Suddenly – Its the Exhibition Season again!

Yes – It’s here again.

That means artists up and down the country are madly charging about trying to get a load of different tasks done in order to prepare themselves. So in my studio, that means taking stock of recent works and deciding which will be exhibited where, and when. What exhibitions or competitions should be entered, shall we have an ‘Open Studio’?

How many works will be needed at any one time? Then its on to mount cutting and framing the watercolours. For convenience, I buy in ready-made frames of specific sizes, so I know that my mounts only have to be those sizes, to fit the frames. I do like to double mount watercolours setting a coloured board between the painting and the top cream coloured board. All these have to be accurately marked up and bevel cut with neat corners. Presentation is so important, I have seen many excellent works, ruined by poor presentation. Consequently they have little hope of selling. Then I have to clean the glass, both sides, insert the painting and mount board assembly, securing and sealing the backs, fitting the hanging cords and lastly, printing labels for the backs and sales labels, as required, for the faces.

Some works will be displayed unframed, in browsers or on table tops, these will be mounted as before, backed with a board and wrapped in cellophane, for a neat presentation. My Acrylic paintings are mostly painted onto stretched canvases, of various kinds. I usually paint the edges of these, so they don’t have to be framed, saving on cost to the buyer. I do varnish them however, to protect the paint surface from dirt etc, and they still need hanging cords and labels fitted. These tasks are In addition to the task of drawing and painting new works for future exhibitions etc. A busy time of the year, but the warmer weather means I can soon start to go outdoors and do some ‘plein air’ painting again! For me, a ‘warm weather plein air painter’ – that is my reward for the extra work!

To see an example of presentation, click on this photo, it will lead you to my online gallery, where it is shown, double mounted and framed and an example, already wrapped in cellophane. Enjoy!