Poses

I thought I’d prepared to hang my paintings at Tiny Rebel yesterday. I’d been to the bar the previous day and put some Velcro up but somehow got the height and width of my largest painting ‘untitled’ (measuring around 4ft by 7ft) mixed up so had to go back and readjust the strips.

The problem I faced was that i couldn’t drill into the walls which were irregular anyway, and had studs at random points and different shaped holes again at random intervals. So I took a punt on a few methods to hang the large painting and brought a variety of screws and mirror plates. I realised a day or two before i was due to hang the paintings that ‘untitled’ was too heavy to completely suspend it from the wall and that I’d have to rest it on the top of back wall bench.

As with any of my ego projects I was able to rope in some friends to help. In this case Karl Blockwell, Steve Dixon, Sarah Bennington and - thankfully - Andrew from Inkspot who hangs paintings for a living. I wangled the use of a van for the morning and drove Andrew, Steve and the paintings down to Womaby Street. We had two hour to hang the paintings before Tiny Rebel opened for thirsty customers.

Wonderfully by the time I’d got back Andrew had secured the large painting and I have to say it looks fucking marvellous.

So we met up in the street and carried the paintings in. Before too long it became evident that most of my ideas about how to hang the paintings weren’t going to work, and the string I’d used was too weak. Thankfully Andrew suggested using some nylon string and went back off to Inkspot to get some. We seemed to have everything in hand so Sarah nipped off and we waited for Andrew to come back. I offered to take everyone for breakfast as a thank you and then I realised that I could take the van back while we waited for Andrew which would speed things up. I went out to Womaby Street to find that I had a ticket, my own stupid fault for being too tight to pay for parking, though all my mates said to challenge the fine. I dropped the van off and speed walked back in the baking heat. Wonderfully by the time I’d got back Andrew had secured the large painting and I have to say it looks fucking marvellous. Andrew had to rush off but I took Steve D and Karl B for breakfast and a natter. A bit later I went back with Sian who wanted to see the paintings and I was happy (and a little surprised?) to see them still up. it was a a sweaty nerve racking morning but boy it feels good that some of my paintings are back out in the world again.