This is long overdue (I've been meaning to post these photos for nearly two weeks) but I have good reasons for my long silence again, I promise!
After all the preparation for the show, my good friend Simon Wild very kindly helped to transport the paintings to the gallery and hung the Ground & Sky exhibition with me at Snape Maltings Gallery in Suffolk on Thursday 18th October. Then of course there was the opening on Saturday 20th October, and I was in the gallery between 12 - 3pm a-meetin' and a-greetin', as it were. Thank you to those of you who turned up on the day to say hello, buy work, and show your support - there was a steady stream of people for the full three hours and I talked to as many of you as I possibly could! I know that I didn't manage to speak to everyone and I'm sorry about that, but your presence was very much appreciated and I hope you all enjoyed it. It was so nice to meet several people who I'd only ever known online before that day and I think some new friendships were forged, so that was lovely.
My boyfriend Leon came over for the weekend to be with me for the opening, and also because he'd created a fantastic soundtrack for the event (more on that at a later date, as we're hoping to turn it into a CD - his music, my artwork - that we'll be selling online). Leon left on Sunday, and after a day or two spent relaxing a little, I then needed to finish two more paintings to complete a set of four for Cambridge Contemporary Crafts (there will be more on that, and the paintings themselves, in another post). Then I had to prepare for a four-week trip to Paris, which is where I am now as I type this blog post! So...I've been a little bit busy. ;)
Anyway, here are a few photos of the exhibition at Snape Maltings Gallery - they don't really do it justice as the lighting in the gallery is so much better than you're seeing here, but you can get an idea of how it looks, and I hope they will encourage you to go along and experience it for real!
Alongside the 18 paintings on display, I also have five collections of painted stones in the show. I also managed to finish one of the largest paintings I've ever made - in fact, it's only the second time I've worked on a canvas of this size - and it became the centrepiece of the show; a huge 1m x 1m Nest painting! I haven't shared proper photos of it on the blog yet due to the lack of time, but I'll try to put some up soon. Nothing compares to actually seeing a piece this large in reality though - a tiny picture on a computer screen misses so many of the subtle tones and delicate details.
The people at Snape Maltings have been wonderful and everyone seems so thrilled with the show. The reaction I received made all of the hard work and long hours (and lack of social life!) worthwhile. And I can't tell you how satisfying it has been to put together a large collection of work again. I now know I definitely want to do this type of thing more often, and it has left me more inspired and focused on the direction in which I'd like to take my work, career and business. I'll be talking about that here on the blog soon. For now, I'll leave you with a few more snapshots of the show - and I hope that some of you are able to make it along to the exhibition before it ends on 23rd November!
Photographs © Natasha Newton 2012
