Gallerie Marin (Market St, Appledore, N. Devon) reopening is great news for Audrey’s clients and artists including me, Gordon Frickers.
In my view Audrey Hinks is a great “people person”, one of the very, very few gallery owners who acts with total integrity with her clients and her artists.

I first met Audrey and Alan some 20 years ago when they visited my studio in Plymouth.

Having heard Gordon Frickers marine paintings were increasingly selling to distinguished clients and companies, Audrey and Alan  visited to meet the artist, see the marine painting.
The result of their visit surprised us all and still amuses me.
 
Audrey was completely “blown away” by my French landscapes. She would talk of nothing else.
Audrey said she already had plenty of marine painters, would like to try some thing different and here was some thing very different, very unique with often surprising, some times stunning colour combinations.
She said she thought the French landscapes very exciting, she could feel the heat of France and smell the scenes, she adored the colours and the spontaneous way they were painted.

Given the difficulties created by my special colour vision, at the time this surprised me. These paintings were all created as colour experiments to help me understand my “difficulty”.
However others have subsequently come to a similar conclusion; one day these landscapes will be very valuable.

They show a rare quality, an artist searching, purposefully exploring colour relationships, quite probably proving to be most collectible paintings to enjoy and as investments, being the most original and impossible to “copy” as a painting style.

Clever talent spotting Audrey!

Over the years Audrey and Alan have remained very enthusiastic supporters of my “French landscapes” promoting and selling more of them than all the other galleries put together.

I had only recently heard why Gallerie Marin had closed.
Audrey had lost her life long husband and partner Alan about a month ago. Naturally I phoned Audrey to offer my condolences. Audrey was clearly very distressed, glad I’d called.
To hear she wants more of my paintings and will re open the gallery was not what I was expecting!

Unsurprisingly the gallery business was neglected during Alan’s illness and hence finally closed.

The Alan Hinks I knew was a quiet, patient, good humoured man who always bought his round.
I admired the way he supported Audrey’s endeavour with her gallery, always there for her. 
Alan Hinks was comfortable and self confident enough to let Audrey have “centre stage”, a role Audrey has filled with skill, enthusiasm and honesty for many years.

Alan Hinks came from a long line of Appledore (N. Devon) ship builders, generation on generation of people who built fine quality ships which in turn in their small way helped build our modern world.
The name Hinks almost means “ship builder” in Appledore and Barnstable. Alan was much involved in the fortunes of the modern yard Appledore Shipbuilders, several historic replicas (Mayflower, Golden Hind etc) joining the struggle to keep a ship building industry in Appledore.
As if Audrey had not got enough to cope with loosing her life partner, one of her beautiful and charming daughters is going through a divorce.
Remarkably Audrey finds the energy to try to help her too!

Given her problems, the courage of this 83 year old lady is I hope you agree inspirational.

Now, Audrey tells me the gallery will re open in the spring of 2009.
Audrey Hinks says she misses her clients and artists, her life is too dull without us!

Do we say good luck Audrey Hinks?

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Tags: alan hinks, Appledore, Appledore Shipbuilders, collectable, colour combinations, colour experiments, colour vision, french landscapes, Gallerie Marin, Golden Hind, marine painters, Mayflower, paintings, plymouth, special colour vision, studio in Plymouth, talent spotting

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Artists with artists, Marine Art, galleries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.