Holy Calamity!

I'm sharp but a bit dopey.

After I dropped my paintings off at the Royal Academy I took a flyer for the Salon des Refusés show to be on the safe side. My inevitable rejection turned up after I'd been to the latest Wedding Present gig, so I didn't feel so bad as I dusted off the flyer. I paid a nominal fee for the paintings to be picked up from the R.A and to be dropped off in Hoxton where the exhibition was taking place. I booked my train tickets to go up to see the show, reasoning that the final day would be the closing party. It wasn't, it was the night before and the show closed at 4pm on the final day, three hours after I'd be getting into the Smoke. Balls to it, I thought in a fit of pessimism, I won't change the tickets and just have a boozy night in London and pick the paintings up the next day.

The week of the exhibition I emailed the organisers and said "In the highly unlikely event that my paintings don't sell what time should I pick them up?" to which they replied "Good news, the larger one of the paintings has sold." HOLY SHIT! You mean someone was willing to pay cash for something I'd done? I'm not shit? Blimey! Who knew?! It certainly byoued me up and even gave me the push to get to my studio on a wet Cardiff evening when normally I would have probably left it.

Fantastic! So Friday night the tube took Sian and I to Gordon's again where I ponced about being an artist.

We stayed with some lovely friends and I was quite angsty and keen to get to the gallery, despite not having a reply to my text asking about when I could pick up the remaining painting and my cash. We arrived in Hoxton Kingdom of the Man Bag and skinny jeans and couldn't find the gallery. I did have a bit of a sinking feeling. When we found the gallery it was shut. I had had emails from the organisers telling me to pick the stuff up on Friday, so nobodies fault but mine. I knew that there were options so we said our goodbyes and headed back to Paddington via Forbodding Prices. On the train back I got in on the head by a falling toy Dalek which put me in a huff, and I thought "I bet Francis Bacon never had to put up with this."

So all in all an epic fail for me, but the wider picture is that I sold a painting to person or persons unknown which has given me a much needed boost and the desire to submit to more exhibitions.