Private View and A Lot of Tasty Cake.....

So Sunday was the day that Hannah and I have been working towards all year - the Private View. Yes, we do things a little differently at the Garden - what with Private Views traditionally happening before the opening, as opposed to a month after...... but we like the Garden to look it's best - and that's pretty much now.


Artists, clients (both Hannah's and Anthony's), important people and so on descended on the Garden to view the spectacular new collection and to eat the delicious cakes Hannah had bought.


Photos.....well, you can see my priorities...

Here we have the lovely Lorraine and Monika...

And here is some of Neil Wilkin's work (wish I had my real camera, as the shaft of light looked incredible!)

That's it. 

Bits and Bobbitybobs...

So what have I been up to?


Well, sculpture garden wise....it has carried on being absolutely manic. We opened on Saturday (and sold something that afternoon...great start!). I have been working on a film which will be shown on the website and in the reception, and will be for sale as part of this year's DVD (ahhh pressure!). I have also made a new series of postcards to be sold.....and they all have my name on the back :D

6 postcards...

Ok, so it's not readable in this photo, but the bottom line says 'Photograph: Vikki Leedham'

Ha.

I've also been getting going on the whole cake decoration malarkey. The Gotto's gave me lots of cake making stuff and a lovely book as my leaving present, and the following day Mother Leedham gave me two cake books as well! So I'd better take the hint....

This is the first batch of fancy cakes... 

(obviously only showing one....I made 12 but some were a little questionable....)

So there we go. Exciting stuff.

Manic Morning (or three..)

Exciting time of year at the garden - all the new sculpture is being placed ready for the summer season. As Hannah didn't go to Australia last winter, she found 9 new artists to exhibit, as well as the old favourites. I've been rushing about like a headless chicken for the past few days: trying to organise sculptors, supervise work placement, fill out contracts etc etc etc. And of course, on Friday morning EVERYONE decided to turn up very promplty at 10 o'clock, which caused absolute bedlam and me almost missing out on Lorraine's amazing Victoria Sponge (oh it's a hard life).

Thankfully I have managed to document a few pieces placed (one of which took all day!).

Here we have Paul Vanstone shifting one of his spectacular Rajasthan marble torsos... absolutely stunning green veined stone. Paul, like many of our artists, has his own mobile gantry that he uses to shift his work (although, as seen in the Autumn, sometimes they just opt for sheer brute force!)

 And this is Keith Rand, with the biggest sculpture I have even watched placed in the garden - a 14 feet wooden 'ridge' structure. First they had to plant a limestone base to hold up the sculpture (I helped), then manhandle this beast through the woods and down to the area. Hannah and I were chilling out on Anthony's decking at the time.

I am hiding in the office today as I am feeling a little sorry for myself (leaving party from the Parrot last night....).

A hive of activity....

So the start of November means that the Sculpture Garden becomes a hive of activity. This is when we have three manic days where we ask most of the artists to come in and collect their work - either because it hasn't sold, it needs a bit of TLC over the winter, or they have another show.


This year, 90% decided to all come on one day, which meant that our gardener, our handyman, a local artist who helps us out, Hannah's housekeeper and myself were rushing about like loons trying to wrap stuff and organise a swarm of artists who had descended on our sleepy gallery.


The most...well I guess stressful would be the appropriate word...part was the fact that we were waiting for a lorry from France to collect a tonne (or two) of massive bronze trees. Thankfully we could dismantle these massive brutes (being 4 metres tall....) but they were still bloody heavy! But Lorraine (housekeeper) and I got the rest bubble wrapped (having wrapped the first lot precariously balanced on the top of a wobbly ladder). As it happened, this bloody lorry didn't turn up till half 4, so we proceeded to load in the pitch black with 2 Frenchmen who barely spoke a word of English. God knows what I signed when a sheet of paper was thrust in front of me.

 Tony Heywood's assistant 

The rest of my day consisted of wading about in the most vile smelling pond to help retreive some floating pieces, overseeing the manhandling off a beautiful marble torso, panicking watching 3/4 of a tonne's worth of oak being craned onto a lorry, and generally rushing about in my usual frantic manner.

The artist - Paul Vanstone standing on the left, with our helpers.

Most of the time, Paul uses a portable crane-frame, but this time he decided to be lazy! But surprisingly it worked very well.

Moving Walter Bailey's charred oak piece

But alas, excitement over till Spring (when we get a whole host of new pieces). Now I get to spend the winter twiddling my thumbs....

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, my room is now a beautiful light greeny-blue...but I will be without furniture for a whole week! Bloody Ikea screwed up the delivery, so I am living off what ever I can find rooting about in the spare room/dining room.

A Year On.....

Over a year has passed since my last entry, which is fairly disgraceful really. And what a year it has been. Ok, so I say that like my world has drastically changed, that I'm suddenly living in New York managing some uber funky gallery with the art world falling at my feet. Sadly not. I'm still living in the depths of the Surrey countryside, still at the same two jobs.

BUT....but things have progressed. I should be proud of myself really (I go through phases of being so....they come and go). I am still the 'Assistant Curator' at The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, and that has provided me with so many opportunities. She (Hannah Peschar) really is an amazing lady - as you'd imagine an art dealer to be; slightly eccentric, ruthless and full of stories. But she's also a real sweetie (she buys us ice creams and little treats). I'm pretty much her PA as well as having gallery duties, but I do also get to have fun. Lots of my photographs and writing have been used on our website, and I have been published in a number of magazines (English Country Garden, Artists and Illustrators, Surrey Life.....) I have sold a few pieces, dealt with new (and old) artists, TV and film crews, music and TV stars....well, when I look at it all, it does seem pretty impressive for a new graduate. But.....well, it's not what I want to do with my life. I have no passion for it. Yes, I like going to galleries, and I love it when I find a new piece, but I cannot be fussed with the PRETENSION of it all. Seriously, it's just like you'd imagine.

As a side line, which started with doing the photography at the garden, and a discussion with a friend of mine, I'm trying to get into food photography. That's where my passions really lie...in food and photography, so why not combine them? Luckily enough, this friend happens to run the farmshop in his family's pub, so suggested to his mother that I could do the photos for the new websites! So, having no real idea of what was expected of me, I produced hundreds of photos of the animals on their farm, grub from the farmshop...and a few dodgy shots of the pub. It was a lot of fun to do, and having no clue at the start of the process, I feel I learnt a hell of a lot.

I'm also (again, its all about connections) the photographer for the Walliswood Village Events....such as Village Day and Carols at Christmas. So more of my photos up on the web!

It has been the most hectic year, especially the past few months...it feels like the world was tipped upside down and smushed together. I don't really know what I want to do with my life (I'm realistic enough to know that I'm not going to get anywhere with photography). I know I'm only 23 so it doesn't matter, but I would like a plan. It doesn't help that I recently spit up with the guy that at one stage I thought I'd marry.....but that's not the point.

A couple of girlie friends of mine suggested that I started writing a book, or at least a blog telling the (edited version) of the COMEDY that has been my life for the past year. I won't go into details here, but a couple of girlies used to LOVE hearing the latest updates ("Vikki....seriously you could make a romcom...its hilarious!") so maybe I'll do that.

And if someone has actually read this...please send your ideas on the back of a postcard.........

The Future beckons........

Having finished uni and moved back home, the original plan was to work (probably at the pub I've been doing part time since I was 16) apply for an MA and maybe travel a little.

However, things have changed. I had written to a sculpture garden in the next village, asking if they had anything I could do (to get a bit of artistic experience) - even cleaning would have been fine! So they called me, and I trotted along to have a chat.

Turns out, the assistant curator is leaving mid July, and I had applied just at the right time. They (well the owner of the garden) wants ME to train up and become the new assistant curator!!!!!! I've been there for two weeks, and its so much fun. There's a lot of emailing etc - to customers and artists, and other admin, but I also get to take all the photos that go on the website and any promo material!!

www.hannahpescharsculpture.com

Its a really beautiful place - all landscaped but done to fit in with the english countryside. The house is a lovely black and white cottage right in the middle of the garden, with a line of connecting ponds and streams home to masses of ducks. They have some pretty wellknown sculptors there - Peter Randall-Page, Almuth Tebenhoff to name a couple, and my old tutor's husband has work there too!!!

I still can't quite believe it. To have gotten such a great job, especially just after leaving uni. It still feels like part of my education, so its a total bonus getting paid for it!!!