My sis and I have been toying with the idea of a pop up exhibition at her funky house in Oxford for some time. We were thinking that Oxford Art weeks would be ideal, but this year was not an option due to my nephews GCSE’s. Not an ideal time to have strangers tramping through the house

So we were planning to do it next year, but truthfully, I’m not that great waiting for stuff - I want to run with an idea. So we decided to just go for it. We had a month to plan. Not a lot of time, in the grand scheme of things, especially when it involves getting the ceiling plastered! (Sorry Tom (bro-in-law).

The race was on. We planned and plotted. I tore around getting framing done (sorry for the speed needed Roger!), cards printed and embellished, invites designed, printed and sent, private view list, socials shared and finally, paintings wrapped and tightly packed into my little mini! No idea how I got it all in, but I swear to you - I will never again transport a solo show in a mini. Especially a mini that doesn’t have a boot that stays open, so when I’m carefully manoeuvring my most precious possessions into the car, the boot falls on my damn head. Every time.

First stop was to collect my Double Deskies from Roger. They looked so good you could eat them. Then the time has come to race down the M40 to Oxford, music blaring (rediscovered Miss Dynamite on this journey).

The dream team crack on straight away - me, my sis Jen and my niece Thea. Hanging an exhibition is definitely a 3 person job - one to hold painting, one to adjust spirit level and one to give instructions lol.

So the hardest bit was getting my series of 6 paintings dead level without drawing an actual line on the wall. But hey, it looked so fine, it was totally worth it.

We curated a ‘classic’ room with all of my blossom paintings, which looked magnificent on the deep green walls. And a contemporary’ room in the kitchen/dining room. This had all of my Pretty Little Thing series, which glowed under UV lighting and looked like a club/sweet shop in the yellow kitchen. Oh yes.

Once hung we went shopping - the very best kind of shopping- booze shopping! Bless you Aldi, you really do provide.

And then. We were ready. 😁

The private view went in a blur of activity. Lots of visitors, lots of chats, lots of interest in my practice, which I love to talk about (somebody shut me up please). It felt like half of Oxford was there. The best half.

At the weekend we were open from 12-5 both days, and we literally did not have a single 5 minutes without visitors. It was a perfect flow of people, not too much and definitely not too little. We even forgot to eat, which believe me, never happens. 🤣

All in all, it was the best experience I have had in my art life. I loved it, would happily do it all again.

And perhaps best of all - i can now afford a little van that doesn’t have a boot that falls on my damn head.

Result!!

Oxford pop-up exhibition

Art, Fashion and Mirrors (Lots)