Chelsea and The Royal Academy

Where to start with an update on my activities…!?

The Chelsea Flower Show:  the annual trek to London for the 3rd week in May. This is 7 days away, starting with packing my pictures into the car, throwing clothes for every weather condition into the suitcase and organising pots and plants to decorate the stand. I pushed the boat out and painted the stand a gorgeous shade of green to set off all the new embroideries.

The weather, gardens and sales were excellent this year. I saw new and established collectors of my work each day. The wonderful part of Chelsea is the enthusiastic and well informed visitors from all around the word. It was my 25th time and continues to be the highlight of my exhibiting year.

The week ended on a real high, I got an email from the Royal Academy telling me my submission had been accepted into The RA Summer Exhibition!

I was delighted to be part of this prestigious event and headed back down to London for Varnishing Day on June 4th.  Traditionally a day for artists to varnish or add the finishing touch to their artwork. We all gathered in the courtyard of Burlington House with a steel band to create the atmosphere. All the artists first walk down Piccadilly to St. James Church for the Service for Artists and then back to the Academy for a Reception. It was a terrific day, so wonderful to see my picture hanging up in the same exhibition as David Hockey and Grayson Perry with a glass of bubbly in my hand!

And the icing on the cake…it sold on the first preview day!

Next in the diary was my Open Studios event, this was the 18th year and is still going strong. A big push to get the garden looking its best as visitors seem to enjoy that as much as the embroideries! We had great weather which is not the norm for those 2 weekends in June! Lots of visitors, lots of friends and some people who had come a long way to see me. The lady from Southampton wins the prize for the longest distance travelled!

We had a lovely trip down to Cornwall for a few days, it was a great break between the 2 weekends of Open Studios, designed to stop me working straight through! We spent one day in Padstow enjoying a fab lunch in the Rick Stein Bistro, a day in Falmouth and another walking across to St Michaels Mount in the sunshine.