I have been developing my body of work A Place of Retreat since October of last year and I am now into the final few weeks of bringing it to completion.
Last time I posted I was at the varnishing and finishing stage. Since then I have decided on frames, ordered them and framed each piece. It is amazing the difference a frame can make, it is like a full stop saying this piece has reached its conclusion.
The frames have arrived.
The panoramas needed a little extra sliver of wood to raise them slightly in the frame.
All of the wood panels are in float frames and the works on paper are behind glass. I have signed the back of each artwork and attached a label with a few sentences about that piece.
A Perfect Balance looking great in its frame.
Label on the back of the artwork.
Signatures are a tricky thing, the latest advice from some within the art world is not to sign the front as it can be distracting to the viewer. In contrast a lot of artists and buyers like to see a signature on the front. To those artists it says this is an original piece of art and I am proud to have created it.
I am somewhere in between these two views. I quite like a signature on the front. I usually initial the front and sign the back in full. However, for this most recent work I have been a little torn. Some I initialled on the front as usual but others I just signed the back. For those particular pieces I found myself agreeing with the no signing on the front group; the signature was distracting. I tried signing in different places to no avail. So I made the decision to change my normal procedure. I am not one for rules where I think they don’t work. It is more important to me that each piece is finished in a way that works best for it.
The panoramas required a little extra work to frame, but we got there in the end.
I also decided to design a catalogue for this project. In it I have a short introduction to my thoughts behind the work and a summary of the outcome at the end. All of the art pieces being shown at my exhibition will also be included in the catalogue.
Printing my catalogue design in page spreads allowed me to see how the finished product would look
Screenshot of my final design prior to pushing the order button, hope it looks as good in print.
That leads me onto the final piece of this project which was my wish to exhibit the work in a venue close to my area of inspiration. I struggled for a long time to find a suitable venue and was beginning to doubt if such a place existed exactly where I wanted it. Then out of the blue a friend mentioned how they had come across an art exhibition in a gallery just off the main street in the town I wanted to exhibit in. I immediately contacted the owner and sent him the images of my work. It was as if it was meant to be. He agreed to show the work in his gallery and my first solo exhibition will take place in September.
The venue will be the gallery within Spy Pond Photo Space which is located in the town of Newcastle, on the County Down Coast in Northern Ireland. It is about 3.5 miles from my area of inspiration - ‘Murlough Nature Reserve and Beach’. It really is the perfect conclusion to this particular part of my art journey.
Flyer for exhibition - front image
Flyer for exhibition - information from reverse
I will drop back in with an update on how the exhibition went and then it will be time for new adventures.
If you have any thoughts on signatures, frames or any other art topic please comment below or send me a message via my contact page.