On Friday 12th September The John Dyer Gallery working in partnership with the National Maritime Museum and Falmouth Tall Ships and supported by Banrock Station Wine opened what was to become possibly Cornwall’s fastest ever and busiest art exhibition in recent history.

“The exhibition certainly was a triumph and so much work went into the whole event, the art and the competition. Thanks for providing such a wonderful event and also a great excuse to have a super weekend away.  We were so glad we made the effort to come down and really see the "tall ships and small ships" in action.”

John Dyer is probably Cornwall’s best known living artist and has a wide international reputation and following.

“We have never experienced anything quite like it” 
was the comment from the National Maritime Museum.

A large crowd of people queued at the entrance to the museum in anticipation of the 6.30 opening time. The John Dyer Gallery had filled the guest list with 300 RSVP guests and VIP responses.

The crowd was separated into categories for entrance - buyers first - followed by viewers and families with children who had won prizes in the Tall Ships Art competition.

“We gave people the option of the lift or the stairs, and then the race was on !”

People raced through the museum to try to reserve the painting of their choice.

One collector remarked:

“The lift stopped at the wrong floor which gave us an advantage as we raced up the stairs!”

Guests didn’t stop for welcome drinks on the way in, but returned later to sample the delicious Banrock Station sparkling White and Rose wines.

This was one of the largest crowds the museum has hosted, and it was certainly an event that caught the imagination of hundreds of people.

In addition to the new paintings by John Dyer there was also an incredible display curated by Milly Newman from the NMMC of the 149 children’s paintings entered for the competition the artist organsied.

The prize winning children traveled from all over the country to attend the event with their family’s and they each received a huge round of applause, a goody bag stuffed full of amazing things from the museum and an official John Dyer Tall Ships Limited Edition Print.

Some of the parents comments are listed below:

“The exhibition certainly was a triumph and so much work went into the whole event, the art and the competition”

“He got some lovely feedback from people there. He is very proud”

“She came out walking on cloud nine”

“A big thank you and well done for such a lovely competition. My children really enjoyed creating their pictures and then seeing them online amongst the other beautiful entries”

“Thanks too for the competition – he loved doing the picture and we all love the result”

The director of the Maritime Museum Jonathan Griffin and the chairman of the Falmouth Tall Ships John Hick both gave speeches at the event and thanked the artist for the event, his community involvement and his generosity in allowing the Funchal 500 Regatta Falmouth to use the painting “Tall Ships and Small Ships ’08” as the Regatta image on the official programme.

“John Dyer’s painting has helped us to sell lots of the programmes and this is an enormous contribution.”