Newsletter December 2021

So who are these?

You may think these twelve charmers are the very artists I work for but they're not. They're a selection of heads from Simon Bartram's sketchbook, and we're preparing for a show. His self portrait is below.

Simon has recently become a member of 'Contemporary British Portrait Painters' and we're putting together an exhibition of his work for a one-man show in January. It will take place in a restored Victorian church in Hartlepool, one of the towns in the north of England, which has suffered from the lack of industry but is now being supported by arts funding.

This is a great opportunity for Simon and he's working hard. I've known him for many years and after a successful career in children's book illustration we're very excited that he has this chance to change direction.

He'll have many paintings and drawings to show, most of which will also be on our website, and we'll also display some of his sketchbooks.

The twelve men have been put together as a print, each with an extra pencil drawing by Simon, and we did that just as we were coming out of lockdown last time . . . so the title is Lockdown Heads Up. We hoped it was the last lockdown at the time but now who knows?

. . . this has been an extraordinary year for us as we've sold more paintings and prints than ever. We are so grateful to all those people who have supported us and we'd like to send them all our thanks and very best wishes. In particular we'd like to thank those people who have brought John Harris's work from their own collections to display at the worldcon in Washington DC. People's kindness in that way never ceases to surprise me.

We'll raise a glass to you all and hope you have an enjoyable Christmas and a happy and healthy 2022. And thank you to Paul Cox, as always, for having something to suggest the right mood! (I don't think this one is from a Downing Street party.)