I know it's rather showy offy, but look at this collection of my collagraphs at the house of friends of ours.  Am I embarrassed, and determined to brush the whole thing off as rather ridiculous?  Obviously!  Of course I am.  Nevertheless, it's sort of exciting too, a little bit of a thrill.  Inevitably I look at them and think, hmm, that isn't so good, that bit there, and really those colours, I'm not at all sure.  And so on and so forth to the end of time.  I'm not wrong either, but how often have I ever been completely pleased with my work?  Put it this way, a second hand will definitely not be needed for counting on fingers. What I know I should do in this case is shut up and be pleased that out there, in the world, is a wall of my prints. 

Back last summer, I entered a couple of prints for the inaugural Trowbridge Town Hall Arts Open, and was lucky enough to get them into the exhibition.  Three winners were chosen - Ali Brown, Nick Andrew and Robin Shelton - and have had a joint exhibition at Trowbridge Arts - it's the old Town Hall, as you might guess, solidly Victorian and with (I think) a couple of rooms given over to exhibitions.  In this particular exhibition most of the finished work was upstairs in the bigger room, while a few pieces of work and a lovely collection of sketchbooks were downstairs.

I have a weakness for works in progress and sketchbooks, regularly preferring them to the finished articles - sometimes they're rough and ready, or - ha! - sketchy, but just as often intricate and precise.  I think quite frequently they have a liveliness that I don't necessarily feel once a work has been completed.  Of course, it's not always true, but that's the reason I've come up with for my preference.  I certainly enjoyed the sketchbooks on show here, particularly Robin Shelton's.  There was a feeling of mood boards about the double spreads, packed to the gills with all sorts of ephemera - I hope that wouldn't be taken as an insult, I really like mood boards!  Some of the drawings were obviously of jewellery pieces, so I wasn't too surprised to discover later that Shelton was a jewellery teacher - somewhat more so when I realised he now writes books.  Some people seem to be able to turn their hand to everything.   

Upstairs wasn't a disappointment, though.  Ali Brown's ceramics, no longer trapped in a sketchbook, inevitably come into their own here, especially with the lighting lending them fascinating shadows, but anyway the three artists are so completely different, each from the others, and that provides a level of zip all on its own.  Shelton's work remained completely to my taste - all the eclectic qualities of the sketchbooks remained in the finished works.  I don't know whether there will be another Open this year - it must be a lot of work to organise - but I hope so; it's exciting to see a wide range of methods displayed together, and there are always some gems.