The UKCPS at the NEC

The Society had a very successful four days at the Art Materials Live fair at the NEC, Birmingham from Thursday to Sunday last week. Apart from making a considerable sum of money for Society funds, mostly by selling workshop packs containing materials donated by our sponsors, we gained a lot of great publicity, and gave out over 200 membership forms. Many thanks are due to Rachel Stirling and Peter Weatherill who did a super job of organising the event, and to all the many members who helped out as demonstrators, workshop leaders and just general dogs-bodies. A lot of work by a lot of people - thank you all!


Some photos have come into my hands showing various aspects of the show, starting with the ever-present Suzy Herbert on the left, at her easel as she was every day. On the right is Deborah Theobald, who came to help out demonstrator Gary, and a shot showing the exhibition and demonstration space we were given. The pictures changed each day depending on who was demonstrating.


A shot in the other direction shows that most days we had two or three demonstrators - Richard Childs has said he never talked so much in his life! Hard to believe that Richard! On the right is Peter, looking a bit puzzled as he explains to an attentive group just what the difference between blending and burnishing is! This shows the workshop area, where people were able to sit down for an hour - a very important selling point! - and try out pencils and papers using the packs of materials we supplied.

Some of our members have mentioned the show in their own blogs - see Katherine Tyrrell's posts here (scroll down to Art Exhibitions), and Gayle Mason here. We hope to be back next year - if we can persuade people to do this work all over again - and hope to see you there.