VERBIER, Switzerland – We are readying ourselves for the long drive to Basel. Our charming driver is the head of the local Rotary Club and has a calm manner that indicates that the journey will be a smooth one.

For those of you who have never been to an art fair a short introduction may be necessary. You need to wear comfortable shoes, carry a bottle of water and clear your mind of anything but art for the whole day. Getting round one is hard work.

The fair at Basel is composed of up to 300 exhibiting galleries all packed together showing an eye-watering range of works. The work generally ranges from the early 20th century to the present-day. The galleries are there to sell their wares so the work is not too experimental or difficult.

We were treated to an exceptional show of early Andy Warhol drawings at Daniel Blau, beautifully presented and startlingly deft and elegant. Equally beautiful were the large camera obscura prints of Richard Learoyd at the David McKee Gallery.

Nina Beier’s piece titled Tragedy was probably one of the more difficult works. It involved a spotlit Persian rug upon which at certain times a trained dog was asked to play dead. However, the real highlight was at the Galerie Hubert Winter. The works of the late Birgit Jürgenssen are exquisite. She is little-known outside Austria and died in 2003. The work is wonderful and a real favorite if you want to buy some great art that is going to prove extremely collectable now that she has made it to the mainstream.

Onyedika is working the galleries beautifully. He introduces himself with a calm assurance and talks to the gallerists, convincing them that they need to look at his works. This is the artist’s stock in trade. For us, the art fairs are a place of opportunity and every chance has to be seized with both hands. We go from gallery after gallery, talking until our throats are sore.

By closing time at 8 o’clock we are all exhausted. The minibus offers a welcome chance to sit down and we drink pea and mint soup from flasks as we make our way back to the mountains.

Refreshed the next morning I set about my task with relish. I have made a new discovery. I like curves! The aluminum I have been working with has taken on a gentle curve under its own weight. My piece already starts to have the look of the Eiffel Tower about it. I am really beginning to enjoy myself.

The work ethic of the artist is an interesting one. The public perception of artists lying in their studio gently studying their work or perhaps a nude model is an outmoded one. Artists have to work very hard, their life being a mixture of studio practice, application writing and ruthless networking. Art does not exist without an audience and the only way to get it into the public arena is through the process of convincing the galleries and museums that they need our work. Indeed, the public needs our work. An artist without a laptop and considerable writing skills will not go far. An average application form for arts funding expects a minimum of 2,000 words of text.

We await the prospect of the printmaking workshop with relish. The offer of a print edition to an artist is a rare thing.

Perhaps I will treat myself to a glass of wine this evening and stare at the mountains clearly visible from my balcony.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

ROME (AFP) – Italian art experts have discovered around 100 drawings and a few paintings done by the young Renaissance master Caravaggio when he was training in Milan, ANSA news agency said Thursday.

The artworks were found among a collection of works held at Sforza Castle in Milan, which were done by the pupils of painter Simone Peterzano, with whom Caravaggio studied from the age of 11.

The newly discovered works could be worth around 700 million euros ($867 million), the experts said, adding that the estimate was based on the average sale price at auction for drawings by Renaissance artists.

The works will be published on Friday in an e-book by experts Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz and Adriana Conconi Fedrigolli, along with “a protest written and signed by the young Caravaggio,” ANSA said.

Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), or Caravaggio, is known as one of history’s most tormented painters. He was involved in frequent brawls and vicious beatings and fled Rome after being sentenced to death for killing a love rival.

Hailed as the master of the “chiaro-scuro” technique—the contrast of shadow and light—he died of fever in exile and was buried in a mass grave.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

LONDON (AFP) – Europe’s tallest skyscraper the Shard will be inaugurated in London with a spectacular laser show Thursday, as critics debate whether it is an architectural triumph or a blot on the skyline.

The dramatic glass and steel structure, which stands 310 metres (1,017 feet) tall, will be launched by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, whose country has funded it, and Queen Elizabeth II’s son Prince Andrew at 2 p.m. GMT.

When night falls, a laser show will be projected from the building, connecting it up to other major London landmarks, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra providing the soundtrack.

The inauguration marks the completion of the exterior of the building, located on the south bank of the River Thames at London Bridge, while work on the inside is expected to continue into 2013.

The Shard, whose name was coined by its Italian architect Renzo Piano, is still significantly shorter than Dubai’s 828-metre Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

It takes over from Capital City Moscow Tower as the highest in Europe.

With capacity for 12,000 people, the 95-floor building will contain a five-star hotel, 600,000 square metres of office space, luxury restaurants and shops.

The jagged-tipped skyscraper will also house 10 apartments, reportedly costing up to £50 million ($78 million, 62 million euros) each, which on floors 53 to 65 will be the highest residential properties in Britain.

Developer Sellar Property hopes the Shard’s viewing decks, offering 360-degree panoramas, will become a major tourist attraction.

“It will become as essential a part of a visit to London as going to the top of the Empire State Building is for visitors to New York,” said Irvine Sellar, the company’s chairman.

The building will open as a tourist attraction in February and more than 17,500 people have already registered interest online. Advance tickets are available from Friday.

The £450 million ($705.4 million, 560.70 million euro) project was 95 percent funded by Qatar.

The tiny, oil-rich Gulf state has a growing London property portfolio that also includes the famous Harrods department store and the Olympic Village.

Ken Livingstone, who was mayor of London when the project started 12 years ago, said the Shard was a beautiful building that would “define London.”

“It brought 10,000 jobs to one of the most run-down and deprived areas of London,” he told BBC radio Thursday.

“Unlike a lot of the other tall buildings, Londoners will have access to this one.”

But the building’s futuristic silhouette has angered traditionalists who say it has dwarfed older landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament.

English Heritage, the body responsible for protecting historic sites, says the skyscraper taints a view of St Paul’s, while UNESCO has said it compromises the “visual integrity” of the Tower of London, one of its World Heritage sites.

One commentator even compared the Shard’s impact on the London skyline to the recent destruction of ancient tombs and mosques in the fabled city of Timbuktu in Mali.

“Timbuktu’s shrines can and surely will be rebuilt,” Simon Hughes wrote in the Guardian on Wednesday. “The Shard has slashed the face of London forever.”

But Piano, who also designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris, has defended the building against claims that it is an overbearing presence on the skyline.

“This building is not arrogant,” he told AFP during a tour of the construction site in February.

“When you’re making a building like this, that’s so important for the city, you have to be absolutely sure that it’s the right thing to do… as an architect, if you make a mistake it stays there for a long time.”

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

PITTSFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Sue Cox thought the quilt was beautiful and couldn’t resist buying it.

But she didn’t put it on her bed. She put it on her barn.

Barn quilts—quilt patterns painted on wood and displayed on barns and other buildings—are growing in popularity across the area.

Cox, who has done traditional quilting in the past and enjoys the art, said the patriotic colors of the Father’s Choice barn quilt appealed to her.

“I just like the look of it,” she said.

So do people driving by her home on U.S. 54 near Pittsfield.

“I do get lots of compliments on it,” Cox said. “People do notice it. Their heads do turn.”

Cox bought one of the first barn quilts painted by Diane Brown, who lives in New Hartford. Brown’s late husband would draw out the patterns, and she would paint them to display at Ackles Farm Market, which she co-owns.

Seeing the many barn quilts while “holler hopping” in Calhoun County inspired Brown, who would like to see even more of the designs on some of Pike County’s “really neat” barns.

“It’s a way to pay homage to your heritage, to decorate, and in many cases, restore old buildings,” said Robbie Strauch, who works with the Calhoun County Quilt Tour and Barn Quilt Trail. “Most people who get one decide to paint their barn, paint the roof, do some repair. That was the case with us.”

The choice of a pattern can add an even stronger historical connection.

“Many people who put a quilt up used a family pattern,” Strauch said. “We chose a pattern that was a quilt made by my husband’s grandmother Polly Campbell Crader.”

Creating the quilts “is really pretty easy to do, just kind of time-consuming,” Brown said. “Right now I’m not making them, but it was fun. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get back into doing it.”

Barb Thiele from Perry, Ill., recently got into painting the quilts. A storage building at her home sports a Navy Star quilt in honor of her grandson Keegan Bixler.

“I just thought it sounded neat,” said the longtime quilter and avid painter.

Thiele is working on an Ohio Star barn quilt for someone in Perry, and she did a quilt in the Corn and Beans pattern in shades of blue, yellow and green for local farmer Lance Wiese. She can take her pick of a pattern for another quilt going to Jacksonville.

Thiele painted her first barn quilts on exterior grade plywood but plans to switch to a different material for her next ones.

“I had to put a sealer on them and ended up putting two coats on both sides and the edges to make sure it was sealed good,” she said. “I base-coated the colors that were dark with a darker base coat, then put colors over the top. There’s probably five layers of paint on most of it.

“It just takes lots of time and patience, like quilting or painting … but you don’t have all the pieces to cut out or put together, and you don’t have to have it quilted.”

Thiele has more barn quilts in mind, including a Marine Star if Keegan opts for the Marine Corps instead of the Navy, and more traditional quilts.

“I’ve probably got seven or eight started,” she said. “If I had started the day I was born, I could not use up all the fabric and all the quilt kits I have in my closet.”

Avid quilter Judy Logsdon has four barn quilts, one for each season, on her barn near Mount Sterling.

“I thought it was kind of cool to get them started around here,” Logsdon said.

“A lady that I quilt for has them on her barn. We bartered. She did the painting, and my husband, Jim, made the frames, then he put them up on the barn. I just think they look nice. I love barns. I love quilting. It’s a nice combination.”

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-07-04-12 0904GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE