What a show to be a part of.
Such an exciting venue, one which I never thought I would be exhibiting at, but I was there exhibiting my automotive paintings and glass art, and I couldn't have been more proud.
The week leading up to the show however, was anything but a breeze.
As I have said already, fitting in another commission had its difficulties, especially when you scrap it hours before its complete....
But, I do love a challenge and all was good on the day we left for the show.
Painting the Porsche piece was a major under estimation from myself, as it took me far longer to complete than I estimated it would. It was a larger piece than I had created before, and more complicated, but I got my head down and soldiered on, and the end result was very pleasing.
This piece did however put me behind schedule.
We had planned to leave home on the Friday morning, around 8.00am, so that we would easily get to our destination by around 1.00pm, set up, and be away to find our hotel by around 3.00pm, and get ready for dinner at a local pub, sounded perfect, but it didn't quite go that way.
The Friday morning was spent finishing off all of the glass art. Fortunately I had already made all of the frames, but the gilding had taken far longer than expected.
So, after framing all of the glass art pieces and wrapping them and loading the car, we finally set off at the time we had planned to get there, with a 180 mile drive in front of us.
Everything went well on the journey until we hit Chichester at 5.00pm, and it was gridlock.
When we finally got close to the circuit at around 6.15, there was a massive queue due to the waterlogged caravan park that none of the caravans could get onto.
So, we decided to go to our hotel, eat and get to bed early so that we could get up at 5.00am the next morning, to get to the circuit for 6.00am, and erect the booth so that we would be ready for the 7.30 am start.
Well we did it, even if we weren't ready till 7.45am but that was one hell of a long day, and yes we did tie the curtains back after the photo.
But, things got better as I sold a few prints, and talked to a load of people.
Sunday was a great day. we sold well, the Porsche piece found a new home, which was marvellous, as all of my hard work paid off, and I got to see one of my favourite F1 cars of the 80s drive around the circuit, a Brabham BT52.
Plus, the great thing about Goodwood is that you can just close your booth off on the Sunday evening, and go back on Monday morning to empty it, and then drive home, very civilised.
All in all a great show, and a pleasure to be a small part of it.
I am so looking forward to the Revival in September, and if that goes well, I may do all three Goodwood meetings in 2024