Michael McLellan Exhibition Private View

Sunday was the private view for the opening of Dad's exhibition at Wolfson College, Oxford and by general agreement a most successful event.

Saturday morning Mary and I drove down to Farnham to fill the boot with paintings then off to Oxford for an 11:00 assembly at the college. Thanks to Dad's preparation in pre-stringing all the paintings the actual hanging went in record time. Each room had one person un-bagging the exhibits, another hanging on the wall and another folding up the bags for later. Others mucked in with general furniture moving and moral support. Then it was back to the hotel for lunch.

That evening we all went en-masse to a cocktail bar to celebrate Tom's 18th birthday (actually on the Sunday). Then off to Pierre Victoire for a family meal, all 15 of us: Mum&Dad, two siblings, their partners, six nephews and one girl-friend. The noise was deafening as we all talked at once and the table next door was even noisier. The resulting escalation of talk volume spiralled out of control and I felt sorry for any other diners hoping for a quiet, romantic meal for two.

After the meal us old-uns and the two youngest nephews went back to the hotel for a night cap and early to bed. The rest went off to Chris's place (he is a student at Oxford Brookes University) to party. A bleary-eyed Lorenzo informed us at breakfast that he left them to it and got back to the hotel at around 3:30am.

The private view was 12-3pm so we all went down to the college at 11:00 to be ready for the first guests who started to arrive pretty promptly. There was a large contingent of old family friends, neighbours and colleagues of Dad's many of whom were also known to us offspring. This made it seem like an episode of "This Is Your Life".

At Ian's suggestion I made a short speech of welcome and I would like to repeat here the thanks I made there:

 • Wolfson college for hosting the exhibition
 • Jan Scrivens (College Secretary) for all her help with the organisation
 • Barbara Harris-White (Professor) for the original suggestion and promoting the idea
 • Ben (Mike) Hutchinson for all his work on the graphics (poster, catalog, postcard)
 • Dad for being a talented artist

About 50 people turned up and it was more like a cheese and wine party than an art show. It was great to catch up with old friends and meet some friends of Dad I had not met before. One thing that struck me (and the others at the hanging) was how colourful the paintings are when seen all together. There were some old favorites of mine and a whole stack I had never seen before that had been lurking up in his workshop (aka spare bedroom).

Dad sold about 8 or 9 pictures and we sold 3 prints. I took a load of photos as did Mary so I plan to post some images over the next few days. We talked, we admired the art, we trod cheese into the carpet then tidied up after the guests had gone home. All in all a most satisfactory day.

See previously:
"Michael McLellan Limited Edition Prints"
"Exhibition Planning"