ARTY STUFF

If you've read yesterday's posts, you will have gathered that all is not well in the strange demented world of the Tait Gallery. Actually, it has not been too bad as far as commissions go, mainly thanks to my Saturday stalls over the past few weeks, but the Duff House exhibition, which has been carrying all my hopes and dreams of the last nine months, has been a disaster, as regards sales, so far, and, at this moment, with less than a fortnight to go, it has not yet paid its bills, let alone yielded a profit. True, it has attracted a lot of favourable comment, and generated considerable interest, but I can't proffer favourable comment in payment for a packet of Weetabix, nor will considerable interest pay my electricity bill. I leave to your own consideration the number of times I can spend the best part of a year producing a loss-making exhibition. You'll probably come up with the same answer I have.

The attitude of the press towards this exhibition has been most peculiar too. While the Aberdeen-based Press & Journal did a feature on the event during its opening week, the Banffshire Journal, which is the local newspaper covering the area in which Duff House is elegantly situated, has chosen to disregard it completely in its columns, instead choosing to send a photograph, of me gazing thoughtfully at my creations on the Tea-room wall, to the Shetland Times, who duly published it! I realise that the Banffshire Journal is is no way obliged to publish anything on this subject, but I would have thought that local events are part of the scope of their coverage. I can but come to my own conclusions on this matter.

I finished my latest head-banging project, the rather detailed work of Johnshaven harbour (pictured above), which has been occupying some of my time, and trying more of my patience, over the last three months. I think it looks not bad. However, you may think differently - please let me know! We artists, working, as we do, in a complete vacuum, can absorb unlimited quantities of constructive criticism, as this helps us to improve our output. The most disconcerting response is complete silence, a sound that is, alas, all too familiar to me.

I've held my little stall at the Toll Clock Shopping Centre, here in Lerwick, these last three Saturdays. As a result, I've sold quite a few prints and postcards, and received one or two commissions, with the likelihood of more to follow. The stall has proved to be a useful vehicle - a symbol of my continued presence, a kind of denial of my demise in peoples' consciousnesses. Or something. I find it reminds people, who may have forgotten, that I'm still here!

The Musa Art Cafe, near Aberdeen harbour, has offered to display up to six of my artworks, so some of my unsold Duff House works (there will be a lot to choose from!) will go on show as part of their Coast exhibition (everyone seems to have a Coast exhibition these days!), which opens in September. Their commission rates are even more punitive than those of Duff House, but what's a struggling artist to do during a depression? Answers on a blank signed cheque, please, to Jim Tait, 11c Union Street, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0ET. I look forward to hearing from you.