Tales from the Humber

May Newsletter Issue Ten

I am honoured and excited to be a member of the 100 Artists Gallery. This is a new and unexpected turn for me. I have shown in actual galleries. Put work in open exhibitions and

those online, but never been represented by any of them. While the online Gallery itself will not start trading until September, artists like me, are choosing and uploading work to the site with the requisite information ready for publicity and introduction in the next few months. I have signed contracts for buying and selling houses but never a contract with a Gallery. It feels a form of recognition as an artist. I remember as a student at Corsham in the 60s, being overawed to be taught by artists like Gillian Ayres who were on contract to famous London Galleries and now here I am.

It is of course a completely different art world now. More complicated. Social media to feed. Then everything was done by art agents and the Gallery itself. The artist was expected to devote themselves to produce work, give rare publicity interviews and turn up for openings. It was more insular and closed. Now opportunities open a whole new world beyond our imagination then. While young artists are more in charge of their own destinies, though luck still has a part to play – being in the right place at the right time, meeting someone of influence, they must have new skills, become business gurus, be computer literate, trawl for openings and opportunities. Image making is only one part of the whole. On sites like Instagram, reels are rated above actual pictures to attract followers and hopefully buyers. Just as I mastered putting pictures up and hash tags, now I need to think of entertaining viewers with animated clips!

Coming from the old art world, I often feel like Alice on her adventures in Wonderland or through the looking glass, curious and bemused! Through Zoom meetings, I can meet up with all kinds of interesting people yet not know they are attending from different countries in other time zones. How weird is that? Mastering social media makes me feel like the white rabbit always running to catch up.

I am having to adapt, not only to this new world but also to problems of age and health and how I can organise myself to continue my practice at a time when energy is limited. and other down factors like not driving. This, in itself, is a creative exercise.