I found myself in an all-too frequent conundrum just the other night: I was early for dinner plans; much too early. I could go to the restaurant or I could look for something to do in the meantime. I was in Merchant City and Breeze Gallery caught my attention. I'd peeked in at the beautiful framed highland cow paintings before, and since the gallery was still open, I just had to give in to my curiosity. That, and kill some time.
There are a great number of artists featured. And the works are of great variety. I've been in similar places that had a 'don't touch anything, you'll break it' overbearing tone about them, but the only notion of this in Breeze was a polite one; some small printed signs. - No scary folks following you around, no security guard at the door. Other than a friendly 'hello, can I help you?' from both the lady on service at front and the man working in the back, I was free to wander and browse. And I felt very welcome to do so. It's a good size and there's lots to see. I felt very much in my element.
From my walk around, I laid eyes on designs, including some furniture, priced from £15 to £17,000. Eek! My poor wee recent graduate finances can't even fathom spending that much on art but I appreciated the lovely work nonetheless.There's payment plans available if you can't quite afford the £17,000 on the day of purchase. - I jest! - But on a serious note, purchases on credit are more and more popular so it's great that you can buy art in this way. There's also silent auctions which run, if that's your thing.
This was just what I needed at the time, and I was really impressed with the service. - Really friendly and not in the least bit pushy. I'd definitely be inclined to pop in again and see how often the featured artists rotate. There are also meet the artist sessions which you can sign up for, which I imagine would be really interesting. If you're looking for your first piece of art for your home or something really quite special, I'm sure Breeze could give you a helping hand, regardless of your budget.
Or, if like me, you're much too early for dinner plans, I don't think you could go wrong with a 20 minute browse. You may leave with new art, and that can't be a bad thing. read more