This week has been frantic trying to progress my assessed pieces of work alongside curating and presenting my local Exhibition as part of the Landings 2018: Developing Constructs. Here are my reflections on curating and hosting an Exhibition in my own home.

I completed all the printing, mounting and framing of my images a few days before the Exhibition.  I was hoping for a bright and sunny day that would allow me to show them under good natural light. However, this was not to be and I had to resort to internal lighting. I also had to remove the glass from the frames in order to show off my work to best effect. This was because of the reflections thrown by the lights.  I had hoped for good weather in order that people could meet and discuss what they had seen on the outside terrace to allow more people to view the Exhibition. However, because of the weather, the rooms were crowded and people were finding it difficult to view the images in a contemplative way. They say you should never work with children or animals! My Golden Retriever puppy decided to investigate the ornamental pond ten minutes before all my guests arrived. He was whisked off the premises not to return until after everyone had gone. Before he left I grabbed this shot!

Having said all that, over fifty people turned up to the Opening Reception and almost all of them left feedback about their favourite image and the reasons why they had chosen it. My guests were enthusiastically discussing their choice with others. The feedback was amazing and I had some lovely comments.

Photographs taken by Rod Wainwright

Here is a video clip of what one of my guests had to say.  The password is exhibition:

Video clip taken by Katrina Ryan

There was no clear winner of the favourite image feedback. Four images had the same number of votes. The images and comments are below:

This is the end of the road with a view into the future.

It brings back memories of our sty on Skye.  I like to imagine where the road goes.

It has a high content of interest – road, person, house, mountain, cloud – all clearly presented in an unsophisticated way.

I find the image restful and love the light, I feel drawn into the scene.

I love water and reflections and the vast landscape.

I love the way the setting sun shines through the clouds illuminating the water and the shore.

Evocative browns and silvers.  Interesting reflections contrasting the brown land.  Feels very relaxed and tranquil image. 

I love the way my eyes literally climb the mountain!

It captures dramatically the difference in scale and power between a man-made construction and a natural colossus. Stunning.

It combines vulnerability and hope.

As you have seen above two of my guests kindly did some still photography of the event and short video interviews to discuss my work. My thanks to Rod and Trina for taking on these tasks.

I thought it would be helpful to me if I record a list of learning points so I can refer back to it when I have the Exhibition for my Final Major Project:

• Don’t add dogs to the guest list!
• Plan for the worst in terms of the weather and lighting
• Exhibitions costs a lot of money to mount
• Exhibitions held in your home are intimate, informal and fun and allow people to view your work without the commercial pressure of a gallery function
• I have suggested to some local friends that we think about an Arts Festival perhaps located in the street where I live. A number of my neighbours have artistic tendencies
• Paper surfaces are as important as the images themselves in presenting work – I am still searching for the perfect paper
• Music is important in creating the mood
• It is useful to have a number of helping hands with particular tasks on the night
• I added some colour images to see if guests had any preference for those.  I do not think I would normally mix colour and black and white as it confuses the narrative but the feedback was helpful