Today is going well too with an amazing amount of people knowing Honiton or having been in the gallery. Finished off the last of Rachel’s cutlery pictures and today has been more Irene Jones’ day.

Celebrity count = one Gryff Rhys Jones- didn’t get close enough to sniff him though!! See last blog
(last time I saw him we shared a urinal in The Ivy)

Also two of the AAF Crew came onto the stand and had a remarkable likeness to an Irene picture. But I can’t get the picture to load. Watch this space.

The two AAF crew girls who looked like Irene's painting The Mystery Gifts

The private view went well and thank you to all our new customers who all really enjoyed our star of the night Rachel Ross. Eight pictures were purchased, the first four at ten past six. The other highlight of my night was chatting to Joanna Lumley, who was also very taken with Rachel’s work. Joanna was very serene and smelt very, very nice!

We arrived yesterday and unloaded, arranged and hung. Renewed some art fair friendships and white vanned back to Pimlico a bit pooped. Had a reminder of London prices with an Indian take away meal! Early to bed to rise early to beat the congestion charge which we did and after sortie out for the odd item like a tube of Polyfilla we got to the show venue with still an hour in hand. A ten o’clock start? We’re in London now not our own sleepy Devon. Our stand was duly finished off and tidied up ready for tonight’s PV. Will there be celebrities? Oh I do hope so.

November since the last blog – pathetic , sorry will try harder.

As of 9.55 today it seems that everyone has decided that Christmas is upon us and the gallery was teeming. Prize comment today was ‘oh we’ve come all the way from London and found a gallery with good pictures’ and she thought she was entering a world of fudge shops, sorry to have disappointed.

For the season we have stocked up with goodies as part of our Gifted exhibition and the Mimobots (4gig memory sticks) as Star Wars characters and artist designed cases are being a hit particularly for the hard to buy for dad, brother, son.

We have had a few new books delivered into the gallery this week including the rather wonderful title New Treehouses of the World by Pete Nelson who has, the dust jacket says ‘spearheaded the treehouse revival’. Now that’s a claim and a half.

One of the books arrived in one of the natty cardboard book-posting packages that seem to be in use now, I suppose the growth of Amazon has also helped packaging companies too. However this particular one was either not up to the job of protecting its contents or it had been lobbed into the back of the van with undue care and attention. The top of the spine was crushed and was in my opinion unsaleable. So I rang the distributer and the customer care lady apologised and said they were testing a new type of packaging and the feedback was of value. Shall I return the book says I? No just return the title page, she replied. Now this is where I began to have a problem, she was asking me to tear or cut a page out of a book, I reiterated sending the whole book back but no she was adamant she only needed a page. I’m sure all those book trade folk out there know this of old but to a newbie book retailer this was bit of a shock. Surely its sacrilege to cut up a book even if its busted. I sliced it out with a scalpel which seemed fairer to the tome but with a little wiggle of abandon in the blade to show the book was broken. It didn’t help that it was a fantastic new book on Angie Lewin the printmaker. A nice fresh one will be in stock shortly.

In stock and more to follow is Naomi Cleaver’s new book The Joy of Home. Naomi has just moved into Honiton and is doing up her own house (have a look at www.naomicleaver.com/naomi-cleaver-blog.html). Come and have a chat with her here at the gallery when she will be signing copies on the 27th November. A donation from each book sold will be given to Help for Heroes.

Well its a couple of weeks since our return from the Devon Art Fair which I think was, for a first show, a success. We sold several of Rachel Ross’ spoon paintings and similar amount of silk screen prints by Jane Ormes. We met many existing customers and gained some new ones. The camaraderie among fellow gallery owners was refreshing and the venue despite its vile green ceiling was pleasant to be in (I’ll come on to the rest of the Riviera Conference Centre later!) airy and light enough though I would fork out for more spot lights next time.

Interestingly the public’s perception of the fair was mixed, many people said they thought it was a fair of Devon art i.e. they were expecting some rubbish amateur watercolours in ill considered frames and were surprised by the quality of work from galleries from all over the country. But generally they thought it was a good thing for Torquay and hoped it would happen again.

So on to the Riviera Centre itself. It is a nightmare of an interior. Interior design students should go on visits to be shown how not to do it. Never in my 50 years on this planet have I seen so many surface patterns, textures and treatments in one building or indeed on one wall. It sort of defies description, you have to see it for yourself really (nor could I bring myself to take photographs) to behold the true majesty of its awfulness. So next time you are in Torquay go and take a look. Take sun glasses if you are sensitive and a paper bag if you have any design ethic in you at all and walk from the main entrance to the Bay Brasserie and see how many patterns and materials you can count.

The private view had a really busy spurt around 8 o’clock and we sold three of Rachel Ross’ fabulous cutlery paintings and one of paintbrushes (my mental personal sweepstake won) and two sets of very happy customers left with their paintings. A good start to the new fair. Today the heavens have opened and Torquay indeed the whole of Devon seems very wet – though we have the benefit of being inside unlike the poor wretches playing and watching the Ryder Cup golf in Wales. Oh customers here, by your beds.

We are a bit pooped but the show for opening night is hung. Just some captions to go on and some tidying up to do. All looks very positive thank you artists one and all.

I have been reading Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds. I bought it a little while ago in one of those comic-book shops that proliferate around the British Museum. It took me a while to buy as she had not only signed each one but had also done a little drawing of Tamara on the title page and I had to go through each copy to find what I thought was the nicest drawing.  A film has been made of the book and much made of the film in the press, so I wanted to read it before seeing the film. Although I had a brief period of comic reading (1970 to 1973 UK editions of Marvel) it’s not been an enduring passion as it can be in others either reading/collecting (Clive I mean you) or drawing (Andy I mean you) so this was my first foray into adult comic books or Graphic Novel the name given to assuage the childishness of reading a book full of pictures. They are very filmic to read and it must be a doddle making the screen play as the storyboarding, which is produced for most films, is of course already done.

I have enjoyed it immensely but I have to say I think that is due to the fantastic observation in both the writing and the drawing, Posy Simmonds is rightly recognised with an MBE for services to the newspaper industry. I have loved her work since she started with a strip called Bear in the Sun newspaper that my sister and I would pounce upon daily at lunchtimes when home from school. The Sun had been a regular paper in our socialist household from when it was still a broadsheet, it continued to be bought until its presence in our house was derided by some teenage boyfriend of said sister and it was replaced by the Grauniad which is where Ms Simmonds had gone too. Much later I enjoyed reading Fred to my daughter and now Tamara Drewe to myself. If I could draw like that I’d be a happy man.

I have started going to life drawing classes which may help. Though it would help if I remembered to go! I missed last week – just plain forgot. If I feel brave enough I’ll post some drawings.

Richard Adams new work went on the web site today (another I wish I could draw like). Its been busy.