The spiders in my studio dread the end of November. My annual exhibition is a good opportunity to have a clear out, dislodge the cobwebs and take a fresh look at all the paintings hanging on the wall. It’s also a good excuse for a party and if visitors buy something that’s a bonus! It was the physical rather than financial climate that kept numbers lower than usual this time – torrential rain and a force ten for most of the weekend was unhelpful to say the least.
It did get busy on Sunday lunchtime, which took on a slightly surreal quality. Plenty of friends had arrived and Perry, still spaced out from a recent virus, was ladling the mulled wine in the kitchen. An American knitter wanted to interview me for her website podcast (more about that another time) at the same time as a family of seven arrived to view the house. Now we’ve been on the market for 18 months with no viewings, so we weren’t going to turn this one away and they took all the chaos in their stride. I wondered if I should put extra noughts on the price of my best painting and then throw in the house for free….
