Monday, March 22, 2010

Making new gallery space



Over the past few weeks, Dee and I have been (occasionally) painting the big room over the studio to prepare for a slight change in the way we use it. It's been spare space for us since we moved into this house, used as a gallery one weekend a year during our holiday sale in December. Otherwise, it's been a rarely used guest room and once in a great while (when Sunday night Masterpiece Theater conflicts with big football or baseball games) the place I go to watch televised sports.
Now we're painting the darkly stained barnboard walls a gallery white, pulling up the vaguely rose-colored carpet and installing linoleum across the whole room. Then we'll build some movable screens and the room will be turned into half-gallery, half-guestroom/workspace.
The plan is to use the multi-windowed gallery space to display particularly good pieces that come out of my kiln, saving the gallery/shed in the back yard for most of my output. We'll see how that works, but I've thought for a while that the very best of what I do sometimes gets lost in everything else. This will be a way of separating out the pieces that I think should have higher price tags.
Dee is home today, her regular day off from her massage business, and is painting the trim on the window frames. We've got some cold spring rain falling outside today, which is good, because if it was a sunny day my live-in painter would be out digging somewhere.

8 comments:

Tracey Broome said...

Looks like a beautiful space for a gallery. I seem to remember reading about John Glick doing something similar (or did I make that up?)
Very good idea! I see many parties in your future :)

Hollis Engley said...

It won't be a vast space, but I think it will be a nice one. And yes, I think I remember John Glick doing something like this years ago. Might be where I got the idea, in fact. Many parties, huh? I might be too old for that ...

Tracey Broome said...

Oh noooooooo, never too old to party! Just look at me :)

Marcus said...

Take advantage of that free labor before the sun comes out, for sure. If she doesn't have dirt under her fingernails by April 1, something's gone wrong.

Dan Finnegan said...

Those prize pots will definitely benefit from the space around them to bloom. (flower metaphor is for Dee)

Craig Edwards said...

I think it's a brilliant idea to have a nice space for your better work.. a gallery for gallery quality work!! Best of luck on the new space.

Hollis Engley said...

Thanks, guys. If you don't show your best stuff in a setting apart from everything else, who's going to understand what you think of it? I don't think everyone will go up there, but ... who knows?
And thanks, Dan, Dee will appreciate the metaphor. Small daffodils and crocuses are up now, with shoots of other green things all over the place.

MVBLH said...

Nice look for the space! (I can say that now that I no longer need a crash space for when I miss the ferry!) And Dee--LOVE the long hair!