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At the Arty Farty Garden Party in October 2004 Lorely announced that she had booked the Marriott Hotel in La Xara for the first ever Members' Exhibition to take place over the Easter Week in 2005. As you can imagine it galvanised the members somewhat!
In the event, more than 80 members of the Art Centre submitted exhibits, up to four items each, totalling approximately 330. Of these, about 100 were not for sale, and more than 40 of the remainder were in fact sold over the course of the week. That is approaching 20%, which I am given to understand is a very good result. The organisation of the whole affair was a mammoth task, ably undertaken by Lorely and Glyn with the help of their new Hanging Committee—they had to leave their old one behind in Dubai when they left their Art Centre there. The experience will be invaluable when preparing for next year, and we are hoping that the now-fully-trained Committee will be able to take some of the pressure off Lorely and allow her to enjoy the whole thing a bit more. She worked so hard on this one that she ended up in bed with flu! But she did appreciate the flowers and expressions of appreciation at the official opening.
The exhibits included every conceivable kind of painting—watercolour, pastel, acrylic, oil—and many mixed media works, including any or all of the above with tissue paper, ink, thread, pencil, printing, etc., etc... One other very popular category was the embroidery/textile section. The colours of the material and the detail of the work was incredible. The exhibition also included mosaics, silver work, glass tiles, wood turning, a few photographs—and even a teddy bear!
The Mixed Media classes undertook a special project, inspired by Rolf Harris and John Constable's Haywain. You may recall that last year 150 artists in England contributed to an enlarged version of the Haywain which was reassembled in Trafalgar Square. The idea was suggested to Karen, the instructor of the Mixed Media classes, as a possibility for this forthcoming exhibition. As a result, one of Picasso's Pigeon series of paintings was chosen and 16 artists re-interpreted it on individual canvases measuring 70cm by 50cm. The result, measuring 2.8m tall by 2m wide, looked pretty impressive! We have not yet decided what is to become of it now the exhibition is finished but are hoping that it will be able to be displayed somewhere where people can enjoy it. More details in due course.
I have no idea how many people came, but there were certainly a good number on every occasion that we were down there. And the most frequently heard comment expressed amazement at the extremely high quality of the work at what was, after all, an amateur show— even though some of the members are professional artists. We bought two beautiful watercolours by a local artist (also called Anna), Old Spanish Doors and A Splash of Colour, and they look absolutely lovely in their new home.
I personally enjoyed the week very much—it was lovely talking to all the visitors and the other members as well and looking at all the exhibits has given me lots of ideas for future projects. And I am delighted to say that I sold one of my pictures which is now going to a very good home where I shall even be able to visit it! I am now considering what I should be working on for the next one—and how on earth we are going to follow the Picasso Project!
