There's
a rather muted call for exhibitors at what is billed The Largest
Outdoor Art Exhibition in the World, which spans nearly a mile
of park railings along Bayswater Road every Sunday of the year.
The Bayswater Artists' Association website claims some 250
artists and craftspeople regularly attend, but the rent has
recently been upped. As a result of this, and the chilly weather,
there are a lot of empty pitches at the moment.
In fact, The
rent doesn't sound too bad, at £7.46 per nine-foot pitch
per week, paid by direct debit. There's a one-off license fee
of about £100, and exhibitors must commit to one year
of Sundays, in addition to taking out 3rd party insurance policy
on the pitch, presumably to cover injuries to pedestrians.
The very nature of the site proves challenging at this time
of year. Exhibitors keep a wary eye on the heavens. Drops of
rain prompt weary, low level panic with plastic sheeting, and
the wind threatens to turn canvases into sharp-edged projectiles
and blow the no-claims bonus This Sunday, many of the artists
are huddled within their steamed-up vehicles beside their stretch
of railing.
Some brave the cold though, and here and there
is an intoxicating waft of turpentine as painters rummage through
untidy boxes of oils, dabbing away behind their easels, looking
very much the part as they quietly wait for business to come
their way. There is a steady trickle of people stopping to
view work, Sunday walkers, tourists, and today, two Christmas
shoppers on a mission.
The would-be punters, more often than
not visitors to the city, seem to relish the experience of
chatting with the artists. Not a few end up striking deals
with them. Prices range from under a fiver to three hundred
odd. The young couple wander off with a largeish, flawless
photo-realist painting of a naked woman I saw earlier, now
bubble-wrapped, talking excitedly to each other. "£290!" "She'll
love it!' I wonder what the man's sister actually will make
of the picture.
Westminster Council regulate the site, and
trouser the rent. According to the representative I speak to
at the Street Trader Hotline, candidates are first interviewed
to check the suitability of their work, which must be original,
and created by the artist, who must also be the exhibitor.
No prints or copies of any kind are allowed. Only 'flat' art
is permitted, 'no bobbly bits', she says. Clearly these rules
are stretched, and flaunted. One set of abstracts I saw last
Sunday was distinctly bobbly. Much of the work along the road
is evidently conjured up with souvenir hunters in mind, typical
London scenes involving beefeaters and horseguards, rotund
figures in the style of Beryl Cook, and monochromes of pop
and movie stars, churned out in bulk. Some of this stuff is
inventively done, some truly ghastly.
The main offenders in
the dreadful stakes are anaemic landscapes featuring country
cottages and perspectiveless woodland vistas, and a rash of
turgid abstracts the colour of 80s bathroom suites, although
I later discover that even these compare favourably pound for
pound with ones on offer in John Lewis, if you can abide that
sort of thing. There are more worthwhile pieces to be found
to remember the city by if you look, such as an acrylic by
Steve Brook of a smeary London nightscape. Steve is one of
a number of painters here who makes his living from his pictures
and for whom the railings are just one port of call each week.
A deft landscape by Roger Campbell, and work by gallery 235
also caught my eye.
A poke about on the association website
and the links within reveals that some artists possess a broad
range of skills and also produce work above and beyond the
constraints of what they display here on a Sunday. One of the
newer faces here sums up the situation when she explains that,
while she enjoys the sense of camaraderie, she still hasn't
sold much because she hasn't yet figured out what people are
prepared to buy. The limits of the punters' appetites must
always be taken into account. If this trade-off affords exhibitors
relative independence from the daily grind, good luck to them.
Westminster Council Street traders' Hotline 020 7641 7822 www.bayswater-road-artists.com
PH
Bayswater Road with paintings by Alan Ferebee
2006 - Photo by Phil
Harris