A test run of the display set-up...
Finishing up the pieces is hard work!
Our son and his wife are moving out of the country, long term. Since they will not be here on January 27, for my art show, we are having a special showing for our immediate family this weekend, before they leave this next Monday afternoon. This will be kind of a "Pre-Show" show. This “Pre-Show” will include works that are done and those in progress. It will also include works I still plan to do before the show begins.
Yesterday I finally got to the studio by just before 6PM and began taking each piece off the shelf and placing it before me on the worktable for inspection. Some of them I knew needed some finishing work, others just a final inspection and pass. I lost track of time and before I knew it was 11:30PM and I had not yet had supper!
My philosophy is that if you have a number of frogs to swallow begin with the biggest one so I took a piece that I knew probably needed the most work. It was the "Foxy David", piece I'd declared finished in an earlier blog. Well, since then I have been more and more concerned about it's "look", and now it was time to make decisions. Let me just say, it got a new makeover. It was just too bright for my liking. It also just looked cheap and without depth. In the process of attempting to give it a little depth it just ended up looking like dirty gold. So I gambled and put a lot of brown on it. Rubbed it back and now it looks like a bronzed piece. Much more impacting than the dirty gold. It's got some richness and weight to it now. It feels a lot better. I believe it is now truly finished.
So it went with each piece. A little work here, a little touch-up there.
Then, I had some fun. I took the pieces into the studio showroom and began placing them just to get an idea of how they might be best portrayed for a show. This morning, I had a revelation. Placing them against the wall as in the photo above is not to their advantage. I see that each piece speaks it's own story, needs it’s own space and needs to seen from all angles. I will therefore not place them against the wall, they do need to be seen from a 360 degree perspective. I like that!
Today, this morning I will be giving each piece a name relating to the trial and writing a little blurb about it. Because time is short I will just print it out on a sheet, with the name in bold and the explanation below, then tape it to each display stand under the piece. This will also include sheets for works I still plan to do.
This is a fantastic exercise to do before the actual public show. I am learning a lot. It will be fun to work through this little show with the kids. They are very interested and supportive.
Heartfelt thanks to my family.
"But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create,..."
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