Before the break

Hello people, it's been another week, this will be the last entry before I head off to the snow next week. It has not been a particularly eventful week, apart from having to set up a few works upstairs. The library needed some tidying, as many books and magazines needed to be put away into their assigned bookshelf space. This is a task that is sometimes never ending but very rewarding regarding the wealth of literature that is available to give a quick glance over between filing.

Next up, some invites are due to be sent out and stamping them and putting mail merge labels on them are the next thing in order that can be completed the next day. Apart from some hanging and tidying on the top floor (much smaller area), not much more has had to be done as we are in the middle of a show and the occasional visitor will come through and want to buy an artwork.

Time for a relaxing break snowboarding for me, I will post more in two weeks.

Week after show

Following the show and its opening a few of the artworks have been purchased. In order to reflect this, red dots have been placed alongside and the website updated to reflect this. Some of the paintings have been taken out of the show to be photographed for archiving and packed away.

For the next three hours we are summoned to re-hang a lot of the private collection upstairs as a lot of it has collected dust and newer ones put in their place. This takes a good 3 hours as there were 20 or so specific instructions on where things had to be hung, at what level and what to replace them with.

It pays to write all of these things down to save yourself for being yelled at the end of the day. Due to this being a commercial gallery, there is a buyers room and paintings have to be showcased there for the prospective buyer to sit down with the manager and negotiate a price. This room has to be kept very tidy, to impress the buyer and the paintings are laid out to specific mathematical instructions. That work continues on today....

Post show

After the hanging of the show last Thursday, the private opening dinner was held on the Friday and the public opening was held on Saturday. That Friday was quite a busy day to say the least. It started off with having to clean up parts of the show, so everything looked spick and span.

Walls had to painted and spack filled to hide any pencil marks or holes left from hanging. Once this had been done, plinths had been laid out to showcase some of the artist's journals and sketches, they were extremely heavy and required 3 people to move.

Once this had been finished we had been summoned to the kitchen to help guest chef Tony Billson prep for the evening, which was an experience in itself which led to me having to drive to the Chef's Warehouse in his car to collect some new trays as the ones we had brought previously had holes in them and the fat would just drip out.

Between the prepping and serving the tables which were hired had to be set and cutlery laid. Then for the rest of the night mainly waiting tables and pouring drinks while the owners and artists gave speeches.

That was a busy day/night with a 9.00am start and finishing at 11.00pm!!

What's hanging

Today is the big day, as one of our artists has his big show opening this evening. Yesterday we had spent the whole day hanging and positioning the paintings, not an easy feat.

However the formula used by another of the employees made it a lot more simpler.

For example, the width of the inside canvas minus the interior frame plus the 62 inches as the bottom limit of where all the paintings hang, regardless of the height. This formula is the basis for how all the paintings are hung in this exhibition as given as instructed by the curator. Once all the markings have been on the centre, two arbitrary marks are placed in a T shape on either side to mark where the screws are placed to hold the painting in place.

Once they have all been marked, they are ready to be drilled with guiding holes, then the screw is finally inserted about an inch out to hold the painting in place. Then we add the screws and the painting is ready to be hung.

Aside from taking the bins out running around getting all the food and drink ready for the opening night tomorrow, everything has been hung. Now the walls just need a lick of paint to cover the pencil marks and it shall be ready...