Cajoling a Major London Auction House for ‘One Night Only’ to throw a Launch Party.
I have to come clean here as I was known to Christies.
Offered a job in the Old Master Picture Department, it was the Fine Wine Department that beckoned for several years.
We combined the golf book launch with a one-man show of my sports paintings, why do one thing when you can do two.
What they didn’t expect was a massive blow up golf driving range, buggies and a Jungle Theme with golf clubs sticking up out of Palm trees.
Throwing these shindigs costs, so:
Find a great sponsor = Grahame Harding of the then First City Care (sneaky beaky stuff for big banks and other stuff we can’t know about), who likes his golf and played snooker for England.
Go on bended knee to the Boss = Hugh Edmeades of Christies, who likes his golf and can auction anything under the sun.
Get really lucky with a top Champagne House = Rupert Lendrum, then of Möet et Chandon, who likes his golf, loves Cornwall and was ex-army.
Obey a brilliant and long suffering Party Planner and then leave her to it = Sophie Lillingston, who hates golf but loves horses.
Then try and help a Charity = SPARKS, (now GOSH) who seemed to think I was a pro (golfer) as I was regularly told (they held 30+ golf days a year), to ‘stand on a Par 3’ and as the groups come round you get them to pay to ‘challenge the Pro’ to get nearer to the pin than you.
I hadn’t got the heart to enlighten them that I’m really an oddball who paints for a living - I just wrote a golf instruction book…
