Eldon Group Show 2010

amidst all else, here's final a draft flier for the Eldon Group show 2010. While the group composition is in a bit of flux and may change, the opening preview is set.
Saturday 1 May, 11am - 1pm,
St Andrew's Gallery, University of Glasgow.

All else on this flier

Exhibition rewind

Tom Bush, Untitled, Acrylics on Canvas, 20x20cm

Last Wednesday we finally took down the Eldon Group exhibition after four weeks. If you remember - we got a two week extension. Here a few thoughts on past and future...

1. Preparation and logistics.
Second time rounds are so much easier. So we had a good idea of what needed doing and we pretty much kept the division of labour as we had before: S-J organised the flyer and did much of the marketing; I saw to getting postcards, organising communication between all involved and with the gallery. All of this worked pretty well. In particular the communication with the people in charge of the gallery space went a lot smoother. We probably should have had a more concerted effort to get our flyers in key locations. Setting up on the day before rather than the afternoon before was by far the better way of doing this.

2. Opening event, opening times and location
We had a good turnout for the opening event. Interestingly, very few of the people that I thought would come, turned up but others instead. Last year, many of my colleagues came along - it being 4pm on a Friday afternoon made for a convenient end of the week with drinks. The first two weeks of the show were still during term time which gave better access to the gallery space in evenings and Saturday mornings (but not over Bank Holiday). The opening times and the location are still the main weakness of the event though - the space itself works very well (though the hanging system is fiddly and the lighting is a bit sparse).

3. Who visited and who bought
While most of my colleagues didn't make the opening, the people who came actually bought art. We sold 6 or 7 pieces on the first night. And Tom and I sold pieces after that. All the later sales actually happened when I took people I knew (colleagues or friends) along. - I am only realising this now. Interesting. So, I sold around 10 pieces - all of them prints, mixed media or pastel drawings. And the people who bought all knew me personally, some of them had in fact bought some of my stuff beforehand. They knew me either through work or the art classes. Our visitor's book did get a much wider number of comments from people either working in the building or also coming to see the show. In fact, every time I was there during the first two weeks, there were other people there too. - Which I found rather encouraging for the location it's in.

4. And what do I think other than all of the above?
Well - despite the prep and logistic going well, it still took up an enormous amount of time - probably 50hrs or so in the weeks leading up to it. So my evenings and weekends were fully devoted to the preps. It's quite enjoyable but rather overwhelming when doing in addition to other things. That also meant that I wasn't able to make much use of the two-week extension: at that point work was so busy that I didn't even manage a group email to announce it, let alone follow up some earlier expressions of interest or distribute another round of flyers. We had discussed asking some of the galleries nearby to come along also, but again that didn't happen due to lack of time. I only had three paintings framed professionally, which proved the right decision. I framed prints in clip frames, which I like esthetically BUT: that was one of the most time-consuming jobs, they look easy but clearly AREN'T!). Everything I sold was sitting in the portfolios on tables rather than hanging on the wall. I do really want to 'lose' some of the framed paintings though - no space for them. But other than that, I'm very pleased with having sold several pieces, and my right decision to include many of the lower priced pieces - in particular the linocuts were popular.

5. And next?
Two proposals to be done: one for in three years, one for in two years. And next year the St Andrews Gallery again. I'm surprised what 'continuity' emerged with a second time round - people kept referring to last year's show. The Eldon Group does have a nice wee space of existence and that spaces feels rather comfortable and friendly. That's one of the best outcomes from this year's show. It's also nice that my friends and colleagues are rather taken with Tom's paintings - as am I.

Like with the one above. - It also acquired a new title (but don't tell Tom): Pandora's Box. Just like this one of Tom's is now The One who Got Away.

Tom Bush, Untitled, Acrylics on Canvas, 20x20cm

PS: the blog is having its own mind at the moment
(as it in fact had most of the week so far;
i.e. I'm generally neither here nor there
and now on way to Bristol and Bath for the weekend)
... not that you think I am ignoring your many comments :)
Have a very good weekend.

Due to popular demand:

Our Eldon Group Summer Exhibition Gig will be running for two more weeks - until Wednesday 17 June:

!!! Exhibition Extended until 17 June 2009 !!!

Summer Exhibition 2009

Eldon GROUP

20 May – 17 June 2009

Open Monday to Friday 9 am - 5 pm

St Andrew's Gallery, University of Glasgow

Level 5, St Andrew's Building, 11 Eldon St, Glasgow

So, if you haven't been... go!

See the updated exhibition website

Tom Bush, Untitled x8, Acrylic on board, 20x20cm*

'Popular demand' sound very cool... in fact, whoever was to follow our show didn't get their act together on time, so we can have their slot too. But... psht...

* Two of these are mine now (momentarily), I think M. knows which ones... can't leave those boxes alone..

Eldon Group exhibition: Fancy a virtual tour?

Come along and have a look.

All went well and was also very good fun. About 40 people turned up on Wednesday evening and it was very relaxed and enjoyable. Each one of us with something to sell sold at least one piece at the opening, and the feedback we've been getting since has been very positive.

My favourite piece?

Memories of the Fife Coast by Chris Turpie
Oil on Canvas, 36x26ins

They were duly hung

... after so few tiny, tiny waves...


Now... drinks anyone? Tomorrow at 6pm?

All new on the sidelines

My brother (haalloo, Torben!) tends to mock that I really don't need much else on my comp other than firefox: all this money of the comp wasted on my single application usage.

Hah!

Today I used: well, firefox, and firefox, and firefox. AND:
- Flickr Uploader (well, that kind of plays into T's hands, I suppose)
- Thunderbird
- Word, but then:

- Komposer
- FileZilla
- Gimp and X11
- Photoshop Elements

[oh, and I must admit, I was instantly smitten with having a photoshop application on my comp again; well: I am really trying with Gimp but, hach... I kind of get that you can do a lot of things with it, but it needs a lot of running around in order to get to do them, and it's more 'into the depth of my comp' running around, I fear. So, I bought an educational copy of Elements and downloaded the trial version while I'm waiting. Rather worringly though: within 10 minutes I run up against its limits: it cannae convert monitor to print colour mode... that's not very good! For that I may just have to figure out Gimp a bit more?]

and I persevered... it meant that I missed out on the sunshine on the seashore plan but instead:

- my photos from Chile are kind of sorted and look at you and me from high above the Andes on the sidebar.

But more importantly:

Eldon Group Summer Exhibition 2009
20 May - 3 June 2009
St Andrew's Gallery, University of Glasgow

Opening party 20 May 6-8pm (with cold white wine this time!)

I finally managed to extract images from S-J's Publisher file; and even more so: overcome my intense aversion to web design and scrambled together an okish (well, rather basic, really) update of our exhibition announcement. High time for that... - though I still haven't replaced the images from last year.

My firefoxing today eventually included something I tend to dislike even more than html: putting stuff on ebay. Eventually, my growing box of redundant electronics is getting a bit of fresh air (a spare laptop keyboard anyone? or a router?), and while I was looking at it, I discovered that my old laptop may be still worth something...

and I also designed the postcards for Tom, Chris and myself for the exhibition.

Do you want a sneak preview?

Views of Glasgow from a Height
Oil on Canvas, 60x65cm
(c) Chris Turpie

Untitled,
Acrylics on Board, 20x20cm
(c) Tom Bush

Three, three, one
Pastel on board

Yesterday, we begun to discuss what we are going to hang on the walls, and how, and, and... Second time round it is actually a lot easier - well, maybe that's to do with the changed group dynamics too. I haven't quite got round to thinking about what will go in from my recent stuff - ... well, I've got til next Saturday to make up a my mind, then we'll do a mock-run.

Now: put up more larger pieces on Etsy. - Strangely (but very nicely STRANGELY), my larger sketches and paintings have been doing rather well there...

Swapping if not selling

Gestalten II by Tom Bush
Acrylic on Board
In my living room

I mentioned that Tom and I had arranged to swap paintings at the exhibition. And since then, this one has been providing a much coveted focal point on my wall. Gestalten II by Tom Busch.

I love it. Love it since I watched him creating, constructing, making it over weeks. Gestalten I is much stronger in hue, primaries against a cool green (have a look at this photo on flickr here where they hang side by side). Tom has a great ability to construct depth and play with shapes and colours. Well - that is how they ended up being Gestalten. Him, Michael and I discussed it. There is of course Gestalt Therapy.

But for me, Gestalten - figures, shapes - are ghostly, they are there and they aren't, come and go, you blink and they are gone. Friendly ghosts are now living in my living room.

And Tom, who's originally from London and moved up to Glasgow years ago, took great delight in providing not only a German title but a German name: Busch, instead of Bush, which did indeed confuse a good few people.

Have another look

at the exhibition...

I've been going along late last week to steal another look at our paintings. It's all good. Very quiet. That's ok, I suppose.

I uploaded some more photos of the paintings, the venue and the opening in this Flickr Set. Tom and I did a picture swap. So, I'll be getting one of his Gestalten (the grey one) on Friday and he takes one of my Fields around my Parents' House paintings home with him. He hasn't said which one it'll be, but I think I know. It's nice to know it goes somewhere good.

The things we do

... are the things that matter.

So: this is what we've been doing yesterday. With a big thank you to everyone involved: on the walls, off the walls, on the floor and off the floor.

And that's all there is...



But I think there may be more

Exhibition inhibitions

The road to the blue trees, 64x45cm
Acrylic and paper on board

This will be the most recent piece for the exhibition. I finished it last Saturday, and will drop it off at the framer tomorrow morning. I'm just waiting on a friend to drop all the small paintings off at my house tonight after she picked them up from the framer earlier today. All this coming and going... it's a nice set of tasks to prepare for the exhibition: quite clearly circumscribed, ticking off items on the list.

All the time I'm getting rather giddy. Giddy at the thought of what it'll be like to look at all these things that I did over the past months. They are usually stashed away in different places, happy to be pulled out into daylight once in a while. But all of them up against a white wall?? That'll be exciting, a bit scary, and rather exhibitionist. Well: it's called exhibition after all, isn't it? Hadn't thought of that one before.

Somebody had asked whether I was scared or anxious. That I'm most definitely not. It's a funny one: for my job I do a fair bit of public speaking, and if someone had told 17-year old Gesa that she would have to talk in public regularly for her job, she would have surely hidden behind the sofa (any sofa) and never surfaced again. So, that kind of publicity took me a long time to get used to (and it still scares me from time to time). But this one feels very different.

Maybe that's because it's about something that is finished, done. It's ready. Whereas public speaking is always in the making, there and then. But maybe, more simply, it's not something I have to worry about as my livelihood depends on it? I don't know. It definitely feels like a lot of fun. And that's good enough, I s'pose.

BTW, I think this is a painting I'm not quite finished with: still feels too precious to let go off, and I doubt that will have receded by next week... so it'll possible have a Not for sale sticker on it.

And just to clarify any confusions over dates and times for the exhibition which have kept changing (to do with changing messages over opening times after everything seemed clear for a long time)

The Opening will be on Friday 13 June 4-6pm

From then onwards, the exhibition will be
open Monday to Friday 10-5pm (last entry at 5);
It will not be open at any point during the weekend.

The exhibition will close on Friday 27 June 5pm

The location is St Andrew's Gallery, Level 5, St Andrew's Building, University of Glasgow,
11 Eldon St, Glasgow, G3 6NH (off Woodlands Roundabout)

The website http://eldongroup.ghelms.com is being kept uptodate.

The Eldon Group... by way of introduction

The exhibition preparations are getting ahead now; I've ordered (and need to pick up from the depot) the postcards that some of us have been designing. I also took the first lot of (small) paintings to the framers yesterday.

By way of introducing some of my fellow artists, I thought I'd post the images of their postcards.

So, here they are:

Thomas Bush, Korridors,
Acrylics on board, 67.5x54cm

Sarah Jane Sharp, Dancing Jelly Fish
Oil on Canvas, 100x100cm
Chris Turpie, Dreams of Sunset
Oil on Canvas, 70x80cm

They were all pretty clear of what my card should be, so I'm including this one for good measure.

Gesa Helms, Fields in Haze
Mixed media on paper, 58x40cm

We are having an Exhibition Opening Party on Friday 13 June 4-6pm - so, if you're around, come along!

For some general info on the exhibition see: http://eldongroup.ghelms.com

We were initially a bit worried about the date for exibition (16-30 June) being so late in the year and also after term has finished. Yet, it all seems to be working out rather well as it will fall right into the annual Glasgow West End Festival with lots of events, venues and general things happening.

Proudly announcing: our summer exhibition

I've been busy off-line, or rather off-blog. But it's all be for good reasons.

Here is the first look at our flyer for the Eldon Group Summer Exhibition. It's going into print this week, along with postcards etc. And I will give you some intro to the others in my art group. I am excited about this group exhibition coming together - and will easily talk about it non-stop. That easily avoided with this:

Which one for a postcard?

I thought I'd ask you for your thoughts on this one:

With the exhibition coming closer, I'm trying to decide which scene to take for a promo postcard.

I've had a couple of cards made a while back, but I want to have one of the pieces in the exhibition to feature on the postcard and none of the previous motifs will go to the exhibition. I also want something that gives a sense of the work I've been doing recently (and that I want to do).

Here are a few examples - and I'd appreciate your thoughts and preferences on these.


A detail of one of the mixed media collages such as this one:


Sunny, cheery gouache and pastels on paper - and a definite landscape:

Another definite landscape - less cheery, a bit more recent:


Or a bit less recent again, less landscape, still mixed media, no glue and limited palette?


Well... I think I've got my favourite - which is yours?

The Eldon Group. Exhibition 16-30 June 2008

Kelvinbridge Roofs, Acrylics on Canvas,
45x60cm, Gesa Helms 2006

The Eldon Group. Exhibition 16-30 June 2008
Paintings and works on paper in acrylics, oil and mixed media.
St Andrews Building, University of Glasgow.

That is what we will do in summer - a group exhibition with my favourite painting group. It looks funny spelled out that way - suddenly there is name. It's been Tom's suggestion: to name after the street where we meet - very traditional. And it's nice to know that Tom had been thinking about this name and this project for a long time before the group constellation became one where a joint exhibition became possible. Today, he brought some fantastic books with font types - he had trained as a graphic designer in London in the 1950s and does the most amazing modernist plays with colour and form.

So, contacts are collected, plans are made and all the time, I'm very excited about this.

There will be more detail to follow in due course. But the painting above is a first taster. It's the view from our studio space right in the heart of Glasgow's West End.

.