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Getting Great Art Out There

May 28, 2012 in Curator Showcase

Queensgate

At Curator we love nothing more than standing amidst a range of wonderful artwork, talking to people about it and selling it!

Art enriches people’s lives and seeing so many people engage with it is truly an inspiring experience.

Our latest Showcase Event took us to the lovely Queensgate Centre in Peterborough, UK where we pitched our easels right outside the company that is never knowingly undersold, for a full 13 days.

And what a time we had – so many 100′s of lovely people stopped and enjoyed the fabulous range of art work on display and thankfully (for us!) a good number fell in love with a piece and made the investment.

There’s something very special about taking the plunge and buying your first piece of “real” art and we were fortunate enough to witness a good number of “love at first sight” moments in Peterborough. Who knows, this first purchase might lead on to a lifetime of collecting great art work.

Customers particularly enjoyed the painting LIVE events we held at the weekends and it gave folks a rare chance to chat with the artist whilst they were at work. Very brave and thanks to Adam Barsby and Sharon Ward for their efforts!

So watch this space – who knows where we’ll be turning up next!

Avatar of Richard

by Richard

See the Curator collection, plus live painting, at Touchwood

March 1, 2012 in Curator Showcase, Featured

From Monday 5th March, we’ll be heading over to sunny Solihull, to present our latest Curator Showcase event.

We’re pitching up in the very prestigious Touchwood shopping centre, where you’ll be able to browse our extensive collection first hand, including artwork from Tessa Houghton, Adam Barsby, Paul Wright, Paul Bennett, Josie McCoy and many more. It’s a great opportunity to see original artwork that you just can’t find anywhere else, and equally a chance for many people to see great art up-close in their own home town often for the first time – totally free of charge.

Buy Original Artwork Touchwood Solihull

As much as we love the web and do everything we can to enhance your ability to view art here at Curator, it’s very hard to express just how much more impressive artwork is when you see it for real. Enjoy the sense of scale, texture and intense colour that real life artwork brings, and on-screen viewing sadly will never match. There’s just no way to replicate that incredible sense that comes with seeing an original piece – worked on for many hours, days or weeks, and full of emotion and personality conveyed by its creator through every individual mark.

At the Showcase, we’ll have experienced, knowledgeable staff at hand to answer questions about the artists in our collection, to talk to you about finding that perfect piece of art for your home, and to give you any assurances on delivery or our returns promise that you might have. David, our company founder, will also be available to talk to directly if you’d like to know more about the ideas behind Curator, our plans for 2012, and our vision for revolutionising the art world! In fact, we’d love the opportunity to talk to you about them and get your opinions too.

Adam Barsby painting live

Adam Barsby will be painting live on several days of the show (individual times to be announced), where you’ll get a chance to see him work on brand new pieces of art from start to finish, get insider knowledge on the techniques used by professional artists, and an open, informal opportunity to ask questions and get straight-up answers directly. Adam’s work is great to watch as you’ll see him progress at lightening speed, making rapid decisions about placement, form and colour, while keeping the bigger picture in check (excuse the pun!). He’s also a lovely chap and really enjoys talking to art enthusiasts and those who’ve never owned a piece of art alike – so don’t be afraid to introduce yourself.

You’ll find us in the Map Room at Touchwood, a large central area flanked by Costa Coffee, Dwell and Yo! Sushi.

The Curator Showcase at Touchwood Shopping Centre, Solihull
5th March until 18th March, 2012 (excluding Sun 11th March)
Touchwood Shopping Centre, Solihull, B91 3GJ, United Kingdom

For more information, directions and opening times, check out our Events Page or visit Touchwood Solihull.

Live Painting with Adam Barsby

December 8, 2011 in Curator, Inspiration

Adam Barsby

Adam was kind enough to come down to the Curator Showcase in Bicester for a one-day only session of painting live. He brought his easel and paintbrush, we supplied the coffee and balloons.

It was our first live artwork event that we’ve hosted at any of our showcases so far so we didn’t entirely know what to expect – but we loved it, and so did our visitors!

Adam Barsby

I think that almost everyone who came to visit during the day stopped to watch Adam for at least a little while, and all the feedback we received was fantastic.

During the day, Adam worked on two pieces, one that was finished and looks spectacular, and another that he started late in the day but looked very promising.

It’s a great insight into how a painter actually works, and of course into the process of Adam’s artwork itself.

Adam Barsby

Adam Barsby

Adam Barsby

Adam Barsby

Curator Showcase is OPEN and bigger than ever

November 13, 2011 in Curator

Buy Art Online

curated-christmas

Curator has been busy over the past month. We’ve been running our showcase events are Melbicks Garden Centre (near Coventry / Birmingham) and the Buy Art Fair (Manchester). We have had the pleasure of meeting so many of you, and enjoyed some amazingly positive feedback about our collection. A big thank you to everyone who has come by!

The Curator Showcase is still open right now – in our new location, a huge gallery space in the beautiful surroundings of Bicester Avenue – and we want to show our collection to as many of you as possible before Christmas.

Saturday and Sunday are currently our busiest days in-store, so if you’re looking for a chance to quietly browse our beautiful selection of contemporary art in private then there are many times mid-week that we’d love to accommodate you.

But if you’d like to enjoy the company of many other art lovers and art professionals, then come down at a weekend any time during November and December, put your feet up in our viewing area and enjoy complementary wine, music, mince pies and artwork!

With other stores nearby like Laura Ashley, Hobbycraft, and a huge Wyvale – with Bicester Village just round the corner, visiting our exhibition is a great part of any day out for you and your family, especially for those living in the Bicester, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire areas.

Although our showcase is open until Christmas, many pieces have already sold – so to get a chance to see the rest of the collection before other collectors get a chance to buy, then it’s worth getting over here soon!

It’s a great time to shop for that special gift for a loved one for Christmas too – we have work available starting from just £450 which would make a fantastic present. But don’t feel too bad about spoiling yourself, sometimes we just connect with a great piece of art.

Have you visited already, or planning to visit? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, or just give us a call and we’ll greet you personally!

Curator Showcase, at Bicester Avenue

Open NOW until Christmas

Bicester Avenue, Oxford Road, Bicester, Oxon, OX25 2NY

http://www.bicesteravenue.info

Making art accessible – the Curator Artwork Showcase

October 17, 2011 in Curator, Inspiration

One of the many privileges of working with art for me is sharing the moment when someone sees their perfect piece of art for the first time. Art can be inspiring, thought provoking and can conjure up a host of emotions and to get to share this with people can hardly be described as work!

David Norris, Curator, and Nadeem

I find it particularly rewarding when someone finds and experiences real art for the first time. There can be a sensory overload as the viewer gets to grips with not only the power of the imagery, but the sheer quality and skill that has gone into the artwork.

Sadly though my experience would suggest only a tiny minority of the population ever get to enjoy the profound pleasure that is on offer through art. There are two main reasons for this in my opinion:

Accessibility

Real quality art is not on display in every other shop on the high street and it isn’t sold in the supermarkets (thank goodness)! Of course there are many fabulous independent galleries dotted around the country, but often you do really need to know where they are unless you are lucky enough to stumble over one. So unless you are already someone who is used to engaging with art work it can be pretty inaccessible to many.

Art Mystique

It’s strange but having spoken to so many customers over the years it’s clear that for large numbers of people there is mystique around enjoying, and buying art work that I don’t see with anything else. “I don’t feel comfortable going into a gallery because I think they will expect me to know about art” is a comment the like of which I’ve heard so many times. It’s strange really because it doesn’t seem to happen elsewhere. I mean, very few of us know the inside workings of our computer, or the details of exactly how a modern car engine works but we’re happy enough to go buy them without feeling in any way inferior or uncomfortable!!

So add these two barriers together and you have a very unfortunate situation.

Another Way?

In our own small way we, at Curator are trying to do something about it. For example we try hard to make our web site interesting and available to someone who has never really looked at art before right through to someone who might have a large collection of art. We also offer to bring art work to a customer’s home so they can have a good look at it before they decide if they want to own it.

Curator Artwork Showcase

We’re going one stage further though and taking our art right into the places where people might not expect to see quality art at all. To list the number of places we’re looking at taking our Artwork Showcase would take too long here so please do regularly visit our events page. Our mission is to share the wonders of art with as many people as possible. So I look forward to meeting you soon!