I am not doing very well with my weekly updates, am I? It's been nearly a week and I have not told you about my outing to the Affordable Art Fair last Friday. For those of you who do not know it, its a 4 day event held in London twice a year to promote "affordable" art; prices range up to £3,000. Its also held in Amsterdam, Brisbane, Bristol, Brussels, Melbourne, New York, Paris, and Sydney, but I get to go to the London one. Twice a year, always on a Friday, religiously. There is a reason for my madness: on Fridays there is a print workshop held by Artichoke Printmaking (twice a day) and its free. Its also free for me to get in (I get an invite) so you can see why I love going. I am starting to get a lovely collection of free prints from the AAF workshops. I have attached the current effort. I based it on my drawing from the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden - if you have seen my gallery you may recognise it. The prints are done on glossy card with a nail, inked up and pressed before your eyes. I always ask for my card back...I love the original just as much as the print. But back to the fair. The AAF in Battersea Park is large, generally 12 rows with up to 15 galleries in each row. It also has a cafe, coffee bars and a wine bar. There is a free shuttle service to and from Sloane Square; my friend and I always like sitting in the back of the shuttle cars (not the bus) and freaking out the poor motorist who happens to be behind the car - they never expect to see people in the back! I have bought from every fair that I have been to (four now), but this year's allowance was limited as I spent all my money in St Ives. Still, I managed to pick up two prints by Suzette Broad through careful management of my remaining finances (I have a rule that all my art must be purchased with cash) and they are now gracing my walls. This year the AAF seems to have much more printmaking that previous ones. I wonder if this is due to the "credit crunch" or if it just becoming more popular. I have so many lovely prints that I hope its the latter. My first time at an AAF, I noticed a considerable amount of work were at the upper limit - not very affordable in my opinion - but since then the price of art seems to be more evenly spread. That is not to say there is not much at £3,000 - there is and I generally like it! The other thing that struck me about this year's fair is that there seemed to be a "fairy tale" theme. Not necessarily elves and fairies type of fairy tale (though there were some of those) but a sort of dreamlike quality to paintings and prints. Some were quite simply beautiful... like Nicole Etienne's carp paintings... and others were more dark. All in all, I had a lovely relaxing day admiring other people's work. I must start saving for October's fair. Take care of yourselves and keep on being creative. :-) KJ