21/09/2024
WORKSHOP EXHIBITION
There was a moment during the night when Debbie (a good friend of Paul who owns the building) turned to me and said, ‘I have a favourite’. I asked which painting she was referring to, and It was funny to me that she was talking about the stealth bomber in the centre of the room. It’s not that funny, but you know, if you met Debbie, you wouldn’t expect her to show any interest in warplanes. It, of course, was the colour that she was drawn to. She wasn’t actually aware that it was a stealth bomber, which is obviously because I camouflaged it well and not because it was drawn poorly.
I later bumped into Debbie in the pub, and before any beers were sunk, I decided I wanted to offer the painting to her at a super-discounted price. 100 pounds. 80% off or something like that. Cheekily, Debbie somehow got me down to 70 quid. I think my interaction with Debbie sums up the exhibition pretty well.
In the build-up, I did a lot of stressing over whether I should have been pulling out all the stops to promote the event. In the end, my hand was ‘forced’ into keeping it a bit closer-knit. No, it was forced. The exhibition was on the 21st, and everything had to be moved out by the 24th. Thirty-five years worth of prop designing stuff. Lots of tools, the odd thing that was worth a bit of cash, and then there was a lot of junk. Five skip loads of junk. Some of which maybe wasn't junk. The two canoes that got chopped in half to fit in the skip probably could have found a home if someone had been a bit more on the ball. Oh, and for the record, the fire show wasn’t part of the plan.
Please note I didn’t just pose with a hammer and pretend to get stuck in. I did actually help. That was the trade-off. I’d floated the idea of a leaving party/exhibition past Paul pretty early on, and he was up for it but understandably stressed at the prospect of moving everything out. It proved to be a lot of work, and it’s fair to say that there were a few rocky moments. Other than Paul almost falling over with an 18ft ladder, they were mostly dust-related.
My personal favourite was a moment where Paul all of a sudden looked quite concerned whilst passing a plank of wood down to me from above my room. In the moment, he remarked, ‘I’m not 100% sure, but this might be asbestos’. Missing the memo, I took the plank from him, and I wouldn’t quite say I lobbed it, but I did sense a bit of panic when the plank hit the floor. I think I was supposed to place it down with a little more care. Which, to be honest, isn’t like me, but everyone was just a little stressed.
The dust was a lot, and I didn’t help myself by committing to a couple of all-nighters upstairs. I felt I needed a second painting of the Battersea Power Station for some sort of backdrop. Well, actually, at first, I planned on doing three, which was overly ambitious. Two worked out nicely in the end, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn't squeezed in some extra time.
The night was first and foremost about giving Paul a good send-off. I already knew the importance of his thirty-five years of prop design in Battersea, but it was further reinforced when, not long before the exhibition, a dressed as you would expect Harry Hill came around the corner with an ironing board in hand for one last job. A somewhat regular occurrence over the thirty-five years, his sadness that the workshop would be no more was telling.
From an art perspective, the night didn’t go completely to plan, although it was always going to be a little rough around the edges. That was kind of the point. On entry, you were met by my very first painting, and after working your way around, you get to stuff that I actually believe is half decent. You know, I think the next event might look a little different. Maybe I’ll get a tank or something. Okay, that’s maybe a bit ambitious, but I do at least know what pattern I’m painting now.
21-09-2024
BATTERSEA IN
COLOUR -
WORKSHOP
EXHIBITION PREVIEW
Camouflage wear is optional but will be well recieved. There will be food, there will be music and there will be a colourful room full of mistakes as I maybe leave the workshop with a feeling that the work is in fact ‘good enough’.