Summer mode and the background heating at the studio can be turned off! Ella and I take our early holidays, and builders are called in to fix the badly slipping guttering at the back of 54 Manchester Road.
Alongside this our plans are moving along - we're conscious that we now have added treasure in the form of the newly printed etching and drypoint plates that Alan Birch has been working on. Over the next few months I'll arrange to have a selection of these framed so we can present them as well as possible. Ella has already shown a selection of the proofs to the Goldmark Gallery and they are interested enough to follow this up, potentially with a visit to the studio.
Similarly, through contacts with Manchester Museums & Galleries, we've also had interest from the Turnpike in Leigh about mounting an exhibition. It's a big space and Dave showed his Byzantium work there in, I think, 1992. I remember that exhibition well, an enormously powerful show which we have a good photographic record of. The Turnpike has recently re-opened and it would be wonderful to have a second show there, 25 years later.
The photos above are taken from one of the drypoint plates resurrected by Alan Birch - this one is an unusual piece, and showing some of these prints is another thing we're working on. The According to McGee Gallery in York have been back in touch, about showing some work in the near future. Perhaps some of these are a possibility? In any case it looks as if the next few years could see a stirring of exhibition activity...watch this space.
