Studio spy allows art collectors to watch artists at their work

Mar 15 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal

ABOUT as interesting as watching paint dry. So goes the time-honoured expression of extreme boredom.

But there’s paint and there’s paint. And what if you were watching it not drying but being applied? And what if the person applying it was not the decorator transforming your hall or living room, but an artist creating a piece of work that you have commissioned?

Modern technology’s increasingly rapid strides drew a posse of journalists to the Opus Gallery, just off Gosforth High Street, the other day for the launch of a website innovation called KounterKulture.

Another product of this shrinking world, it means that artists signed to Opus can not only put their work online – to be viewed or bought – but can be seen creating it.

Thanks to the spy in the studio, otherwise known as a webcam, we, the viewers, can register on KounterKulture, pick an artist of our choosing and watch them create.

It might sound like Big Brother technology, but attitudes have changed. It’s likely more people now know the phrase as the title of an entertaining reality TV show than as George Orwell’s embodiment of a sinister future.

KounterKulture is the brainchild of Don Smith who set up Opus in 2005.

Earlier he was one of the founders of Eyestorm, an online contemporary art gallery which dealt with the work of leading artists and photographers including Damien Hirst, Helmut Newton and Mario Testino.

On Friday he explained that 1999 was maybe a little too soon for Eyestorm. He sold his shares and channelled his energy into the Opus venture, which he now runs with fellow director Emma Poole.

The Opus Gallery, on West Avenue, just off Gosforth High Street, shows contemporary art. On at the moment is a 40th anniversary exhibition of new limited edition prints by William Tillyer, delicately coloured abstracts that exude joie de vivre.

“The object was to bring world class art to the North East,” explained Don, who hails from the region but was in London during the early Eyestorm days. The gallery, he said, was very nice and he was happy to stick with it, organising previews and putting the work of Opus artists on public view.