Friday 2nd January
So Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year.
As usual I’ll start this new year with my annual review briefer than last years and in one blog.
Galleries:
The big success story for me has been from Beckstones Gallery in The Lakes who have sold a lot of paintings in 2025, despite me still having “imposter syndrome.“ Long may it continue. Before Christmas I re-stocked them with new work, my “Lakes of Lakeland” collection took a while to produce but they look good in the gallery and sales keep coming in. The sale of my 2 paintings on the 1st day of their “Aspects of Ullswater“ exhibition took me completely by surprise. OCG has been a bit quieter for me this year although they have sold a reasonable amount of stuff. Jetty Gallery in Oban keeps selling and although it tends to be the smaller watercolours, it all ads up. Annie is great too. She pays me every month and re-orders new work regularly. I had a decent year with Watson Gallery in Edinburgh, although I don’t always get paid on time. That’s also the case with Blagdon Gallery in Newcastle. Its good when they do pay me but the lack of communication with both these galleries is frustrating. I have had little involvement with Gallery 45 in Felton this year but I’m re-establishing contact with my involvement with their “Wild Northumberland“ exhibition in February. Since my sales at the “Affordable Art Fair“ I have had no sales or communication with Tallantyre Gallery in Morpeth. I need to take them some new work early in 2026. The Jane Adams Gallery in St Just, Cornwall surprises me every so often with a payment but sales there tend to be very reasonable. I haven’t severed links with Buckinghams completely and they still sell some paintings, although I don’t supply them with new work on a regular basis anymore. I still need to find a gallery in Derbyshire. Perhaps that will be a project for 2026.
Commissions and Private Sales.
I did more Commissions last year than ever before. Some have come through my website, some through referrals and others through Buckinghams. Despite my dislike of Commissions in general, most have been OK including the 2 large and lucrative paintings of Embleton Bay, which went to Sweden and the massive St Ives painting. There were many others with, fortunately, few of the “replica” type. Private sales have mainly come through the website or following Art in the Garden, which this year, broke all records for sales. The new marquee supplied by Matt and Sarah was a great success and my thanks go to everyone who supported me on that Bank Holiday weekend in August. There are plans afoot to have AITG twice in 2026, once during May Bank Holiday and again during the August Bank Holiday weekend as usual. Our neighbours are moving but The Greys Inn have offered to host it in their grounds.
Visits.
I didn’t get to many exhibitions last year although I did manage the Northumberland Open Exhibition and “The Pitman Painters” Exhibition at the Woodhorn Mining Museum and the “Romance to Reality” Exhibition at The Laing Gallery in Newcastle. We also managed trips in George to Scarborough, The Lakes and Beal, Lindisfarne. We also had a holiday in Anglesey with great weather and wonderful scenery. We’re looking forward to our Caribbean Cruise in March and who knows what art may come from that.
Workshops/demo’s.
I continued with my enjoyable but infrequent demo workshops last year for Acklington Art Group, Morpeth Art Group and Longframlington Art Group. I have one later this month for Acklington again and will do more. They do keep me grounded and the people are lovely.
Projects.
Late in 2005 I did my “Lakes of Lakeland “ collection for Beckstones and my “Mountains of Lakeland“ collection for OCG. I also did my semi-abstract Northumberland collection of bright paintings now at Blagdon. I want to experiment more with watercolours and inks in 2026 and move my oils forward. I also want to get some more cards printed and will prepare for my 2026 calendar earlier as last years eventually proved popular. I will continue with my experiments with my hand made cards.
On the downside…
My studio is giving me cause for concern and I’m not sure how long it will last. I won’t go into the previously documented details here but its becoming an unpleasant place to work and not really fit for storing paintings. Framing is a constant expense. I can usually get away with deep-edged canvas for my work in oils or acrylics (so no frames needed) but, despite having my Morso Mitre Guillotine, I can’t really use it as the shed it’s in is too small. It needs a solid base as it is very heavy and it’s the only space with a concrete floor. There is the garage but that is full of “stuff”? I bought it to save on the cost of framing but it’s not really helping at the moment. My watercolour work needs framing with glass so, I still have to buy frames. Even if I could make the frames I’d have to get the glass cut and there’s nowhere round here to do that.
In general it’s been a great year. Sales wise, the best in a while. I manage to juggle all the aspects of my artists life reasonably well but sometimes I acknowledge that the pressures get to me. I realise I should be more proactive in some areas and get my website sorted but I’ve been saying that for a long time. I will push on in 2026 and see where it takes me. I think I can say that 2025 was a good year and thank you to everyone who bought my work.