Guy Maestri at Tim Olsen Gallery - 2nd March

This was the opening night of the show at Tim Olsen Gallery, so I was all set to hear a few words from Guy but we had a very big deal get approved at work so the team needed a few beers to mark the occassion. Tim was able to save a few glasses of wine on me as by the time I got there I could see the party was ready to move on. Guy himself was grinning like the cheshire cat, one look at the prices on the room sheet and the number of red dots located around the room explained that.

By Tim's estimate there was a tad over $216k worth of art on the walls. I'm not sure what the artist cut is but seeing as how these are all 2011 works that is not a bad return given we are still in March. These are all landscapes from the west and south of NSW with titles like Robertson 7pm (pictured above), Hill End 5pm and even the more generic Southern Highlands II. Not really being that familiar with the area I can't really tell you if there was a strong resemblance. I was a little underwhelmed by the show, even if it is obviously a commercial success. Given Guy won the Archibald in 2009 he has a CV that backs up those prices now, but in a few years time I don't think these particular works are going to be forming the basis of a Guy Maestri retrospective.

Points - hard to really differentiate the art this week, 3 points for Cowra II (I remember a fairly good B&S there!); 2 points for The Turon and 1 point to Tim, given I live probably 200 metres from his shop I am amazed I haven't visited more often (even if only to browse).