Talking to John & Barry, two of the Committee members of Roche Art Group
Rochford Life: John and Barry, we are rapidly approaching the Rochford Art Trail and I see this year you will be taking the final position in it by holding an exhibition on the last Saturday in the W.I. hall. I have recently been meeting with some of the new artists to this year’s trail but coming to see your group this evening, I wondered about how you go about setting up an exhibition as you will be doing. Who will take part in it?
Barry: Any member of this group can put in up to five pieces into the exhibition we will be holding. I will also say that we will also be in the WI in a little over a week’s time at the pop-
RL: Just out of interest how close up to the exhibition can you get before you have to say to people you need definite numbers?
John: Well we have to wait until everyone is back from the holidays and so starting tonight we hand out the forms and they can put in up to five paintings. With twenty eight members you could have 140 paintings on show. We won’t have that number because some will only put two in while others put the five in.
Barry: The best we’ve had is round about a hundred and that is plenty. I would guess we will probably get about eighty.
RL: Earlier today I’ve been with artists for whom this is their first time and they naturally feel nervous, but you two have been around many years doing this haven’t you?
John: Oh no, I’ve only been doing it for about five years. The first time I was obviously a little bit nervous but the more you do it, the more confident you become, and of course you are improving all the time, but it is the feedback that you get when people say, “Oh I love that,” that gives you such a buzz. If you sell it, it’s a bonus.
Barry: You’re also among friends and so when you are doing it as an entire group, some will be in the kitchen doing teas, we share the hanging of the pictures and putting up the screens and we take them all down together at the end of the day, and somebody looks after our book table, so everybody joins in and on exhibition days there is probably more togetherness than there is on an evening.
RL: You are going to have demonstrations at your exhibition aren’t you?
John: There are two different types of demonstrator. There is the professional demonstrator who we have got coming this year to the exhibition, Bill Newton who is a well known artist, and he will be demonstrating water colour painting throughout the day and will also be available to answer any questions anyone may have. He’s also an author of a number of art books so it is really good that we’ve got him. The other demonstrations some of us do, just to show people what we do and give them tips, probably using other materials, say acrylics or oils or pastels. It is confidence building. On previous occasions we’ve picked up new members through this.
Barry: Yes, hopefully people will come to the exhibition, have a look around at the pictures we’ve put up, perhaps chat to and listen to Bill Newton, have a cake and a cup of tea, have a chat with us, so hopefully it is nice friendly way of welcoming people who might like to join such a group.
Looking at how an Art Group goes about preparing for an exhibition on the Trail
