August is the month for art, with the Rye Society of Artists running for four weeks, and the Tuesday Painters Club of Rye on for a whole 10 days, twice as long as the average art club.
There was some apprehension this year, not having mounted an exhibition for three years due to the pandemic. With new members on the hanging committee, fewer members exhibiting, as well as concern over world events, the heatwave and other factors, it was feared that these all could have had an adverse effect on sales.
We needn’t have worried. Nearly 3,150 visitors passed through the door and sales were the best since 2007. Thank you Kino café for a joint promotional collaboration, which surely must have contributed to this remarkable outcome. Claire Polley’s stunning poster which featured here in an earlier article sold on the very first day. Congratulations, Claire.
For the first time, like many other art clubs, we invited visitors to vote for their favourite painting. Over 1,300 votes to sort – phew! The results just prove how varied people’s tastes are because not a single picture scored nul points!
Since we had fewer pictures to hang this year, if one was sold and taken away (there were so many buyers from far-flung places that we couldn’t refuse), we allowed the artist to bring in a replacement. This meant the exhibition had no visible gaps and was kept fresh and full right to the very end. However, it did mean those pieces were not equally exposed for voting. Who knows who would have come out top otherwise?
Once again, as has been the club’s experience for many a year, local scenes proved to be the most popular with the public, both in terms of the favourite vote and in sales. One visitor wanted to cast two votes: one for a painting that showed great skill in its execution, and the other which she could visualise in her home. In the end she actually voted for the former and bought the latter.
There was a varied mix of medium, subject matter and style: oils, acrylics, watercolours, lino prints, mixed media; on paper, canvas, MDF or porcelain; landscapes, marine, still life, fowl and fauna and even abstracts.
So who did the public favour most? Well, Mike Funnell, a Hastings-based artist and art tutor, took both the first and the second positions and was also the overall favourite artist claiming over 10% of the total vote. Well done Mike.
1st place: Mermaid Street, a very large watercolour.
2nd place: Boats & Cliffs, Old Town Beach, a similarly large acrylic.
3rd place: Anthony Palmer’s watercolour, Starry Night.
In the interest of fairness, the 4th place was Groynes on Rye Harbour Beach in oil, by Tricia Bowler (always a favourite artist at our exhibitions) which had sold early on and taken away by the buyer so could well have reached top spot.
If anyone out there, living within a 20 mile radius of Rye (except out to sea, of course!) is interested in joining our ranks, please email tuesdaypaintersrye@gmail.com to request further information and an application for membership form.
Daily posts of members’ artwork can be viewed on the Tuesday Painters’ Facebook page.
Image Credits: C Walters Photography .