Back in January 2015 I was in a haze of deadline fever. One of the shows I'd agreed to put a piece in to was the 'Spotlight' exhibition held at the Coastguard gallery, Southsea. This was to be a group show; 40 artists, 40 spotlights and each artist could put in whatever they pleased - no restrictions...On the invitation was an offer of a large 2m x 2m canvas. These were reclaimed canvases from the University - they'd been painted on but a gift horse is a gift horse...
I knew when I said I'd take one of these, that this was going to be a showcase piece. My impression was that the show was going to be a showcase for a broad range of Southsea talent, so I had no problem with that. It wasn't made to be a seller then.
I'd had this image and idea kicking around in my head for a while. The shot was one I'd taken last summer on Southsea common while feeding the crows. It was to be chalk, charcoal and pastel. I had these deeply intense blues and purples already set aside and several cans of hairspray (Superdrug Ultra Hold).
So off I went on one of the windiest days in January to collect this canvas - btw - I don't drive, so I'm on foot... 2m x 2m is a little larger as a flat plane, stretched canvas in real life than it is in my mind, as I found out when I stood in front of it. (I'm 1.64m...) Any sensible person would have phoned a friend. One with a car perhaps. Me? I went 50:50 and decided to go for it. It was light enough to carry the short distance fairly easily - surely? Right? I got as far as the tower block on the corner with the downdraft and the vortex...
I was pretty much just rooted to the spot waiting for a lull in the tornado when a lovely old gentleman and his wife came by and proffered a hand. Forcing a grimace into a smile, I nodded 'If you're going my way...' On arriving back at my flat, the couple departed and I took the canvas in only to find that it wouldn't actually go through the door - at any angle. The only thing to do was to untack the canvas and dismantle the stretcher.
Now, my lounge is the biggest available space for something of this size, and I needed to reassemble the stretcher and restretch the canvas in order to complete the drawing properly. However, there was a bit of furniture to move out of the way first...
The canvas took three days to finish and looked excellent. Dead chuffed, I now needed to get it back to the gallery, which meant getting it back out of the flat. Furniture moved, untack, disassemble, carry to gallery (much easier in its rolled up state), reassemble, restretch. Hang, show, lovely! After the show, untack, disassemble, carry home - and store away!
And then I got a phone call. 'Have you still got the big crow canvas and can we come and see it? Tomorrow?' Out of storage, shift furniture, reassemble, restretch, shift furniture back... Bingo - sold! Lovely! The buyers just need to buy a house big enough to hang it - seriously, this is what happened. So in the meantime I'll store it away carefully. Shift furniture, untack, disassemble, into storage. The canvas is now with its new owners and awaiting its final reassembly and re-stretch before hanging proudly on the wall in their new home.
