Spot the Artist

The fundraising sale of 'postcard art' organised by the Rotary Club of St Ives was a great success again this year.

The annual event offers members of the public the chance to buy postcard sized pieces of original art for just £35 - many of  which have been painted by well known artists, whose work would normally cost a lot more to buy.

'Cornwall, North Coast'

Lesley Ninnes 2013

oil on paper 21 x 15cm/8 x 6 inches

Click to enlarge

Rotarian Mike Clough reported:

"The sale was held in the Roy Ray Studio at the St Ives School of Painting at Porthmeor Studios.

Buyers were already queuing outside the studio by 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon before the sale and by 9.00 a.m the next morning the queue had reached as far as Bumble’s Tea Rooms in Digey Square.

We sold over 100 paintings within the first hour of the sale. We had 240 entries given by almost 200 artists, mostly professionals but with a number of gifted amateurs. We sold all the paintings for a total of £6,730, an increase of one third on the 2012 result.

The proceeds will be shared between arts charities in Cornwall and local Rotary charities as well as Shelterbox. The principal arts charity to benefit will be the St Ives School of Painting to deliver art projects with young people in the local community.

This year we incorporated a competition in the event. This was judged by Professor Alan Livingston and Michael Bird, both well respected in the art world. The prize-winners were Sax Impey and Iain Robertson (joint first, £300 each), and Alice Mumford and Peter Perry (joint second, £200 each). They have generously agreed to donate one work each to be sold during the coming year, to fund prizes for the 2014 event. The judges decided not to award the young artist’s prize this year because there were only four contributors under the age of 30.

We plan to repeat the sale during the September Festival of 2014, building on this year’s success. We would like to have an even better sale, keeping up or even improving on this year’s excellent standard. To do this we rely entirely on you, the artists, to participate as enthusiastically and generously as you have done this year.

There was a great atmosphere about the event this year, from the participating artists as well as from members of the public on the viewing days and on the day of the sale itself."

I'm glad to report that my contribution (top) sold early on in the proceedings!  Phew!