Tee shirts in November!

My trip to Torquay was all too brief but good with bizarrely pleasant weather and barely a hint of what should be early winter. Even sat on the beach at lunchtime on 7th November it was warm enough for tee shirt and shorts.

Things got off to a slightly messy start after my first train was cancelled on Wednesday. After confusing Southwestern Rail and Great Western Railways, my rescheduling plan had me stuck in Reading with only GWR heading to Exeter. But as it turned out, there were two reasons for timetable chaos around Salisbury so everyone was okay to use an alternative company to travel onward. Still reckon it's now better to travel from Clapham Junction rather than Paddington even if it takes a bit longer.

Lights on - no one home

This was a very low key trip. I had no plans beyond a trip to Teignmouth. First stop was to see which Torquay galleries were open. I had hoped the one in the town centre would be since they were prepping for Open Studios last time I was there. Annoyingly, the lights were on but the door was locked. No signs to say what was going on. Web site had all the opening times but nothing about what was happening there. They have another gallery a bit further out and I did a circular walk round to the beach to check it out but guess what - it was closed too. I checked every day and the situation was the same. Had to make do with peering in the window to catch a glimpse of stuff. Not impressed.

There are three others down by the marina and I snagged a newspaper of a sculptor whose work they hold. The Frogman does...frogs, but they're bold, brilliantly coloured frogs with subtle detailing and are silky smooth like polished metal. Which I suppose they are since they're bronzes but whatever they're coloured with, the glossy finish isn't like anything I've seen elsewhere. Apparently it's a trade secret but many are trying to copy it.

Frogman (Tim Cotterill) recounts how he visited the US and discovered its market scene for art. I've read about this and maybe it's a weather thing but having whole streets blocked off for artists to sell their work is wonderful. Too many of the UK's art fairs are out of town and need a car but having them centrally like a farmers' market would be a great way to get your work out there. I'm sure there are towns that do this but you have to wait for that one weekend and usually be a local. Over there (at least when he got started), you could travel around and pitch up wherever one was happening.

Work on the street

The tradition of craft seems to be stronger in the US and Canada going by the how to sell art/craft books I've read. The resource section is always enormous, the number of fairs huge (okay, it's a big country) and the quality of work superb. Sad to say but so often our local 'craft' markets have suspiciously mass market looking or clearly imported stuff or items that are a bit ho-hum - knitted tea cosies and bad pyrography - nothing unique or outstanding which makes genuine art stick out like a sore thumb and it doesn't sell because it's not cheap.

I used to love visiting the Filberg Festival on Vancouver Island when I took my university summer break there to work on organic farms. A combination of music, food and art and the vendors had only superb quality, original, creative and affordable work. It was a juried show which ensures high standards.

We seem to have two extremes of fairs in the UK; one where you can only sell dead cheap stuff because folks won't fork out for anything over a tenner, or the opposite extreme where the show fees are so huge the prices have to match. I've heard the big London art fairs are essentially useful money laundering opportunities rather than for artist exposure but who knows?

Now, Teignmouth is working hard on becoming a creative destination. The arts quarter is pretty small because it's only a very small town with weeny shop buildings but there's definitely a trend towards creative outlets. The main arts centre is in early stage refurbishment and will be the centre of everything when it's complete. It looks to have had a great funding response and the phase one target has been reached.

Seaside towns have really struggled economically and it would be nice to see more places become places for creativity to make a home and entice off season visitors but now everywhere is so expensive or transport from different sides of the country is too awkward, slow and expensive if you don't have a car. We really have to rethink how towns are set up and encourage new businesses and inhibit the price gouging of rentals so folks can afford to live there. There's so much potential to create much better places to live and work that benefits everyone.