Comfort - and an exhibition

This week we will be starting getting the studio ready for Ella (see the previous blogs) so that she can commence work on cataloguing the Trust's collection. 

Even now, having sold several hundred pieces of Dave's work since his death, there is still no space for laying out drawings in order to photograph or archive them properly. So one of our main priorities will be to increase shelf space by buying shelving units that will provide 30 additional storage shelves. This means Ella will be able to catalogue and move the awkward piles of work that currently sit on top of the plan chests. These will then be filed away in acid-free boxes and, where necessary, individual sheets will be separated by acid-free paper. Having another plan-chest would be useful - anyone have one that needs a good home?

We'll also be working on making the place a little more comfortable - some racking in the kitchen, a microwave cooker, desks and a desk-lamp, plus a heater by Ella's desk. 

From the 14th January there's also an interesting exhibition of Dave's 'Bestiary' paintings from the late 1990s at the See Gallery in Crawshawbooth. It's only open by request through julian@seegallery.co.uk and contains a few large canvases such as the one shown above, and a good number of smaller ones. This series, inspired by Dave's interest in medieval bestiaries, occupied Dave for over 10 years and went through a number of different phases that are represented in this fascinating exhibition. 

Selection

Spent a lot of yesterday at the See gallery looking at the work that Julian and Jackie had selected from the 500 or so pieces of work that we removed from Globe Arts studios a few days ago. With Jackie and Margaret Mytton I helped title, price and place the pieces of work. 

Particularly notable are the series of Bestiary paintings, influenced by the strange and mythic creatures found in medieval bestiaries, and also the series of dark, mask-like self-portraits that Dave painted during this period in the 1990s.  

The exhibition, which opens next weekend (private view Friday 22nd) has a special intensity and integrity probably because, unlike earlier exhibitions at the See, the work in it covers only a decade or so of Dave's output. There is nevertheless a wide range of work - from harrowing wood, nail and string constructions, through the series of small (almost miniature) oil paintings, to the comic and strange 'Christmas Fair' creations made for the Globe Christmas exhibitions.