Coming off the back of an exhibition, there’s always lots of emotions and thoughts whirling about my head. Post exhibition blues are not uncommon either; all that energy, focus and stress getting prepared since the start of year, and then you find yourself having to look in a new direction and it can feel hard to change tack.
Biggar Little Festival is an event close to my heart. It was my first ever exhibition and I still enjoy aiming my work towards it.
I love the community spirit around it as well, something I missed after leaving our family business and moving to West Lothian. And of course I do all the social media for BLF too, so I feel integral in its success.
Sadly, on my first day of my Flora & Fauna exhibition, it became apparent that the venue I was in was not best suited to my work. And that is not a slight in any way towards the team at the Venue; they were exceptionally accommodating and their hospitality, second to none. But people were there to eat. I don’t believe many, if any, noticed the art on the walls. And unfortunately, the beauty in my work is often in the little details only noticeable on closer inspection, which people couldn’t do.
As one other artist exhibiting said “People do not stop to reflect on what they see, other than it is an image of a rabbit or a bird. They don’t look for the story behind it”. And as an artist, that is a worrying observation. As our lives demand more convenience and AI becomes a staple in our daily lives, so I believe the number of people who appreciate the purpose of art will decline. Like a generational thing that gets lost; such as reading newspapers, hand writing cards and letters; art looks like it could go the same way.
However, with all that being said, there were still a number of people who looked and appreciated, and I am thankful to them and to those who made purchases, even if only a card.
I am thankful that there are a small minority who appreciate the amount of sacrifice artists make to enrich the world, to make us pause and think, to make us smile with the beauty in their creativity. I do not paint just a rabbit or a bird. I paint a part of me, a narrative that I can’t express verbally; a love of wildlife and wonder, of joyous colours that come from pure imagination, of little and random patterns or textures that appear, and of which I fall in love with.
Thankfully, I am not alone in the wish to remind us that nature does so much for us, when our lives are just too busy, we too thoughtless, to truly bask in her beauty and healing, restorative powers.
So if you have 5-10 minutes in your day, please have browse of the work from my exhibition here https://www.anjart.co.uk/collections/blf2025?page=1 and enjoy what I like to call, a visual meditation!
Thank you for reading, and looking :)