SOLD! Sunlight Across the Bar
Soon after 11am on Sunday 18 August, the official opening time for the exhibition, I made a sale. Sunlight across the Bar, an oil painting was sold to a couple who have been visiting Salcombe ‘forever’.
I arrange to have all of my original paintings professionally photographed before they are varnished or framed, so I stil have the digital image and own the copyright. From this image, I can create a giclée print, and any of the affordable art range. It’s very popular as a fine art greetings card too.
A boxed canvas – unusual for Stephen Thomas
It’s rare for me to offer a painting unframed. Sunlight across the Bar was on a box canvas and had spent much of its life on our lounge wall, above the TV.
In its place, I have hung a much larger painting. It’s a print by Terrence Cuneo, who is best known for his studies of trains and railway stations. However, this one depicts Lloyds of London, my place of work for decades. It was a gift to me from work colleagues on my retirement in 2000.
The feather?
The feather symbolises the quill pen, and was intended as a joke by my colleagues to remind me that I started work, aged 17, before the invention of computers. It was after the invention of pens, however.
The waiters (those in red jackets) would, each morning, visit every box and refill the inkwells. This tradition has obviously fallen by the wayside and Lloyds is full of modern technology.
Nowadays, many use a mouse. In my day, the mice were real and one is visible in this painting.
Can you see this painting?
My Terence Cuneo painting will be on display, but not for sale, during the SHAF (South Hams Arts Forum) Arts Trail. Make a note of the dates: 12-27 October.
Setting up day: Sunday 18 August
Anne and I had a very early start on setting up day. I’d already loaded the car the night before, with fifteen paintings, individually wrapped and ready to hang.
The parking fairy had reserved a place for us alongside the bakery and I moved the paintings bag by bag to the Art Club, while Anne guarded the car and the remaining paintings.
Then, I left Anne at the Gallery while I moved the car to my boat parking space in Shadycombe car park. By the time I’d returned, Anne had unpacked and hung nearly all the paintings, not in their final positions, but close.
There then followed an hour or so of moving each painting left a bit, right a bit, up a bit, down a bit, and attaching labels. Imagine, me on a ladder, and Anne directing operations!
We were just about done when the purchaser arrived. He was earlier than our usual opening time, but we welcomed him in. We then settled ourselves down to a well-earned cup of coffee.
After studying all the paintings, he departed but returned with his wife some time later, to make the purchase. I am always happy when I meet the purchaser, and know my painting is going to a good home!
When does the exhibition end?
There’s another week … 11am-5pm every day until Saturday 31 August. Do pop in. I’m stewarding on Wednesday 28 August 11am-5pm and Saturday 31 August 2-5pm.
It’s now the turn of Elen Claire Williams to exhibit her work in the Little Studio.
The Loft Gallery is situated behind the Fortescue Inn, and above a popular shoe shop, on a delightful footpath called Victoria Quay, which overlooks one of the best views in the UK including the mooring berth of the RNLI lifeboat Baltic Exchange III.
My one-man exhibition 13-26 August in the Little Studio at the Loft Gallery, Salcombe opened yesterday and continues until Saturday week.
One particular morning, there was a mist, slowly clearing. I felt compelled to stop the car and, reaching for my camera, I captured this magical moment. I especially admired the reflections in the pink water.
As you walk the short distance from Salcombe to Batson, you’ll see the view that inspired me to try to capture this idyllic setting. 
At the top of Batson Creek, a collection of thatched cottages delight the eye. They sit around a triangle of grass complete with its old-fashioned telephone box. (At least, the phone box was there, the last time I visited!) The reflections of these cottages in the water only serve to enhance the tranquility of the scene, and this inspired me to paint 