Tim Saunders LONDON — Saudi Arabia is home to many artists and a large proportion are women. But the kingdom still has no public gallery dedicated to modern art and there are only a small handful of commercial galleries. Saudi Arabia measures 2,149,690 sq km and has a population of 28.29 million. In the comparatively small United Kingdom, which measures just 243,610 sq km there are more than twice as many residents — 62.34 million to be precise. But in contrast to Saudi Arabia there are public galleries and hundreds of commercial galleries spread across the country. Art is truly embraced. Like Saudi Arabia. the UK has a large number of women artists too but we can be a little more specific. Fifty per cent of the artists and craftspeople represented by Creative Coverage, the arts organization, are female. One such artist is Haidee-Jo Summers who has had “a very busy summer.” “In June I was fortunate to have three works accepted for The Artist/Patchings exhibition and one of my paintings there won the Royal Talens Award which was great,” says Haidee-Jo. “I also entered the Society of Women Artists annual exhibition for the first time and had a painting selected, which was on show at the Mall galleries in June.” Haidee-Jo, who was painting in Cornwall in July and France for all of August, then exhibited some paintings in the mixed summer show at the Russell Gallery, Putney and the Lincolnshire Artists Society show at the Usher Gallery, Lincoln. “My paintings have been selling well at the Harbour Gallery in Cornwall since July when Creative Coverage introduced me to this gallery. I'm also thrilled to have had a large painting selected for the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition, which will be on show at the Mall Galleries in October. “In early summer I had an article in The Artist magazine about painting alla prima in oils and another one on painting seascapes was in the September issue. Now my autumn workshop schedule is underway, so I'm busy as ever.” In October Haidee-Jo's paintings can be seen at Skendleby Hall in Lincoln as part of a Creative Coverage group exhibition. — SG
