Went to the Williamson Art Gallery yesterday, to give artist Louise Waller a helping hand with her workshop there. It was a drop in session and on a glorious day like yesterday, it was hit or miss if anyone would turn up.
No passing trade though. The Williamson http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/leisure-and-culture/arts-and-museums/local-museums-and-galleries/williamson-art-gallery-and-museum
is not exactly on a public transport route and even when I’ve gone up there in my own car, I’ve had the car park to myself.
I didn’t have my car yesterday, so took the bus up to the nearest point – Birkenhead Library. This then involves a ten minute uphill hike.
Like a lot of people, I only go up there for a particular reason ( usually workshops) as I personally don’t find the exhibitions that interesting.
As I waited for the first of any potential clients in the workshop, I took a stroll round the Wirral Spring exhibition. I hadn’t entered this year – which is unusual for me. Since I’d come back from the Norway trip, I’ve been deep in thought about own my work and why I was actually doing the things I did.
The Wirral Spring – like a lot of the open exhibitions I’d entered in the past, had me creating things that I thought they were more likely to hang – and not works that were created as a result of my own thought processes.
Year in and year out, they exhibit the same old things… dreary landscapes, still lives… shockingly bad portraits…and for some reason – an under 16 yr old section. They then throw in one or two abstracts for good measure, to give the impression that it is after all, an open exhibition.
All hung salon type styles with not an inch of breathing space.
The gallery had found some money recently and had begun some of the restoration work – the first of which can be seen on the newly fitted skylights which flood the rooms with light.
I don’t know if it was this – or there was in fact a change in the current selection panel – but the work on display was considerably better than I’d seen in the past. Still safe and far too much there – but visually more appealing. Of course though, everything is numbered, so you have to buy a catalogue if you want to know who’s work was there or in fact who won the prizes! Sadly, I wasn’t interested enough to buy a catalogue.
