15/5/2007

Home and Garden

Art for all at prices most can afford

Jaci Foster with a glass dish on sale in her gallery

by Rebecca Magill

THE sound of heels on wooden floors, a hushed atmosphere and the owner staring at you like she knows you can’t afford to be there — is that your idea of art galleries?

Thankfully, there is a place that avoids that sort of stuffy experience.

Strawberry Fish Gallery, in Hartley Wintney High Street, is as far away from pretentious as you can get.

It has a welcoming and warm atmosphere, and has items everyone can afford.

It stocks everything from hand-made gift cards costing a few pounds to paintings worth thousands — and everything in between.

When Jaci Foster opened the gallery two years ago last Saturday, she wanted to make sure it wasn’t intimidating.

“The main aim of the gallery is to be accessible to everyone and get rid of some of the pretension surrounding art,” said Jaci, 43.

“For example, there’s nothing worse than walking into a gallery that is completely silent, which is why we have music playing.

“We don’t want people to look through the door and not want to come in. This is why we have the cards and lots of other affordable items on display as well. There is always something to buy.”

For sale in the gallery - a painting, Golden Touch, by Peter Jorgensen

The gallery stocks paintings, limited edition prints and sculptures from many local and well-known artists.

The work of Jo Downs is popular with customers. She has made her name producing stylish, yet functional, glass pieces. These include dishes, coasters and glass hangings of various types.

Peter Jorgensen also sells well. He paints in acrylic on canvas in a variety of different subjects, but all are bold and colourful. Jaci also stocks prints by Sam Toft and the beautiful, but practical, china of Susie Watson.

“All the work in our gallery tends to be quite bright and colourful,” said Jaci, who lives in Hartley Wintney with her husband Tony, 46 and children Tom, 18 and Rebecca, 15.

“The customers around here are fairly traditional. Few of them have massive loft apartments where they can display large canvases, so we sell mostly smaller paintings.”

“We also have some quite unusual glass — some pieces that are practical and others that are a bit more sculptural. We are constantly changing our displays, so people will always find something new when they come in.”

But it is the pretty jewellery that proves most popular with gift buyers.

“Our jewellery is not something you will usually find in the high street,” she said. “It involves a lot of semi-precious stones and glass, and ranges in price from £8.50 all the way up to £300.

The gallery is truly a family business. Tony helps Jaci choose new items to put on sale and she ropes in her son to work at the shop whenever he has a break from studying. “He certainly doesn’t do it for free though — I’d be lucky!” she added.

To find new work for the gallery, Jaci and Tony — who works full-time as a surveyor — spend most weekends hunting round galleries and exhibitions all over the country.

“He grounds me,” she said. “I sometimes want to get something that’s completely wacky and he brings common sense into the equation and reminds me that we actually have to sell it at the gallery.

“When selecting work we have to be true to ourselves and not pick anything that is mass produced. We like work that is quite quirky, different and unusual,” she added.

Jaci started the enterprise in May 2005, after realising there were no galleries in the area that also stocked handmade crafts and gifts.

“I wondered why there were no galleries like those in Cornwall and Yorkshire, where I am originally from, that stock both art and gifts.

“So I decided to leave my job as an infant school teacher and start up a gallery of my own,” she said.

After two years, Jaci is still as enthusiastic as the day she opened. “We are looking to diversify and maybe looking to start up courses in the gallery, but we are mainly focusing on finding out what sells and what is successful,” she said.

“We aim to make people realise that they don’t have to spend thousands of pounds on a piece of art to be able to enjoy it.”

For more information call 01252 843679 or log on to www.strawberryfish.com.

First printed in: Aldershot News and Mail