British Calendar Customs

This weekend has been full of work to follow up the incredible response to the One Show piece on the Bermondsey show. The number of people who have signed up to receive information from the Trust has doubled, as has the number of people following our Facebook page and Twitter account. There's also the matter of responding to the many people who have written wishing to buy a painting by Dave. This is far from easy to organise as the London exhibition is not a selling show, in the sense that Crisis, who rent and run the space are not allowed to sell as a condition of their lease, although the Trust can sell works in the exhibition, but only by handing it ourselves - and this isn't easy as we don't have a presence in London. Anyway it has been sorted, offering people a choice of options including meeting up with Margaret on two named days when she will be in London.

Anyway, to lighten the workload, I decided to go through the 10 notebooks that Dave left behind which contains his notes, scribbles and sketches on British Calendar Customs.  There should be 11 but we can't find one of them. These are wonderful - full of the notes Dave made when reading up the subject, and quick sketches that would have provided a basis for the paintings and collages he eventually made. These books reveal yet another side of the artist. Among the pages are a handful of more worked up ink drawings and I include a couple here. Above is a drawing of a Full Moon ritual, and below of 'Dumb Cake' from Norfolk. 

BBC One Show

Within 30 minutes of the broadcast of the piece on last night's One Show, I had received almost 60 emails of interest, and by this morning well over 100. 

All of these were positive; most were people signing up to our website newsletter, but a good few were enquiries about buying the catalogue or even a painting. 

We felt it was a well-done piece, containing a few inaccuracies but on the whole telling the story in a succinct and effective way. We all agreed that the shots of the Bermondsey Project gallery showed what a wonderful space it is. I really hope the One Show broadcast will bring plenty of visitors to the gallery this weekend.

Matt and Alex cometh

Three more images of the opening that illustrate what a lovely space Bermondsey Project is for exhibiting large paintings.

Today and tomorrow the BBC's One Show are filming us in London and Rossendale. I'm tied up elsewhere but Margaret, Chris, Edward and more will be involved and probably interviewed. To see the result watch the broadcast at 19.00 on Thursday.

Our opening in London

Over 100 people attended the opening of 'Byzantium and Beyond' at the Bermondsey Project on Thursday night. I was considerably relieved by number of people who turned out on a thundery and wet evening. The response was overwhelming too. Thank you to all the many, many people involved in getting this exhibition together and allowing us to exhibit Dave's work in London.

Deverani and Tobais, Dave's grand-daughter and grandson

Looking into the main gallery (left) and the self-portrait gallery

Chris Pearson talks with his cousin Lorraine (right, back to us); with Edward Lucie Smith left middle distance

  

The entrance to the main gallery

Sue Goodwin and Barbara Nicholls

The film-maker Derek Smith and Julian Williams

The Bermondsey tablecloth

So here we go - soon to catch the train to London.

Julian phoned last night from Bermondsey and told me how the day had gone; last minute problems with the print-shop, and a late afternoon tweaking of the lights. But ultimately all looks well; in fact he says 'brilliant'.

So today it's a final tidy, the odd coat of paint (on the gallery walls), and ironing the Bermondsey Project tablecloth. See you there...

Almost there

Despite Margaret's work last week there still appears to be a lot still to do. Julian Williams (See Gallery) has been in Bermondsey these past couple of days sorting the final arrangements before Margaret returns tomorrow for her final check. 

Sourcing print has been a problem for us, familiar with Lancashire prices, with London print-shops charging 250% more than we are used to, and Julian has been charging all over London to find a good deal for jobs such as information boards, titles and other support material for the exhibition. His gallery experience has proved useful in sorting drinks and nibbles, as  well as chasing up last minute lighting and tidying jobs. But my last phone call with him, an hour ago, was far more relaxed - at last we seem to be on top of things.

The catalogue, we're told, will arrive on Thursday morning - let's hope this isn't another nail-biter. Ric, our designer, has seen the finished book and says it 'looks fantastic'. Hollie from Cork Street Open Exhibitions has told us the iBook is complete too, look great and we're jiust waiting now for confirmation from Apple that it's on the iBookstore.

So something else to look forward to, along with all the people who are ringing or texting and - on the whole - telling me that they're going to be there. Roll on Thursday evening!

A report back - and help needed

Derek Smith, the director of 'To Byzantium', the wonderful film about Dave Pearson and the work of the DP Trust, visited the hang in Bermondsey and sent me these two photographs. He wrote:

"The show even at this early stage of completion looks amazing ! This is of course my first real experience of a Dave Pearson exhibition after squinting at jpgs.....and stacked canvases for all of 2 years."

Margaret reports that everything is 90% in place, but there are a few gaps in the lighting. Does anyone out there have access to a couple of fresnel lanterns? Or a few spotlights? The problem for us is getting things down to London from Rossendale at this stage in the proceedings. 

Any help with this would be very welcome. 

Hanging commences

Margaret Mytton is now in London and, helped by Taidgh and Darren, is now starting the hang of the show. Edward Lucie Smith will be along today and final positioning of the work will be agreed before the paintings start being mounted on the walls. 

Margaret tells me that she already feels sure that additional lighting will be required so this now has to be negotiated with Mick Bateman  of Crisis. Fortunately we bought and took down several halogen lamps down with us (from Lidl!), and these apparently do the job perfectly. 

I'm working on final graphics for the exhibition, and will be sending these to London with Julian on Sunday so the local print-shop can prepare the boards for the opening next week.