This time one of the hooks for the show was that they had displayed some of the paintings with the outfits (or parts of the outfit) next to it.  In some cases, like the above sumptuous dresses, or in other cases fans, or hats or similar.  Sargent, as well as being very good at people is a master of displaying fabric or clothing and part of how he painted people was choosing what they were wearing, and how they were posed.  Staging it, if you will.  So as you enter the show you are greeted with a black dress next to the portrait of the woman who wore it and you get to admire just how accurately he painted them.  While I admired the clothing and the skill in which they were made I much preferred the paintings and the clothes look better in the painting.  As with the portraits in general they glow.

One of the issues with portrait shows and reacting to the paintings is that there is quality and skill of the painting but also the sitter. If for some reason I don’t like or are not drawn to the sitter then I don’t really like the painting.  I often wonder to what extent this is because the painter did not like them either.  So there were a number of paintings of vaguely military men, or the Sassoon family which I did not like because I took against the subject.

In the second room there was a very striking woman in a simple, but elegant black dress.  It seems no coincidence that many of the sitters are good looking women.  There are some exceptions of course.  The way in which Sargent renders the folds and lines of the dress, set off by her alabaster skin.  It does look like something out of fashion magazine.  What I did like seeing though was a version of the painting that was unfinished and so it would seem that Sargent does the figures before the background. On his background, they are never just one colour, but mottled. 

The paintings I was most drawn too were that of women with their children.  They were intimate but also seemed to show some kind of maternal strength which I liked seeing.  The one of the woman of the right particularly seems to be saying if you come near my children I’ll swear I’ll do time. The children are all depicted as sweet and vulnerable and again in these sumptuous outfits.  These pictures also show how Sargeant is adept are depicting interiors and furniture, deep reds of wood and the shine of gilt.

These paintings again show Sargeant’s ability to depict pleats and folds of clothing. But what particularly impressed me is how he depicted organza, translucent type material, with whatever is underneath, and arm or other clothing is underneath showing through.  I studied these for a while to try and think how he did it.  With difficulty was my only conclusion.

There were some men in appearance.  The painting on the left, the Duke of Ponzi (possibly not Ponzi, I can’t read my own notes) at home,  is one I have seen before.  I very handsome and striking fellow in an amazing outfit, particularly his slippers and I would love to have the fashion sense and self confidence to wear something and present myself like that. The contrasting red gives a sumptuous devil like feeling.  How I actually feel though is like the gentleman on the right with his disheveled appearance.  I think it is interesting that he was painted by Sargeant.  The disdain for his appearance and the holding of the piece of paper also shows an intellectualism that I aspire too, in a difference way.  As with all good portrait painters there is a definite feeling of the character in there.  You feel that you are in their presence.

Not all the paintings are of society people, although most are.  One of my favourites is this golden number of a Spanish dancer.  You can tell that’s what she is from across the room by her stance, and her attitude.  You can picture her hammering out a flamenco number and indeed that is what she was famous for.  They have her dress on display too, a sumptuous affair with very fine needle work.

Not all the paintings are of society people, although most are.  One of my favourites is this golden number of a Spanish dancer.  You can tell that’s what she is from across the room by her stance, and her attitude.  You can picture her hammering out a flamenco number and indeed that is what she was famous for.  They have her dress on display too, a sumptuous affair with very fine needle work.

We return to glamorous women now and again we see Sargeant’s mastery of painting fabrics. The painting on the left is the sexiest painting in the display.  She is the only subject who I read as having what might be determined an alluring look. Most, if not all of the other sitters are either upright or leaning forward.  She is the only one learning back. And again we see another of Sergeant’s trick with, like the Duke with his reds, we see blues and purples, similar colours but different shades playing off each other.   Then on the right we have this standing woman.  I like her smile like she has heard a joke or seen something that has amused her.  And then after a while of looking you see what it is.  Can you see it?  It is the small dog on the bottom left pulling at her dress.  I love this.  Including it is very funny and makes the picture a masterpiece, and one of my favourites.

My exhibition, River and Stone, has finished so I thought I would write up what happened,  what went well, what could have gone better and what I do differently next time.

The show ran from Thursday 28th March to 2nd April a the Old Fire Station Gallery in Henley on Thames.  You can hire the gallery in weekly blocks (Wednesday to Tuesday).  I had booked I way back in February 2023 and gone for Easter 2024 (2023 was already booked).  I chose Easter because I last did a show at the Old Fire Station Gallery in Easter 2019 and attendance had been good.  One of the errors I made was that Easter is a moveable feast and East in 2019 was later in the year, was not during half term and the weather was better.  I had failed to take this into account.

Statistics.  Attendance 97 people (plus 6 poets – so 103).  Some of the people attendance twice on more than one day.  Sales: £56 in cards, £350 in paintings.  I am not sure the paintings count because they were bought by the same family member. 

This leads me to my main thing I would do differently next time.  I think to sell the paintings themselves I priced them about £50 or £100 too high.  For a pop-up show, unless you are an established name, if you actually want to sale the paintings then you need to have the paintings at such a price that they can be an impulse purchase (my paintings in 2019 were much cheaper and I sold 18 of them 18 of them).   

One thing that had been a problem is that I was very ill in the run up to the show.  I had a severe chest infection for a number of weeks and had some doubt as to weather I would be well enough to do the show at all. This doubt (and the fact I wasn’t well enough to do anything) meant I did not do things like preparing prints, or advertising the show as vigorously as I would have done otherwise.  It wasn’t until the week before the show that I had finally recovered that I started to publicise it in earnest, and arguably it was too later. 

As to publicity , I of course publicized it on social media (and got a fair amount of traction and some people did attend because of this. I also produced fliers.  On fliering,  the fliers did server well to tell people who knew me, or about my art, about the show and prompt them to come.  I think only 2 people who I didn’t already know came because of fliers.  If I were to do it again, I would flier more targeted but also get fliers and posters up in shops and around town. I would try to get some shops involved in some fashion, by sponsorship say so that they had a reason to tell people to go to the show. The Old Fire Station Gallery is a bit off the main drag, hidden from the main part of town from the Town Hall and so passing trade and foot fall is limited for that reason. 

The plus side of it as a venue is that it is cheap (particularly if you are a Henley resident, you get a discount) and it has a small or dedicated number of fans who basically come to every show.  I think I had about 8 of these appear and had a number of really nice discussions with people about art etc.

What I did attempt to get more interest in the show was to get another organization involved.  In this case the lovely people from Two Rivers Press who came along on Thursday afternoon to read poetry.  They generated I think 6 extra attendees (not including the poets themselves).  Attendance was disappointing in part because the weather was truly dire on Thursday, with hammering rain. Also people were avoiding travelling if they didn’t have to because of the pre-Easter rush and because I didn’t advertise it as well as I could have done.  Still it was worth ago and I’m glad I did it because I made some connections and got to know some lovely people who I will probably collaborate with again.

This, for me was the main benefit of the show.  I met some really nice people and in some cases re-met some people I hadn’t seen for a long time.

On attendance.  On Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday only 1 person attended before 12:00 and attendance dropped over every day after 15:00.  In one sense you might as well open for as long as you can because you can only hire the venue in weekly blocks but it is slightly dispiriting to sit in a gallery for a couple of hours while no one comes in.
This brings me on to what else I would do differently . I would organize activities like an improtu still-life drawing class. Or have an activity people could get involved in (like adding drawings to a growing wall or something).  Because of illness I did not organize a private view and I think this was a mistake.  A private view in an evening is more likely to drive people in, particularly if you are offering booze and perhaps music.  I also think I won’t do a show like this on my own again (unless it is organized and put on by a gallery or something similar).  I think I would want to collaborate with someone else.

What did go well though was the hang of the show.  I was vey proud of how I hung the show, incoproating some of the lessons from Newlyn School of Art, such as disrupting the sky line.  So I had works you could only see from outside,  one of which referred to works inside.  I had works at different heights.  I had works hung on plinths rather than on the wall.  You couldn’t see all the works from all points in the room so you had to go round and explore.  I had sections which were themed and sections which were mixed.  Some of the paintings were still life of rocks so I got the rocks in question and put them round the room.  I think it looked good and I enjoyed seeing my works up in a well lit space.

It was interesting too seeing what people reacted too, with different people liking different thing.  Probably the most praised painting was Marsh Lock, but the other one , to my surprise was dancers around the Tomb of the Grey She Wolf (both below). 

So I have come away with a number of ideas.  But it has been exhausting so I am spending today in bed recovering.