Red dot sale

This post is a little late but I wanted to talk about the Red Dot Sale at The Grand Hotel on the 26th November. The art event was put together by a group of local artists including myself (Karen Le Roy Harris), Nick Romeril, Jason Butler, Ian Rolls, Theresa Robinson and keeping us on track and inspired our chairman Rod Bryans.

The event was a great way of meeting local artists and an opportunity for people to buy an original piece of good quality contemporary artwork. The group invited 10 other artists to take part and exhibit their work. In the end there was a really great mix of both well known and up and coming local artists and the work on show was diverse - from painting and drawing to sculpture, ceramics and illustration; each artist working with their own individual themes and influences, making this an interesting and exciting event. Also, on stage was a new band called The Mulburys playing an acoustic set. The room was mobbed and with good art and good music the buzz in the room was electric and everyone was in high spirits. The night was a real success and certaintly won’t be the last.

In Rod’s words: “Its no accident that when artists get together with a collective aim their successes are remembered long after they have gone. Even greater is how they have inspired other artists or groups to get together and create new collectives, new art. Everyone craves opportunity but it’s a sweeter deal if you can create your own. Ideas that challenge peoples perceptions, change their views about life or provoke open discourse are generally found in the hands of artists.”

As a group we want to continue to organize collaborative events that promote local practitioners and hopefully get practitioners working together and excited about future opportunities. This event being a success has only spurred us on to do more and we hope will inspire other artists to be pro-active and to keep positive about their practice. There was real sense of community amongst the artists involved with everyone helping out and having fun as a group, which was really great to be part of. Being an artist can be rather lonely and it’s great to be involved in group projects like this where you begin to feel part of something bigger.