know. It is just one of those things that I do to break up the monotony of nobody through the door.
An observation of people and art.
If an artist produces huge works of art people ask me is that available in a smaller format. If an artist produces small works of art people ask me if it is available in a bigger format. Is the key to this scenario to get all artists only to ever produce medium size works that will hopefully appeal to both camps?
I am being ironic, I know that it doesn't work that way. I am going to produce work in a variety of sizes or maybe I am not who can tell?
I am going to go and do my chores now. That will mean leaving the gallery and getting wet. But money must go in the bank and cheques must be posted.
I hope that you are somewhere warm and dry, chances are that you will be if you are reading this.
I am starting to publicize the next exhibition as I know that Mary Jane has many admirers of her work and if I let you all know early enough you can pencil it in your diaries if you want to come to the Private View.

Monday! Monday!

I would like to thank the idiot who decided it would be a good idea to post an entire sandwich through my letterbox. It's a good job that I have CCTV and can send footage directly to the Cop Shop.
Blame British Telecom! (Not for sandwich posting). I know I do. For some reason my internet connection at the gallery has decided that it is going to become a bit more like my connection at home. Fairly useless, this is why there was an absence of blog on Saturday as try as I might I couldn't get connected.
That being said I was also fairly busy as I has a whole new show to put up and then organize the Private View for. It was a successful evening and quite a good turn out considering the weather was stunning. I fully appreciate that people want to be outside enjoying the sun.
I reveling in a morning of extreme organization. What's funny is that there are definitely peaks and troughs in my levels of sortedness (sic). I've debunked my desk top made numerous new folders whilst deleting others. Emptied out my inbox, printed out replacement leaflets etc. After every peak must come a trough so now I feel that I deserve a little break.
This is the quietest monday in the last six weeks. Not one person through the door yet and I've been open since 10.30. Let's hope it picks up this afternoon.
I think I  may have come up with the perfect solution to allow me to have a week off this summer. I'll let you know more once I've floated the idea to my think tank.
I hope that you have all been enjoying this summer weather. Yesterday was the first time I have actually spent the day in the sun. It was glorious.
Living by the sea in the summertime is a reminder that it is good to live here and how lucky I am. The sea was crystal clear and truly breathtaking.
I bought myself a long wetsuit yesterday as I am sick of not indulging my passion for all things underwater.  I cannot wait to get in it and get swimming again. The water in England is prohibitively cold even in the height of the summer.
I feel something creative calling me.

Sex On The Brain!

I thought that you might find it amusing to see what people put in search engines that generates hits on my blog. I found it last night and had a good chuckle to myself. Especially, ' sex with owner gallary'. What on earth is wrong with people? My five line blog titles 'Sex, sex and more sex' has had well over two hundred page views. I can only suppose that there are some lonely people out there and whatever gets you through the night. I should add that those numbers only reflect one day and on average I get that amount of page views of the aforementioned blog every day.
It is fairly quiet on the gallery front today as I have taken the majority of the work down and will be putting up the next exhibition tomorrow. I have filled, sanded(ish) and painted the walls again. So it's all ready to go for tomorrow.
I have a nice new advert in Evolver magazine so if you are local to Dorset have a peek.
There is so little to report that I am going to keep it short. Just a reminder that tomorrow evening there is a Private View of Maria Jirats' work at the gallery and I will be serving Pimms and nibbles if you are in the area, pop in.
Have a fantastic weekend! Hope the sun shines for you where ever you are!