My exhibition is on now, so get yourself down there if you haven’t already, the nearest airport is Malaga, I’ll meet you there! The show is looking very pretty down there in the little fishing village of La Caleta, as I walk the dog by the gallery, in the evenings and peak in through the windows. I am very happy with the way it all looks. It is very satisfying to see all my limited edition prints all properly framed in the show.

During the opening night I was uptight and tall. I found it impossible to relax whilst people were really scrutinizing every aspect of my meager offerings. I stood by, in my really high heels, which elevated me to the dizzying heights of 5 feet 8 and a half inches tall, I felt like I towered above all you midgets. By 8.30 however my feet were so tired I couldn’t walk and I had to rejoin the short arses by putting my flats back on, down on the ground. So I played the part of the exhibiting artist and really appreciated the support I got from my fellow artist friends who attended. I much prefer just working in my studio but I know that is just one third of the work that I need to do in order to reach my goals, I need to do my admin, marketing and also exhibit the work, so it can make it’s way towards it’s final destination.

My star piece, Mermaid on Holiday, only arrived from England that morning, (I had completely given up on it ever arriving in time) to grace the walls of the gallery in all it’s glory. The main chat was about if the boobies did actually belong to head of the mermaid or were they photo shopped on? I can now confirm for you now, that those fine pair do actually belong to the head in question. People were all very grown up in coming to the exhibition on their Friday night instead of going out raving, the local bar did a roaring trade that night too. It was a mixed crowd of Spanish and English, I addressed the crowd in my beginners Spanish, which I managed to do whilst smiling happily on the outside and quaking nervously with fear on the inside, hmm, the spot light! I did my best school photo smile for the news paper man, who I still need to find out which paper he is from. Tony Connolly from the band Kwanza, played his flute seamlessly through out, adding a really uplifting energy to the whole ambiance of the evening.

Some of my work sold, which makes me really satisfied to think that others people will start to build a relationship with my pictures. It feels so great when people connect with my work and buy it but I also get a bit sad, because I will probably never see it again.

The Preparations
It was quite an effort to bring it all together and make it all happen at the right time and I did get stressed out. I was a prima donna on two occasions, during the preparations, once, I nearly cried at the carpenters, I got there to pick up the canvas stretcher and I was like, “it’s all wrong” in a whinging desperate voice. It had been decided to use a different size wood for the canvas stretcher with out telling me. So the carpenter took the frame apart and fashioned it perfectly to suit my needs, he was good, I must have been something for him to scoff at during his lunch break, I just couldn’t help myself though. And secondly, when Jan returned from shopping for the baguettes for the canapés and returned home to my absolute horror with sandwich bread. Luckily Paula and Michelle fixed that and turned my spam sandwich buffet into tantalizing canapes in about half an hour, with the help of a few colorful veg that I had chopped into tiny bits for a garnish. My homemade pesto also caused great joy amongst the hungry mob of art lovers. Paula also waitressed with a feather in her hair, serving up copious amounts of cava and was incredibly beautiful in her demeanor throughout the evening. Thank you Paula.

Also big thanks to my ever supportive husband Jan, who really is everything and more than I could ever ask for. He makes it all happen from behind the scenes, for instance the smart greetings cards and prints are his creations, I just supply the images. He also selflessly installed the video projections on the window of the gallery instead of preparing dumplings for his Czech meal the following day. By the way us English people have always talked of dumplings but personally I have never eaten them before Jan made them for me. Have you ever actually eaten a dumpling yourself? Or have you only heard about how good your child hood friends grannies were.

Next
I can relax a bit now. I’m looking forwards to working on my new pieces, which are exploring surrealism in the form sculptures, for all you lot that have no wall space left! This means I can really enjoy painting their little forms in oil paints and I will not need the expense of framing.

Exhibition Photos