An Unexpected Bonus

visitors enjoying the Harpenden Arts Club Open Exhibition

Coming as it does at one of the busiest times of the year, the Harpenden Arts Club Annual Exhibition always seems to take me by surprise.   As usual, the entry form was done in a hurry while I was in the middle of sorting out something else; when I came to prepare my entries for handing-in, I was surprised to find that I was going to show two watercolours and a monoprint, with half a dozen works going into the unframed section.

Painting the Boat alongide some other seaside-themed exhibits

 I haven't managed to get along to a club meeting for some time, so as a contribution to this most local of local exhibitions, I usually put my name down for a couple of hours' stewarding on the Saturday.  The exhibition, which ran from the Friday through to the Sunday, was enjoying some success:  the sales had clearly been good already, and we had a steady stream of visitors voting for their favourite piece and dropping by the stewards' table for a chat!

Two Hand Reel amidst a selection of works featuring figures

What's more, the exhibition had been hung really well.  For example, Painting the Boat had been placed with a number of seascapes and beach-related pieces;  they looked far better grouped together than they would have done dotted about here and there.  Two Hand Reel was hanging with some other paintings of figures;  it all made sense, somehow - our visitors certainly thought so.

view of the exhibition looking towards the stewards' table

The club kindly allows stewards to sell greetings cards during their stint, so I had a basket of mine with me;  yet again I spent the entire two hours convinced that nobody would buy one and for the third year running I sold a couple just as I was about to leave.  The bonus, however, came on Sunday afternoon when I went to pick everything up;  one of my Winter Birds two-colour unframed monoprints had sold.  Winter Birds is now one of my most successful series of prints!  The ash tree on which the birds were originally photographed has had to come down - a victim of ash die-back disease.  So the prints will have to be its memorial . . .

A big thank you to the organisers of the HAC exhibition!