So - the second exhibition opening in June was a 'retrospective' (sounds grand, huh?) at Pam Jefferies' 'PH Salon & Gallery' (formerly Pamperhouse Salon) in Newtown, Powys, about 15 miles away. (Yes, 15 miles (24km) away is our nearest town - that's how far from civilization we are...).
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"Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn" : Digital Painting 29 x 11in : Copyright © 2005 by Martin Herbert
Print available from PH Salon & Gallery, Newtown |
PH Salon and Gallery is our friend Pam's hairdressing business in Newtown, and she had the great idea of turning it into an art gallery, mainly for her clients - she has a lot of people visiting every month, and she gets to have some great art on the walls to give the ladies something to talk about while they're waiting for their highlights to cook, while artists get to display their work to a discerning clientelle of potential art buyers. It seems to work quite well. We held a private view on 24th June which was reasonably well attended and there were a few sales on the night.
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| Me, with Pam Jefferies (right) and Val Howard, mayor of Newtown, who officially opened the exhibition. |
The show is a retrospective as it features all the framed prints which I had in stock after the gallery in Llanidloes closed when I went off to Spain. When I came back, I realised i had quite a lot of prints and greetings cards left and figured there must be a few hundred pounds worth which I could sell off. I did an inventory and came up with over £11,000 worth, so I figured I can afford to have a bit of a sale - all this stuff is doing no good lying around in my studio, and I need to get get rid of it to make room for new work. So - all the work at Pam's (1-2 Park Street, Newtown, Powys, SY16 1EE) is pretty much half price, as is much of the work on the website (
www.spiritvisions.com). I've also reduced the abstract work on the
'unlikely realms' website. The main website will be redesigned soon as a showcase for new paintings, and more or less replaced by this blog, so now is the time to order prints!
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"I'm for the Hare that Runs by Night" : Digital Painting, 36" x 24" : Copyright © 2003 by Martin Herbert
Full sized framed print for sale at the PH Salon & Gallery, Newtown |
On the subject of private views, despite the evening at Pam's being a success, both myself and my wife Vivi-Mari (go look at her art at
www.vivimaricarpelan.com) have had opening evenings for exhibitions since setting up home again here in Wales last year, and the experience has not generally been good. We've ended up spending time and money on wine and food etc. for a lot of people who just don't turn up - I figure there is no money about and people are embarrassed to come along knowing they aren't going to purchase anything. Actually we'd rather have the people there having a good time - at least it makes it look worthwhile! However, we've pretty much decided not to do it any more - we need to find other ways of selling. I read a piece by someone recently who was lecturing at Berkeley and was asked "what is the secret of selling your art?". His answer (paraphrased) was "You only have to do two things: do some great art, and get it in front of people". All suggestions on how to get art in front of people will be gratefully received!
Martin Herbert: Retrospective continues at the PH Salon & Gallery, 1-2 Park Street, Newtown, Powys, SY16 1EE, UK for the next few weeks.
1 comment:
I'm afraid I no longer have any illusions about the supportiveness of this community. I don't see many people caring about the arts in a genuine way, and there is little desire to celebrate the achievements of individual artists (for instance, people used to bring flowers to my private views, a real token of support!). It is worse than in Finland although to be honest it was getting pretty bad over there too. We must find a more appreciative audience. I'm not sure what's going on but it's not great... let's hope it turns around for the better soon again.
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