I applied to the Oxmarket Centre of Arts in early July 2015, submitting a proposal of work along with a sample portfolio, hoping to get approval and permission from the art directors in charge of the gallery to exhibit with them over a year later, showing a body of work that had no yet even begun.

The Beautiful Everyday painting project ran from 19 July 2015 - 18 July 2016, finishing the day before my 24th birthday with over 700 hours of painting.

Portrait of an exhausted and delighted artist. Check out that stack of paintings!

But of course, even after all of that my work had only just begun. I sourced and ordered a pallet worth of unfinished plain wooden frames with the professional help and support of Jackie Matthews at Co-Prom, and the mountain of boxes that arrived several weeks later should have been my first clue that the logistical element of the exhibition would be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. These frames would then be sanded, treated and painted before the exhibition. This was, clearly going to be a big job and I would need a much bigger space than my studio shed to complete this in.

I was enormously lucky to be offered the help and support of a family friend Judy Stewart, who opened up her home to me as her 'resident artist' for a couple of weeks. Not only did she hand over her dining room to me; she gave me a bed and provided my meals with a freshly baked loaf of bread every few days! As if this enormous generosity wasn't enough, she did more than her fair share of painting, and worked with my mum and I as the decision panel as we chose the framing colour options for each of the 366 miniature paintings.

Judy hard at work being my framing saviour

As I was working on my PhD at the same time, this project had to be very part-time, and so I had left the framing and organisational tasks later than hoped. It took two weeks of solid daily framing, painting, and trimming mountboard to get them all ready in time, and there were many many late nights for all involved. I even roped my poor boyfriend in to the framing mania for the weekend before the exhibition.

Before the framing had even begun I had designed all of the literature for this event, sketching out some posters and fliers in Photoshop before getting them printed by the excellent team at Express Printing in Chichester.

Framing finished the day before the exhibition was due to be installed - just in the nick of time! I typed and printed the collection lists and we had everything packaged up in boxes with stack of bubble wrap to keep it all safe and damage free.

On the morning of Monday 12 September my mother and I packed all the boxes into the car and made our way (very slowly and carefully) to the Oxmarket Centre of Arts ready to begin installation at 9.30 am.

All the boxes set out and ready and rows of wonky paintings when they first started to be hung

We were hanging, rearranging and straightening the pieces in the gallery from 9.30-5pm, and I was extremely grateful to have not only my family but the assistance of the Oxmarket staff as well to take on such a mammoth task. It felt a little impossible at times, but we managed to get everything ready before the private viewing at 6pm with just enough time for a quick shower and wardrobe change.

Everything finally up and ready for the grand public reveal!

The private viewing was a great success and lovely to meet so many fans of the project in person, and to see them get to see the paintings in the flesh for the first time. Judy Stewart was a marvel providing some excellent catering nibbles, and I was beyond relieved to have the project come to fruition in this exhibition space.

Part 2: Preparation and Installation