Update, May 2023

I try to make it onto the longlists, I really do. However, when the judges are making their decisions, they unaccountably miss me off. At least I didn’t lose any entry fees on sending into the Indie Novella/Watson Little competition, and I’m sure they have found a terrific selection of work to bring forward into the next round. That’s how it goes, swings and roundabouts. At some point I can develop my entry as a self-publishing project if it isn’t picked up by one of the regional presses first. I’d like to see it get through the door of a ‘proper’ press (as opposed to me with a laptop and a local printer) but I am realistic about the outcome. Yes, I should get off my backside and do it myself, instead of waiting for that mythical response from elsewhere.

Achieving the above involves upping my game as someone who can handle desktop publishing. Now, I can do the usual wordprocessing and I have enough proofreading/editorial experience – but what I don’t have is the knowledge of industry-standard software like InDesign. Until now. After discovering it installed on a college laptop, I swiftly borrowed an instruction manual from the library and I will attempt to rectify my gaps in knowledge over the spring Bank Holidays. I don’t need to learn the whole of InDesign, because covers and colours can be forwarded to a printer using much simpler methods. For a nicely set page however, those menus concerning text formatting and paragraphs have to be understood. I’m hoping I can avoid the awful calibration faults I encountered when I tried a self-pub a few years ago.

It was time I collected up those paintings from The Headrow Gallery in Leeds. The Bernard Parker watercolours were on display for around 18 months, but none of them had sold and I discovered others (sold during the 1970’s – 1990’s) had gone through local auction houses for a good deal less than a ‘new’ work. As the market for originals is every bit as bad as the market for selling poetry books just now, the best option was collecting them up and maybe selling one or two direct using my sales website at rennieparker.bigcartel.com. In the meantime I can save them nice and flat in a chest of drawers. I already have some smaller paintings on my walls…. the ones I collected from the gallery were intended for exhibitions in larger venues, and they would suit homes with more wallspace for a ‘feature’ piece. And until they go, I can keep them pristine and lovely. The Headrow had looked after them very well; each one had been properly backed and wrapped, so there’s no danger of dusty edges and dog-eared corners. Ars longa.

For anyone who is interested: art collectors on a tight budget should look at the auctioneers around Yorkshire, for example, Hartley’s in Ilkley, and Duggleby’s in Scarborough. Both of these are likely outlets for Parker watercolours where the descendants of the original buyers want to pass them on. You will be able to find a work for less than £30, one which could be a commission or an exhibition ‘red dot’…. although the mounts and frames will need replacing. Best scenes would be around Linton, Thorpe, Kettlewell and Appletreewick in Wharfedale; and several around Whitby, Filey, and Robin Hood’s Bay. These places were not so touristy when Mr. P painted them, so you’ll see Yorkshire ‘as it was’, before the major A roads and All Creatures Great & Small.