Thursday 23 July 2009

not for sale


Met S in Old London Town.
We walked from Waterloo to Tate Modern but spurned it's advances as it seems particularly boring at the mo, so we caught the fast boat to the other Tate and gave Richard Long another go. S was being very brave as she does not enjoy being on the water, but it was a swift, sunny trip, past a few landmarks for the country lass

S particularly liked the mud painted walls, I did too as they reminded me of textiles. The show was a mix of stones, words and photos plus mud of course. He is a remarkable man if only for the distances he hikes. Very little seems to have changed since he was first around in the sixties, a gentle soul but very solid.

Another day we went to the coast, I made a bit of a twit of myself as RP was driving my car as his was in dock. I had a fit of the vapours and we had to pull into a lay by and let me drive. I just felt so panicked not to be driving my own car, even tho I don't like driving, fortunately he is a good natured RP
The sea was brown even tho the sky was blue, all the sand dredged up by the windy waves we supposed.

We went to a couple of exhibitions and RP invested in a small green lino print called Abandoned Greenhouse, it is calm and satisfying. Once before he fancied a painting of boats when we were in ?Devon. I wasn't supportive enough, I always think "I could do that", so this time I was more forthcoming. It cost less, mind you, and I liked it more.
I could still do that........maybe.
We then went on to our exhibition which had not sold well at all. The small items in the shop sold well, but the bigger pieces sold not at all, so not a success, even tho some work was of a very high standard and widely admired. It is all accessible work, no question of "but is it Art" which is concerning some people about the living sculptures on the plinth. Whether it is Art or Craft may raise a discussion tho.
More to the point I think, "is it any good?"
.
The third exhibition was also not doing well, but the standard of work was not as high as usual so not so surprising.