ISLAND FINE ART AWARDED CONTRACT TO PROVIDE PAINTING FOR SPECIALIST MARINE INSURER

1st November 2008

Island Artist Goes Down a Storm at London Art Fair



Local artist Jo Bemis recently enjoyed unprecedented success at the Affordable Art Fair recently held in London’s Battersea Park.



With the doom and gloom of the credit crunch, the art market seemed somewhat subdued during the early part of October. Despite these fears over 20,000 art lovers attended the Affordable Art Fair, spending in excess of £3.6 million between them. One of the biggest success stories of the entire Fair was the sale of a complete wall of seascapes by renowned Island artist Jo Bemis from the Island Fine Arts stand.



Jo’s stunning paintings of seascapes, which can be viewed at Island Fine Arts located in Bembridge High Street, attracted much attention in the very short time between the preview evening on Wednesday and the whole series being sold to one gentleman on Thursday; the first day the show was open to the public. Jo was stunned when she received a telephone call from the gallery telling her that an entire wall of her paintings had been sold. “With the credit crunch and people having to tighten their belts I hadn’t dare set my expectations of the Fair too high and was completely overwhelmed when Nick from the gallery told me what had happened! Maybe this buyer saw my paintings as an escape route from the depressing stories we hear so much about on the news or maybe they just reminded him of happy times.”



With her recent success, Jo has already started work on several more paintings, each taking several weeks to complete and is, surprisingly, looking forward to spending more time on the Island’s beaches braving out the wintry weather forecast. “I find the stormier weather so much more exciting to paint; the colours are deeper and there is a lot more energy to capture.”



A number of Jo’s paintings will be on display and available for purchase at Island Fine Arts during the Christmas exhibition which will be on display between 15th November to 31st December. A new exhibition of Jo’s paintings is planned for Spring 2009.



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