A holiday break

I'm taking a holiday break in a few days time so inevitably there are a lot of jobs to be undertaken in preparation both for the launch of the film and for the Open Studio weekend (10th/11th September). Fortunately Julian Williams of the See gallery will be working on things in my absence; so yesterday and today we met with Chris Pearson to discuss the jobs and make various arrangements. 

First a dozen pieces of work were selected from those that remain at Dave's old house (where his son Chris still lives). These are pieces on paper from the last period of Dave's life - mainly gouaches of his hospital experiences. Despite this subject they are glowing with colour and life. They have never been seen so the Open Studio event will be exhibiting 6 or 7 of them for the first time. Julian will take this selection to be framed in the next few days. It is very much a selection - there are probably another 100 in the house. We also noted a minimum of another 1000 pieces of work on paper on the top floor. It never ends....

Julian and Chris will also start moving some of the large pieces between the house and the studio next week, so we can rearrange the display and have new pieces on show for Reveal Open Studios. The film 'To Byzantium' will also be shown that weekend.

A DVD design

The artwork for TO BYZANTIUM is now complete - which includes a cover (above), a booklet insert and an inlay label for the DVD. I've also designed an invitation to be sent out to people for the launch event at the Cornerhouse, Manchester on the 4th September. Everything will go off to the print company on Tuesday.

There are only 158 seats in Cinema 2, so we're having to ask everyone who receives an invite to phone or email in order to reserve their seats. 

It looks as if, from an email we've received from the film maker, Derek Smith, that an exhibition of Dave's work has now been agreed for BERMONDSEY PROJECT SPACE - for September 2012; almost exactly a year after the launch of the film. 

Frame grabs from "To Byzantium'

The film arrived yesterday. A box of DVD and Blu-Ray discs, permissions and credits, plus a complete hard-drive was delivered. Closely followed by a disc of screen grabs from the film. Among which:

Dave Pearson's studio in Haslingden

The waterfall at The Valley of Desolation, where Dave wanted his ashes scattered.

Haslingden scene - note the billboard headline.

A grab from rare footage of Dave teaching at Manchester Art College (now MMU).

The writer and critic Edward Lucie-Smith, who adds a critical perspective.

Now I need to design the artwork for the DVD; this will be duplicated in time for the launch of the film at the beginning of September. 

TO BYZANTIUM

Planning for both the completion of the film, now with an agreed title - 'DAVE PEARSON: TO BYZANTIUM', and the launch of the film at The Cornerhouse, Manchester, are well underway. This will be the culmination of well over a year of work by the Trust, and by the director of the film, Derek Smith, on and off for almost exactly a year.  

The Trust are also discussing exactly how the relationship with Jackie and Julian of the See Gallery will work. Julian in particular will be taking on the arrangements for the launch. If this works out, we'll also be asking him to take a lead of planning future exhibitions of work by Dave Pearson, including - hopefully - one in 2012 at the Bermondsey PROJECT SPACE.