Adding the Gloss

Having spent ALL day yesterday watching the telly, i got up early this morning to make up for lost time. I have managed to add the gloss to the woodwork in the back gallery, and apart from the perspex on the sink screen, the room is done. When the paint is dry tomorrow, i will put the empty frames into their  final  positions.

Debating what to put in the frames. White. Off-white. Black.

I am really pleased with how it is looking. It is very good stage set. Now the drama begins.

Undercoat

After another long day of preparation, caulking and sanding, the wood has been undercoated, and there is a new layer of clean white paint on the walls. No prizes for spotting the bit of missing skirting board (I'd forgotten that was why i had a seagrass screen around that corner.) I'm sure there'll be a bit upstairs somewhere I can steal for the cause!

So happy that I can see the stage set beginning to appear in the gallery now.  

Tomorrow I shall be adding the gloss to Christmas. 

More Panelling Required

I have finished the construction of the screen for the sink in the back gallery (apart from the perspex panels) and measured up for the position of the work itself.  I realised that, visually, the panelling on the walls needed adding to, if the work is to hang two frames deep. So, thankfully before I started the painting, I have added two more rows of batons to increase the appearance of regularity and structure within the space.

I am very pleased with the way the project us going so far, and I think I am just about on target, timewise. It's only my own target, but i find it easier to relax in the evening if i am happy with the work I have done.  My intention is to have both rooms ready for the exhibition, and all the frames hung (empty) in time for Rob Tyson's music evening on 10th January, when the programme of events at The Studio Gallery for 2014 will also be available. We have some very exciting things planned for next year. But one thing at a time!!!!, 

First Steps (or first waves of muscular contraction)

This exhibition is as much about the space, as it is about the work itself. In my mind's eye, I have always seen "The Movement and Action of Worms" being set here in The Studio Gallery.

I think when i first moved into the space 4 and a half years ago, i knew it was where my next significant exhibition was going to take place,  but the space needs to look, clean, precise, white - something of the look of a laboratory - yes 'clinical' is the word! And those of you who know the gallery know that it has gone through an enormous number of 'changes' - none of them looking particularly clinical to date.

So starting with the back room, (since the front is my Christmas sitting room) I am clearing it. Adding a screen around the sink unit, which folds back and looks like a window shutter (!). And then painting the whole thing white. 

Although this feels a little bit like it might be a 'displacement activity' from making the work itself, actually setting the scene is vital for my ideas to take shape. The work is already in my head. I need a stage to act them out on.