Friday 4th September

So Art in the Garden is over for another year.

Matt and Sarah arrived with the marquee on Thursday morning. I had “George” parked up and hooked up early. With, by now, a well oiled process, we had the marquee up and then dressed with tables, bunting and easels. We placed my pop up gazebo in the entrance as a lead in porch. We placed the “A” boards around the venue. The weather was kind and I had plenty of time to eat and sort out myself for the quiz.

The quiz was a bit crazy. We had all the tables in the pub reserved. There were 16 teams and the pub was packed! We sold a bantle load of raffle tickets with proceeds going to Embleton Fireworks. We also sold tickets for my North Northumberland Hospice Charity painting. After a noisy but good natured riot of a quiz the winners generously donated their prize money to the Fireworks ( I’m not certain they had much choice!). With loads of raffle prizes, the draw took nearly as long as the quiz! We raised around £450 for the fireworks which will be welcome. 

Having imbibed a little too much my painting set up on Friday took all day. The weather with persistent rain didn’t help when transferring the paintings across the garden from the motorhome. Unfortunately it was a job I really had to do on my own. Natasha was running things back home. 

I managed to have a few more beers to chill out. I decided to sleep at home. 

On Saturday morning, we arrived to set up the outdoor displays and get everything set nice and early. The weather was kind to us.

My uncertainty about visitors finding us was quelled by a steady stream of customers throughout the day. The first arriving before we officially opened. 

By the end of play on Saturday I was delighted with my best ever day in 7 years of AITG. The Greys had laid on a bbq during the day and a “band” in the evening. We all went back to The Greys after tea. We managed to get a table big enough for us all in the dining room. The bands 8pm start wasn’t going to happen. They had problems getting their sound system working. When they did we were amazed at the music coming from the other side of the pub. We had to pop in to investigate only to find that they were playing along to original songs from the original artists. They did do the vocals with the original songs as backing tracks. 

By then we were reasonably enough inebriated to not care. The pub, including us all sang along to classic renditions of “Sweet Child of Mine” and “Country Roads”!

We had a good time. Natasha and I slept in the motorhome that night.

The weather forecast on Sunday was not promising. It rained virtually all day but despite a surprising number of visitors, considering the weather, which included a thunderstorm around tea time I ended up with my worst day (sales wise) at AITG. 

On Monday the weather started bright and sunny. People visited in clumps. A late afternoon rally made it a good day. 

Overall, the weekend was a success on a par with sales made on the days, 2023, 2024. Last year was exceptional. This year I sold 64 paintings. Considering the new venue I was pleasantly surprised. The actual venue, the garden behind The Greys is a wonderful space. I already have lots of ideas how we can improve on it for next year. One of the main problems was the pub WiFi not reaching the garden. It was a bit of a nightmare on Saturday because of my card machine but was rectified, mostly, after we bought a booster and installed it closer to the marquee. We will sort that out for next year.

The event culminated in the pub with the draw for my charity painting. We sold a lot of tickets @ £5 a strip and took £570 towards the Hospice Charity. The raffle was drawn in front of many witnesses. The winner, Jayne, who had bought a lot of tickets and who supports us with the raffle at every quiz was one of The Brunton Babes Quiz Team. She was very emotional about winning the painting as she always selects my little pictures I supply every month at the quiz. She has quite a collection of my small work. “The Babes” buy £40 worth of tickets every month. On Thursday they brought friends. The 12 of them bought £120 worth of tickets. She was a worthy winner. 

After the draw we decided to get all the paintings packed up and back in George. 

It was knackering after a long weekend but it meant we only had to get the furniture back on the Tuesday and break down the marquee meaning Matt and Sarah could get back to Chesterfield at a reasonable time. 

We weren’t quite finished and after Matt and Sarah left we drove George back home and unloaded all the paintings back into my studio/party shed plus all the tables, easels etc. It took hours and we were completely knackered. We still managed to load up George with some stuff for The Lindisfarne Festival we are going to on Thursday. I continued with this on Wednesday. We are looking forward to our “festival” break. It’s been an exciting but tiring few weeks. I’ll try not to fall asleep during the bands. 

I have to thank Chris and The staff at The Greys Inn, plus , of course, my team of helpers without whom I couldn’t do this event. They do it selflessly for me as it’s me who makes the money. Roll on next year.