Solo Exhibition London 2019

My statement piece - 80x100cm 'Sunset, Albert Bridge'

The last few weeks have felt a whirl wind and I'm finally able to do a blog post about my solo exhibition! 

My husband Nick and I drove up on the Sunday unloaded a whole van full of stuff and started to unwrap the paintings. Monday spent all day hanging the show.

The room is an old studio used by artists around a 100 years ago. Two doors along Turner had his studio! The high ceilings and homely but grand feel suited my work a lot more than a white square box type gallery.

Getting some sun!

We opened Tuesday morning and had our first visitor at 9am! In all we had 181 visitors over the 5 days. Which felt a good amount, enough time to speak to everyone :-)

46 framed paintings on the wall & 46 unframed

The Private View Tuesday evening I was incredibly nervous and couldn't stop shaking! The unknown reaction of what people would think and whether they would buy as well. It felt as though I was hanging on the walls along side my paintings, incredibly exposing. But I needn't have worried, the reaction was positive and overwhelming. I felt giddy with all the compliments about my work - with the amount I had painted in 8-12 months and the quality. Some said they thought I would be an old person because the paintings had a maturity - I'll take that as a compliment!
A huge boost which alleviated my fears and set me up for the rest of the show. 

Me in the blue dress PV night

So many people came including my sister & her partner who flew over from South Africa to see it and support me. My mum also came so nice to share it with my family. Artists friends and people like the Haslemere Art Society ladies and Instagram and facebook 'friends' all made the effort to get up to London which I feel blessed for their support.

My family helping to pack up the sold paintings.

I was lucky to have a friend and collector Natalia on my side she worked hard to get her Chelsea/London contacts into my show, which really helped.

I sold 51 paintings which is AMAZING! So happy and pleased that my work is out there and being enjoyed. 
I have worked very hard the past 5 months to paint enough and organise it all. Nick my husband also at the end worked full time on it and was with me throughout the show (a gem!) 
It hasn't put me off doing a solo show and I will do another in time.

We are hardly home and now preparing for the Surrey Open Studios, bring it on! I will post again about that soon.

#458 Walk Through The Bluebells & Solo Show Invite!

Its been hard to stay on top of the blog during this incredibly busy time before my solo exhibition - which starts a week yesterday!! More about that at the end of this post.

Painting in the bluebells with a stunning carpet of bluey-purple flowers a heady scent, & lots of birds chirping! Arrived for sunrise although it was very fleeting enjoyed a quick sketch swipe to see it & great photo taken by husband Nick Oakley.

News
Not long now till my solo show It starts next week - 14th-18th May. 
I have over 90 oil paintings & 50 of them framed with some larger works too. I can't wait to show people. I hope you will be able to come and as a thank you for following me and this blog here is a little offer for you:

If you are coming print this out or show it on your phone that you do read my posts!

Here is more information on times and how to get there:

If you can't make the exhibition I have a a selection of the paintings in my show on my website under solo show catalogue. Here's the link:http://clarebowen.co.uk/catalogue/