h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The art exhibition took place this past Thursday. I had seven paintings there: the owl, the eagle, the quiver tree, waterbuck antelope, a 'steenbok' (small antelope), a secretary bird, and donkeys in recently burnt 'veld'.

Owl:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/My%20Artistic%20Creations/GevlekteOoruil2.jpg

Eagle:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/My%20Artistic%20Creations/Roofarend2.jpg

Quiver Tree:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/My%20Artistic%20Creations/Kokerboom2.jpg


Waterbuck:

http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2123095610103203115EcXNZi

Steenbok:

http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2918329040103203115QOAJEt

Donkeys:

http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2034642000103203115HVeVwg

My secretary bird is not online yet! I'll take a picture of it and upload it sometime.


There were a number of other artists as well: Sarie van Dyk, Gerhard Rossouw, Laurita Oliver, Ronell Neethling, Antionette du Bruyn, and Kathryn van Schalkwyk, my art teacher. I already know Ronell but haven't yet met the other artists. I chatted with them and they're very nice people. Antionette had some interesting advice, and Laurita talked a lot with my mom. She turns out to be married to the eldest son of Pat Oliver, who also taught at the University of the North/Limpopo with my parents when they still worked there. I know his youngest son, Claude, quite well, we went to school together.

So anyways, the exhibition. There were some very nice works. Laurita, Antionette, Sarie and Gerhard also had some wildlife works, and there were portrait studies and landscapes of various kinds. The evening was organised by Suzette Talbot and took place at the Cafe Pavillion a bit outside of town. The evening also included a wine tasting and dinner. There was a bit of a mix-up though as a result of which some of us artists - including myself, Gerhard, Sarie, and Laurita - went without wine and food. Well I don't drink wine anyways, but the others might have liked it. Anyways we didn't realise we had to pay for the food in addition to the fee we paid for the privilege of exhibiting our works. So anyways we sat at a table with Suzette and chatted while the guests enjoyed the food and drink.

There were about 55 guests, and before dinner they went round to look at the paintings. There was a bit of a niggle: the lighting inside wasn't good. It was a bit dim so that the full range of colours of my and other people's paintings couldn't be appreciated. Also, my paintings were covered with clear plastic, and there were lots of 'point-sources' of light inside that reflected off the plastic. Oh well. Anyways I stood by my paintings and as people came to look, chatted with them a bit. I didn't push my paintings on them ... I'm just not the hard-sell type ... but my teacher, Kathryn, also came up and praised some of my work and encouraged people to buy! For which I'm grateful to her! She had some excellent works there herself.

Anyways there was a lady who loved my owl painting, and at the end of the dinner her daughter approached me and said she wanted to buy it. There was a bit of a silly thing ... I had actually forgot to sign the painting previous to it being 'mounted'! So I had to first take the painting home, take off the plastic, and sign it. She came round to collect it on Friday.

Only three other works were sold: a portrait of a young girl by Sarie, a large ballerina by Laurita, and an African hunting dog, also by Laurita.

I'm happy to have got some more experience and exposure though! From the evening I learnt the following lessons:

1. Get myself a business card! I can easily design one on my computer and make it real 'arsty' so that in itself it's an example of my style of art.

2. Put together a portfolio of my work. I have most of my works (including ones already sold) on my computer, so that I can print them out and file them. All the other artists had such portfolios there.

3. Prepare a longer 'artistic statement'. Mine was embarassingly short compared to the others - which appeared in a pamphlet that was handed out to the guests - because I had for some reason imagined that we had only 50 words.

4. Make sure all my works are signed by the time they're exhibited!

Willem I am so glad you did it. It seems you learn a lot from it too. Perhaps they will have learnt something too and if they do another exhibition will sort out the lighting for you all. I had non-reflective glass put on my most precious picture and it makes a big difference.

<>

That amused me. You clearly thought there was a word limit as I have never known you short on words

I am looking forward to the Secretary Bird, as we were talking about them the other day - I can't remember why!

Well done.

Websailor

Beautiful paintings. And some lucky person got one, cool...

with it all. The work itself is breathtaking. (And I don't know what to do with 'artist's statements', either. It always sounds like stating the obvious.)

Hi there again Websailor and Dmitri! Thanks for your comments.

Heh heh Websailor, you should have seen me back when I was still rather seriously messed up in the head! I wrote obsessively. I afflicted a few poor people with these writings ... there's one guy to whom I wrote letters that were like twenty to forty pages in length. Here on h2g2 I once posted a message consisting of 40 000 words. I've always had the problem of my mind working, it seems, at an absolutely frenetic pace. I have learnt to 'filter' my thoughts into something other people could effectively process ... and still I don't always succeed!

Well here on h2g2 I'm not *selling* my thoughts and writings, I'm sharing them freely, and people can read, or not read, depending on how interested they are and how much time they have.

Wonderful!

I'm glad you enjoyed the experience, and that you will be doing more exhibitions


lil xx

I enjoy reading your posts, they are articulate and interesting. I just wish I had more time, but I get there eventually. I used to have a similar problem when I was much younger, but the brain has slowed considerably over time

Websailor