Come on in, the door is open

Despite the rotten weather we had a steady stream of visitors on our opening day today. It was lovely to make some new acquaintances. It was worth braving the rain for a sneaky peak into Claire's basement studio, accessed via the garden. You can see a few photos of her hidden hideaway here.

I'm hoping to see a few more familiar faces tomorrow... still lots of homemade cake!

Getting there

Many sleepless nights and a frantic surge of mounting and framing later, and today we started hanging the work for the open house. It is great to be showing my new work in such an intimate setting and it really helps that Claire has such a lovely house. As we started to lay everything out it just seemed to look good with all the soft colours and surfaces of the walls and floors.

But please don't come over just yet, we don't open until Sunday. So still a few last preparations to do before then.

You can find myself, Claire & Hugh at:

13 Bromley Road
Shipley
BD18 4DS

on Sunday 3rd, Monday 4th & Tuesday 5th June from 11am - 4pm

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On the cutting room floor...

... and table, and every other surface in the house. I contemplated spreading out into the garden but that seemed a step too far. It is a mammoth job finishing and mounting everything for the open house/studio. I just hope we get some visitors.

Above are some of the viewfinder photos I took, which I will be putting in mounts for sale this weekend.

Stitching surfaces

Work in progress...

Boxing things up

I have been feeling really worried about the up coming Bradford Open exhibition. I think it's because it is such a long time since I have exhibited professionally that I feel really lacking in confidence. Everything needs rethinking from scratch. One of my worries was display, but after some conversations   I have been playing with  boxes instead of frames. Putting an edge around the work seems to help to add a finish and definition.

3 weeks to go...

It just occurred to me there is only 3 weeks to go until Bradford Open for Arts, and now I'm panicking! I have so much I still want to make, and lots to do in preparation. I have just started a blog here, which will be following the build up to the big event. It would be great to get as many people as possible following. I'm hoping to be adding individual artist profiles, interviews, as well as sneak previews and new events as they are added.

Please take a look and tell all your friends! http://bradfordopen.blogspot.co.uk/

Your opinion urgently desired!

I will be exhibiting as part of Bradford Open for Art this year in an open house (more details to follow) but I am really stuck deciding which image to put forward to go in the brochure and on the website. I need to choose just one to represent my work and draw the visitors in. So it needs to be representative and have an instant appeal/impact.

I need as many of you as possible to choose one of the two images shortlisted below, don't think too much just go with your gut reaction. Thanks so much folks!

image 1

image 2