London Part 2: Edwards & Todd

Last week I mentioned that I had been packing up prints to deliver to a couple of galleries, one was the J M Gallery in Long Melford and the second? Well that's very exciting indeed . . .

Last month I recieved an email from the owner of a shop/gallery near the British Museum in London, they exhibit and sell the work of contemporary artists specialising in linocuts and they thought my work would fit in well with their plans for the gallery. After momentarily thinking that they didn't really mean me, I re-read the message, drank a large strong mug of tea and telephoned the writer of the message, Gary Edwards. He had spotted my work in Verandah in Norwich and yes, he was very keen to include my work alongside the beautiful work of Richard Bawden and Colin Moore

So that is why on Saturday, after breakfast in the hotel in Wembley, we headed into Central London - luckily Cliff knows the way without a sat-nav and he's also very confident about finding a parking place - except the space we expected to park in was surrounded by cones - arghh!!! Luckily, just around the corner we found another parking bay and a pay-and-display machine - phew! A brisk little walk later and we were skirting around the British Museum, into Great Russell Street and just before the main gates of the BM, we turned right into Museum Street - a little side-street lined with individual shops, cafés and galleries full of tempting treats.

Near the far end on the right we found Edwards and Todd - and because I entered the shop carrying a large flat parcel, Gary guessed immediately who I was :-)

Gary explained that he has plans to display the framed linocuts along one wall and reorganise the browsers of unframed prints - linocuts in the English artist/illustrator tradition seem to be increasingly popular at the moment. He also takes his stock to print fairs around London on Sundays when the shop is closed and was confident my work would sell. (I've just received an email to say that he's sold four already!)

So, it's Saturday just after midday in the centre of our capital city, the sun is shining and after a huge fix of life enhancing laughter the night before, we're feeling mellow - where did Cliff take me?

a) To a smart restaurant for lunch

b) To Regent's Street to spend lots of money

c) For a walk around a muddy, overgrown graveyard

I'll tell you in Part 3 ;-)