My Very First Solo Exhibition!

Alternate title: How many times can Cerys panic and/or cry in the span of a few months?

Several months ago now, I wrote about my art being featured in a mixed exhibition (held by ArtismUK). My art was the only art there that was done digitally, and apparently got pretty good reactions by people visiting the gallery. It was scary in a few ways, but altogether it was a truly inspiring experience (you can read that blog HERE).

After the mixed exhibition concluded, the owner of the gallery offered me my own solo exhibition in one of the following months. I was blown away, but accepted gratefully. I was so unbelievably excited, but I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough art to fill the large room. It was discussed and agreed upon that instead of needing to worry and overwork myself, my art would be shown alongside another great artist, who was having their own solo exhibition at the same time.

Relaxed, I decided that I wanted my largest series (currently my world-building series), to be the collection shown, but at the time, I only had three fully completed art pieces. I set out to create as many as I could in time for the exhibition, that was organised for July, 2023.

I explained in that previous blog about common doubts I have as an artist. The fear that my art isn’t good enough, that it’ll never be complete in my eyes, and that everyone who either complements me, or my artwork, is simply lying to spare my feelings. It consumed me. So much that for a long time, I stopped creating altogether. My art ground to a halt, and my confidence and imagination took an incredibly steep nose dive downwards. Seeing my art among other artists’ work gave me a huge inspiration boost.

Because of this, and regardless of my fears, and hesitations (that I still struggle with), I wanted to give it my all and set out to create as many art pieces as I could in the timeframe that I had.

I got the first one done without issue, and I loved every second of creating it. ‘Possibilities’, was the first proper art piece I had done for a while, and I was over the moon with it. The colours I used, the attention to detail I gave it, and the freedom it inspires, made me so happy. I had found my love for my art again, and I cannot even describe how that feels properly.

I enjoyed it so much that as I was creating it, I had ideas for two more pieces. I got started on both of them as soon as I could.

Unfortunately, life finds it funny to throw things your way simply for the laugh. I have Crohn’s (diagnosed in ’21), and my health had been declining for months. I ended up having to have surgery in February. It was a much-needed operation, but it took me roughly 3–4 months to heal fully, which made my deadline much closer than I’d initially expected (I also have a blog about this – it can be found easily in the ‘health’ category of my blog).

After a few months of healing from my major abdominal surgery, I got ‘Chasm’ done first, and I was very happy with how it turned out. It gave me a lot of trouble for a while, because it reached a point (as all of my pieces do), where I knew it wasn’t finished, but couldn’t concentrate on what needed doing/improving/adding. I did get it done eventually though, and it is one of my favourite pieces at the moment.

‘Discovering the Lost’ was the one that gave me the most troubles. I had a clear image in my head of what I wanted it to look like, and I had incredibly high expectations for it, and when I struggled to meet them, I ended up very agitated. Time was ticking down, and I was panicking, thinking I wouldn’t be able to complete it in time.

I got a second pair of eyes on it (Mum – my hero), and she helped me figure out ideas and a way forward with it. She helped me realise (through my frustration), that the piece looked flat, and sat with me brainstorming ways to give it more depth.

As far as my art goes, it is definitely my favourite so far. I had a specific image and feeling I wanted to get across with it, and I am incredibly proud that it was achieved. I’m used to being thrilled and taken with the final renders of my art, but it’s rare for me to love one as much as I do love that one.

I eventually got it finished, with only a couple of weeks left before the exhibition was supposed to open. I was definitely panicking. We collected all of my art pieces together, and sent off six A1 pieces of artwork to be printed. I was told it would arrive on ‘X’ day at ‘Z’ time, and that it wouldn’t take long.

They didn’t arrive. Not only had they not turned up when they were supposed to, there was no way of telling when they would eventually arrive. Trying not to panic (again), I tell myself to give them a couple of days. Wait and see if the delivery was slightly late. Things like this happen.

However, after a few days of no artwork turning up, I started freaking out. I email and call the printers and ask them kindly where my art was. They said (and I’m heavily paraphrasing here), “no idea lol xx”. Panicked joking aside, they did eventually sort it out and confirmed that the delivery was just a little delayed, and that I would receive the art in another day or so. I was beyond panicked at that point. The day when I’m supposed to deliver my art to the gallery is getting closer and closer, and I still need to find frames for them.

When they turned up, I was beyond relieved. We opened them up immediately, and (carefully), checked over them.

All six art pieces were rolled up into a single tube. We pulled them out and unfurled them from the centre, extremely gently. The first one I saw was ‘Discovering the Lost’, and upon seeing it for the first time, I burst into tears. Full on Niagara Falls within seconds. Seeing something you’ve spent so much time working on actually work and turn out like you’d hoped is an indescribable and overwhelmingly emotional feeling. Plus, as a digital artist, I don’t get to see my art in person very often.

We weren’t done though, because like I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, we still had to frame them. Getting them professionally framed was way out of my budget, and I definitely didn’t have enough time anyway, so that was out of the question. We had to try and find some that didn’t cost much, but that would be big enough to actually use. It is surprisingly difficult to find A1 frames online that’ll come within a day or two.

After searching for what felt like hours (it probably was), we found somewhere locally that sold large frames. We found six, large, A1, black frames that weren’t hugely expensive, and didn’t look terrible. Admittedly, they don’t look great, but considering how strapped for time we were, we didn’t have much of a choice, and they looked decent enough. I bought six, and we went home, happy and triumphant that we’d done it.

All to find out that they didn’t fit. The frames were actually too wide and left huge gaps down either side of every single art piece. Seriously, what is the point of A sizes being universal if they’re constantly different? The deadline was the next day, and I was panicking so much, but it managed to look like a weird, serene, apathetic calm. I was not calm.

We came up with a solution. We had black paint, so we’d just flip the large piece of promotional paper (that is in every fresh frame), paint the edges and use it as a background. It wouldn’t be a great fix, but it’d get rid of the gaps down the side.

Painting all six took a lot of time. We stayed up most of the night painting them, waiting for them to dry, giving them another coat, and waiting for them to dry again. We went to bed that night, happy that their final coats were on, and we could finally see my art in the frames. Morning came around, only for us to see that a few of them needed another coat.

So we gave them another coat. While we were fixing them, we found that a few of them weren’t drying very well. This worried us, since we only had a few hours before we were supposed to deliver them. Any later, and the gallery owner would be on his way to Manchester for another exhibit (that I had two of my pieces involved in, that I also needed to get to him in time).

We waited until the paint was touch dry, and put all the art into their frames carefully. Seeing them all in proper frames was also incredibly emotional. I didn’t cry that time, but I was definitely close.

Unfortunately for us, it didn’t work as coolly as we’d hoped, and one of the pieces of card wasn’t fully dry, which then stuck itself to the perspex. We tried to fix it, but it was no use. We had to hold one of the paintings back, so I ended up only having five art pieces going up in my exhibition. I was disappointed, but reminded myself that I still had five art pieces going up in my exhibition!

I am incredibly proud of my work, and I adore every second that goes into creating them. Having the opportunity to have an exhibition is an incredible experience. I got to see them up a few weeks after the exhibition began, and it was (again), an emotional experience. I’ll write more about that soon, though.

Thank you to Brin at ArtismUK for being amazing! Thank you for what you do. The impact you have on artists like myself is incredible.

Cerys, out!