What's Going On In Venus

Do you ever watch the Apprentice? Well sometimes I feel I'm in the program. I'm given a task and then Sir Allen says think your a sales woman, how comes your costs where so high, how comes you made the deal exclusive. Well I sat in my gallery Tuesday and awaited a rush of local artists eager to take advantage of the one pound to hang a painting deal, giving artists a chance for exposure, something to go on there profile / cv, a chance to engage with other like minded people, the chance to make some money and two people turned up. Thank you again for your beautiful Angel pictures and poems. Back to lasts weeks 'Apprentice' which was so inspirational. You see because one teams luck was down but what they did was they kept trying and trying in the end they went door to door picking up little sales and became that weeks winners. So that Tuesday evening inspired by there keep going attitude, I photo copied flyers and went door to door myself. One of my flyers was picked up by a boy who gave it to their mum who is an art teacher at Shiplake and consequently she has brought in some stunning works of art. Having studied textiles at Amersham University and freelanced textiles for a London company the work now on show is mixed but very textile inspired and would work well in a contemporary furnished house. While excepting the art works we were joined by Eva, Eva saw the Enchanted Exhibition (Angels, Fairies, myths and poetry inspired work) and has always loved fairies and does not want to sell her work but wanted to share her passion, she is able to also produce work for anyone who is interested. All four of us found ourselves in discussion about the fairy pictures. Eva is a Hungarian nanny here in Henley one picture was drawn for the little girl she looks after and one was drawn 10 years ago, they are done in water colour pencils two are so small and detailed they look like they may have been done by fairies. Two of us said how as children we had often drawn fairies and princesses. I am delighted to have the conversational fairy pictures and the wonderful textile style arts of work that have been inspired by a poem about Bristol Street.

April Fool?

As readers may or may not know. Henley since I opened has had road works and more roadworks and one book shop owner came up with the idea of doing something fun to our shop windows for two weeks to get the message to our customers that the road works have gone and Henley is a fun place to shop. Over 5O in dependant shops took part (the town). I cut out a large paintbrush approx 2meters long out of MDF and painted it in the colours and style of a Winsor & Newton brush but put ?Newtown instead of Newton. I then wanted a big blob of paint dripping from the brush which I hung outside I used chalk for this blob and did hop scotch too. I was asked by Headways if I could give a chat at the local Townland's hospital. Headways is a place for adults with Head injuries to meet. 50 percent of the injuries have been caused by car accidents. On my day off a Monday I popped in and gave a chat and promised to return the following Monday and make art with the delightful group which is what I did. I took my son who was home from uni aged 21 and Martin Newman the cartoonist. I played one table music and this inspired them to draw their favourite things, another table I gave a bowl of peppers and tomatoes and Martin did cartoons with another table. It was a delightful couple of hours. One of the helpers asked if they could be part of the fun two weeks retail idea and I offered to put up the paintings on the staircase in the gallery which is something I have done. I may well extend the exhibition in to the first week of the upcoming Angel / Enchantment exhibition so that I can invite the headway group up for a cup of tea and see theres and the other magical paintings. The Enchantment exhibition is open to anyone it is a pound to hang a painting. Running for all of May. I am running this in colabaration with an on line healing magazine. Anyone who comes up to browse or buy will have the added experience of coming across perhaps beautiful music / drumming, a tarrot or tea leaf reading.