"Meet the kittens" on SOFA front cover

An awful lot of really excellent work is submitted to the Society of Feline Artists' (SOFA) exhibition each year. Both full and associate members are invited to submit work early for consideration for the brochure. The quality is so good that it's always regarded as a great honour to get your work selected by Jillian Llewellyn Lloyd, Director of the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, as an image for the exhibition's colour brochure/private view invite.

Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) has had work in the brochure for the last two years (she's always very organised!), while I kept forgetting to get my work finished before April.

However, this year I decided to have a go and got three drawings of kittens submitted early - and in time for consideration for the brochure.

SOFA Exhibition 2009
Colour Brochure/Private View Invite

I already knew that two were definitely in the exhibition and that one of them was likely to be in the brochure but you can imagine my surprise when the catalogue arrived today to find that "Meet the Kittens" has actually made the front cover!

Gayle has also got a lovely drawing of a blue burmese "Moody Blue" on the inside of the brochure.

The other two works on the front cover are:

• Christmas Cat by Irina Garmashova (14" x 20, acrylic and coloured pencil on paper)
  
• Loved by Sarah Butt (9.5" x 10" acrylic on board)
  

I'll highlight some of the others featured in the brochure nearer the exhibition.

The exhibition

The SOFA Annual Exhibition takes place at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London. The exhibition dates this year are 28th August through to 18th September, (10am - 7.30pm Monday to Saturday).

The exhibition features the work of both Full and Associate members of SOFA members. On show will be approximately 300 paintings of cats in oil, acrylic, watercolour, pastel and etchings - making it the largest exhibition of cat art in the country.

I'll post an update when the exhibition goes online - which usually happens before the exhibition opens at the gallery.

Private View

The Champagne Private View is held on Tuesday 1st September between 12pm and 3pm. The exhibition is officially opened by the Society's Patron David Grant MBE at 2.15pm. (He's that really nice vet from RSPCA Harmsworth who we all used to watch on the BBC programme Animal Hospital).

I'll be at the PV so this is a call-out to friends to let me know if you'd like an invite to see the work.

A different business model for an art society exhibition

The SOFA exhibition is somewhat unusual compared to many art society exhibitions and I thought it worthwhile highlighting the differences between the SOFA exhibition and most other art exhibitions.

Most art societies rent space/weeks in a commercial gallery. They then need to organise the selection, receipt of works, cataloguing and hanging - which depending on the arrangements with the gallery, very often falls to Executive members and helpers

SOFA has an agreement with Llewellyn Alexander that it will hold its exhibition in the gallery each year and it is a regular fixture in the gallery's schedule of exhibitions. It always has 'regular' exhibition status and thus has to 'pay its way' as it were. Hence the selection of works to be exhibited is done entirely by the Gallery.

The Executive have no involvement in selection, do not have to receive works or store works, do not organise the catalogue and do not need to hang works. There's also no submission fee for the artists because this is a strictly commercial exhibition albeit one held on behalf of an art society. The commission deducted from sales is payable to the gallery who also look after the previous buyers' mailing list.

I would add that it is also one of the most successful art society exhibitions I know. This is due in no small part to the expertise and efforts of the gallery's directors and staff.

I'm always pleased to get work into this exhibition - and this year I'm ecstatic that my work has made the front cover of a brochure which I've been getting and keeping for many years now!

Llewellyn Alexander Gallery: 124 - 126 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LN. Telephone: 020 7620 1322/4