'The Art of Design' exhibition...

Friday night was the opening night of 'The Art of Design' exhibition at The Slate Gallery in Leamington Spa. It was not only my first opening night visit to a gallery, but also the very first time my work has been part of a 'proper' exhibition too!  Thought I'd add in the photo with me on it; I don't look very happy to be there ;-) What do you think?? ;-)

I'd picked my framed linocut prints up from Rich at WreckedAngle on the Tuesday, and was so pleased with the framing - they looked great.  (Rich also made the mirror you can see in the photo above). I was going to take some photos of them (I know I put that at the end of my last blog), but as they'd been wrapped to protect the frames I didn't want to take it off!  Thursday was delivery day and I dropped them over at the gallery and made the most of the time by having a good look around the exhibition that was still on at the gallery at the time.

Eventually it was time to head over on the Friday.  We managed to get a spot right by the gallery to park the car, and the gallery had a lovely glow coming from it! I managed to spot Tess and Sarah who were in there already, although it took a bit to get to them as it was busy - there was a really good buzz in there. They met me with hugs and great excitement telling me to go and look at Frog - I'd not even located my prints yet - and there is was, a red dot!  Sold!  I might have grinned and *squeeeeed* a bit - very exciting!  I had been the second sale of the night so far, the first being a picture Tess had bought! (not one of mine!)  Some of my prints were hung together - Black Kite, Peregrine, Bittern and Frog; Siskin was in the second room, and Phoebe was in the window! This has made me think of the song 'How much is that doggy in the window?' ever since!

Kate had curated the exhibition beautifully - there is a lovely flow around the room of the different pieces and the colours in the order of the works all complement each other. There are so many different things to see in there; drawings, collages, paintings, jewellery, mirrors, printed cushions..... it is well worth a visit.

More lovely friends turned up and my lovely parents, and we had a great time nattering and looking at the different pictures and artwork on display. The pride of place is taken by the clock  - a wooden clock with an exposed mechanism and the piece that gave Kate the idea for the exhibition. I will have to find out who made it (I've forgotten!) and let you know.... it is stunning.

The time seemed to fly by and eventually it was time to head to the pub for a celebratory drink with James and Andrea! 

We visited the exhibition again today to take some photographs of the prints in their frames, and it was great to see it in the daylight too. I am feeling very proud to be a part of it.

The exhibition runs until the 22nd February, and the gallery is open from 11 am - 5 pm, Tuesday to Saturday.  

Time to add some photos - I've only taken ones of my work - you'll have to go for a visit to the gallery if you want to see the other people's work! Or check out the gallery facebook page (that should be a link) where Kate has added a video tour of the exhibition too, as well as some photos.... The first mention of the gallery in the first paragraph is also a link to the website. 

I hope you get the time to get over and see it if you are local.

As I said - photo time! I'm going for a 'gallery' approach rather than a slideshow to see if that works better as a mobile phone format..... here goes.....

alix x

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