We have now rehung the gallery after the Autumn Show closed and hope to see many more visitors before Christmas.  John and Jane Knuckey are joining us for the Christmas opening with some of their beautiful hand-made furniture and their new collection of smaller items such a trays, photograph frames and book ends www.knuckeyfruniture.co.uk . We are also previewing a few of Oona Campbell’s new paintings of West Wittering which will form part of her solo show next May.
Don’t hesitate to call to make an appointment or enquire about any of the images on our web site.  We are always happy to open up specially – or to take the paintings to you either in London or elsewhere if you can’t get down to Sussex.
With David Attenbourgh’s Frozen planet and the wonderful exhibition of Scott’s Antarctic Exhibiton currently showing at Buckingham Palace our first exhibition of 2012 is highly topical. 23 Shades of White chronicles Tuema Pattie’s recent voyages through the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Painting in these conditions was incredibly tough, everything on deck was blown away and on shore Tuema had to contend with inquisitive penguins and constant sleet which washed away the paint before it could dry. With her indomitable Irish spirit, Tuema actually relished the challenges and produced dazzling sketches – either through her cabin porthole or balanced on an icy rock – from which to work up the finished paintings for the March show.
Another excitement next year is the long awaited return of Oona Campbell following her 2007 exhibition.  Oona has now moved to Dorset and her solo show scheduled for May 2012 is of Sussex and Dorset paintings . Oona has been racing over to Sussex most weekends this month to catch the Autumn Colours and hopefully a winter sun set, such as the one we had last week end – which luckily found her sketching on West Wittering Beach.  Her new work will include views of Goodwood and the Trundle and Petworth Park.

We are also doing two art fairs in the early part of next year, returning to the 20/21st International Art Fair at the Royal College in February and taking part in a new curated fair opening for the first time at the Old Library in Battersea. The fair is the idea of our Sussex neighbour Jose Waldie who has invited six dealers to join her in this fabulous Georgian Library just of Prince of Wales Drive. Perhaps this will be the way forward for the art market, smaller more intimate art fairs where one is not left lost, confused and exhausted before one is even half-way round the stands!

The Gods were kind to us and we had a wonderful afternoon for the Private View.  The first punters arrived on the dot of three and we finally started to turn out the lights at nine pm as I thought my feet were going to give way.  The day whizzed by as we had so many people through the door  (over 400) who were genuinely interested in what we were doing and the work on show, I know I am the proprietor but our visitors were so complimentary about the work and the setting that all the hard work was worth it.

I think Woodruffs is at its best in the early autumn, the borders are still just in flower but the berries and seed heads are also appearing, the low autumn light seems to bounce of the fields and hit the sculpture at exactly the right angle and the pieces look wonderful against the different colours and textures of the fields at this time of year.  Sculptor Richard Bray did comment that he had installed his Utile Upright pieces against a golden field of stubble and we had ‘repainted’ the back drop as the field had been ploughed in the interim- but that is the hazard of a gallery like ours.

Lots of the artists and sculptors were able to come for the opening. Dominic Welch driving  all the way up from his remote Exmore studio,  Richard Bray  from Cambridge and Nicolas Moreton from Northamptonshire.  Lucy Unwin made quite a stir by arriving by helicopter.  A helicopter in the paddock was a real bonus for our cred ratings.

Considering the economic climate, sales have been fantastic we have sold over 30 works of art spread over many different artists, with prices ranging from £40 to £8,000.  I think any London gallery would have been over joyed to have had the sort of response we have had and I am so encouraged that my daft idea of opening a gallery in the middle of a farm miles from anywhere seems to be working.  I think people love the whole experience of coming here, the garden, the quality of the sculpture and the thought that has gone into siting it.  The barn with it’s 30 foot ceilings and floor to ceiling windows onto the landscape is a remarkable venue for the paintings and a superb way to show them at their best.

A big thank you to all the artists and sculptors for showing with us and for everyone who came and made is such a wonderful day.  If you haven’t yet made it to the show  - waste no time in getting here and if the opening hours don’t suit you please ring to make an appointment.  And by the way the swallows left three days before we opened.  I do miss them soaring round the garden but not the mess they made.   However, we now have a squirrel nesting in the roof of the gallery making a dreadful racket and doing untold damage.  We have set a trap bated with peanuts, the peanuts are gone every morning but  no  sign of the squirrel – I will keep you posted.

Just over a week to go every one working flat out!

With just over a week to go to the opening, the last ten days have been frantically busy. We now have nearly all the sculpture installed and were lucky to have most of it in before the gale of last Monday night made conditions very difficult. Handling tons of slippery stone and marble in a torrential down pour with mud under foot is no joke. Dick Budden’s giant bronze  fruit is now lying in the orchard among the windfalls looking as autumnal as the weather, Paul Vanstone’s marble torso’s look stunning against the sky line. I think our farmer Brian Dallyn must have been very surprised to be greeted by an eight foot female marble figure on the edge of his field as he did his rounds on Monday morning.

Paintings have been arriving from Scotland, France, Berlin and  Devon  as well as our local artists Lucy Powell and John Hitchens. We are really lucky that John has given us some more landscapes and flower paintings carefully stored since the 80s all are based on the landscape around here the South Downs and Grafham woodland. Tim Kent’s  figure studies painted in his Brooklyn Studio, are finally on their way but not yet arrived. They can now be seen on the web site they are richly painted,  playful works juxtaposing the models against the large portrait commissions he is currently working on in the studio. Fingers crossed there are no more  hurricanes in New York  and they make it in time for the opening,

The swallows which have been nesting in the  open barn since the spring are now having flying lessons and getting very good at it. I am tender hooks as to whether they will have left in time for the opening as there are obvious complications to placing sculpture and painting out there at present!

Welcome to the new website and our state of the art electronic catalogue which has been designed by my nephew Alexander Payne of Key Player Publishing.  The catalogue is a real first for an art gallery, do click on the link and forward it onto your friends.  The website presents a whole range of work new to the gallery and we are looking forward to getting you all here for the September exhibition.

While the gallery has been closed there have been major changes to the garden and we have turned a weedy swap into a stunning ‘pocket park’ designed by Judith Wise with much enthusiastic help and support from Charlie.   We can now display double the amount of sculpture, which looks stunning in the new setting.   The whole family have helped with clearing and burning and driving diggers and dumpers, the new trees have survived the dry months and all is now looking green and verdant as autumn edges towards us.

The first pieces of sculpture are already here; Dominic Welch spent two days installing his large scale Rising Form II and Dorsalis XII. It is real coup to have these works here and we are all enjoying them enormously as well as Ben Barrell’s stunning benches, which are perfect for admiring the sun set over the Rother Valley.

Preparations are now well under way for the show, the invitations are being sent out, more work is arriving daily and we shall soon be besieged by sculptors and heavy lifting gear.   We start hanging the paintings in early September.   If you can’t make the Private View  but are interested in viewing a work of art then come and see us before the opening.   We shall be updating the blog weekly as events develop.