'Heavy weather, Drumochter'

It’s a busy time at Studio E and this last week has been no different.

I have to get work ready for three exhibitions before I go away to Speyer in early May.  I’m taking three paintings over to the Fisher Gallery in Pittenweem in Fife for their first show of the year.  This opens on March 27.  I’ll be exhibiting three new paintings all of which are finished, framed and ready to take to the gallery in a couple of weeks.

The next deadline after that is to get seven paintings ready for the Spring Exhibition at the Atholl Gallery in Dunkeld. This opens on April 17^th and runs until June 7^th.   Of these pieces, three are still to be completed but one of these is almost finished.

'Blackmount'

My final deadline is to get 10 pieces ready for my joint show with Alison Thomas at Blairmore Gallery. This will open on 18^th June and run for six weeks through until 28^th July.  This though is while I’m away in Germany, so everything has to be ready before I go away.  My partner Anita has said she’ll take the work up to the gallery as I’ll not be able to get back for the show unfortunately.

So then, a lot of painting still to be done, but I do already have some work finished and ready for this show.

'On Rannoch Moor'

The week started off though, with my meeting a deadline …which is always good.  As I’ve already mentioned in an earlier blog, I’ve been asked to act as a patron to ‘the gallery on the corner’, a new project being established by Autism Ventures, Scotland.  The gallery is in a prime location in Edinburgh and will be opening towards the end of March.  Its official launch will be on 22^nd, 23^rd & 24^th April.  For more details about the gallery and Autism Ventures, Scotland, see below.  Suffice to say, they kindly asked me to exhibit a few pieces of my work in their new gallery and so I’ve been trying to get a few new paintings finished for them.

On Monday two of the people involved in setting up the gallery, visited my studio to pick up the five pieces of work.  Three of these are new paintings, two of which are 30 x 30 cm and one being 76 x 23cm.  I’ve also included a brand new small drawing and a pencil drawing I did last year.  I think the five pieces should work quite well together and I’m looking forward to seeing them on the walls of the new gallery.

The Gallery on the Corner

The gallery on the corner is the first social firm from Autism Ventures Scotland (AVS), part of the Autism Initiatives Group. AVS has been established to create employment opportunities and experiences for young people with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) in Scotland.

The gallery on the corner is an inclusive, fine art gallery situated in Edinburgh’s New Town. It provides artists who have a disability, mental health problems or those from a disadvantaged background with a platform to exhibit and sell their artwork in a high profile location in the heart of Edinburgh’s gallery district. Beneath the commercial gallery space we have four studio spaces that will be rented to practicing artists who will work with apprentices with ASC.

A third branch of the business will open later in 2010. We are in the process of securing premises for a creative studio where young people with ASC will produce original artwork for sale, using an ‘art as therapy’ approach.

AVS will be offering apprenticeships and other opportunities to 16- 25 year olds with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) in both retail and art. The apprenticeships will include on the job, and vocational training, resulting in a recognised qualification.

Contact details:

The Gallery on the Corner

34 Northumberland St

Edinburgh EH3 6LS

Phone numbers:

Gallery:    0131 557 8969

Studios:    0131 557 8921

Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm

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Cir Mhor from Glen Rosa

Well, as I said in a brief comment on Face book earlier this week, I finally got a day, if not on the hill, then certainly in amongst them. We’ve been having a lot of fine cold clear days recently and last Friday we decided to take a trip over to the Isle of Arran.

From Irvine, Arran is just a few miles away across the Firth of Clyde. Indeed, even with my poor bit of sight, with the aid of a monocular I can see the mountains at the north end of the island from my studio door. To actually get there, takes a short trip up the coast to Ardrossan where the ferry to Brodick goes from. Until a couple of years ago, it wasn’t really possible to do a serious walk on Arran in a day trip during the winter months. The winter ferry service was somewhat restricted and for me at least, there wasn’t enough time between first and last ferry. Now though, there is an early ferry leaving at 7.00am and, and a later ferry back from Brodick.

Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran

So then, with the temperature at -4C and the first light just appearing, we went on board and went straight to the café ..you can get an excellent breakfast on board and it sets you up nicely for the day ahead. It takes about 55 minutes to get across to Brodick and by the time we walked down the gangway the sun was lighting up the tops of Goatfell and it’s neighbours …all of which were covered with snow. It looked stunning. We hadn’t at this stage decided quite what we were going to do and had carried all our winter gear incase we decided to head uphill. The scenary and colours were so good that we decided to make this a working walk and to simply take a wander the few miles up Glen Rosa in the heart of the Arran hills. With the wonderful mixture of snow, crags, grass and bracken, there would be plenty of scope for photographs and sketching.

The walk along the front and around the edge of the golf course at Brodick is scenic enough in these conditions but as we approached Glen Rosa it was just spectacular. On the north facing slopes the snow was all the way down to the base of the glen, on the southern slopes the lower levels were free of snow and the grass and bracken was a mixture of bright ochres, yellows and terracotta in the low early morning sun light.

Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran

After about a mile the glen takes a sharp dogleg to the right and you can see all the way up the glen to Cir Mhor – a wonderful pointy peak at the head of the glen that incidentally, is as pointy at the tip as it looks …but that’s another tale. At this point we were out of the shade and into bright sun and so it seemed a good point to do some sketching and just enjoy our surroundings. Then disaster ….I thought I’d packed my sketchbook and drawing pen …well, I’d got the sketchbook, but the pen I’d picked up was not a drawing pen ..it was a thicker indelible marker pen! Oooops. That’s the joy of fuzzy sight for you! Oh well, nothing for it, I’d just have to draw with this …but it wasn’t very successful and although that day I did three drawings – all of them were dreadful. What do they say about bad workmen always blaming their tools?

Despite this, it was a great day and a very useful one for me. I came away with several new ideas for paintings and although the drawings weren’t great, just sitting and looking at the hills and glen with my monocular really helps when it comes to painting later.

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'Breaking cloud, Am Bodach'

Well, the exhibition opened last Saturday and the eight paintings I included in the show were finally completed, framed, delivered and hanging on the walls in time for the opening at 11.00am that morning!  Now, that doesn’t sound difficult does it?  Just eight pieces.

Of course, I couldn’t do it the easy way and select eight already completed pieces.  No, I was determined to do a few completely new paintings for this show.  And, bar for a few days of panic while I was trying to finish the ‘Winter, Blackmount’ painting … (I just couldn’t get it right for a while), everything went ok.

The framing though was another matter.  The five smaller paintings were fine.  These are always framed the same way; behind glass with a wide single mount and a stylish but simple 7 cm wide distressed ‘York’ silver frame.  This seems to work well with the scratchy, scribbled nature of my paintings.  The three larger pieces were another thing entirely.  At this scale (80 x 80 cm and 60 x 60 cm) I needed a different kind of frame; something without a mount and glass.  I tried a lot of different mouldings and colour combinations before hitting on the right thing.

It’s a fairly broad simple wooden frame with a raised outer edge, painted a pale cream colour and with a thin gold inner edge.  This seems to work well with these paintings.  This sounds quite simple but getting to this point took much bashing of my head against the wall as to start with I’d decided the frames should be dark and with a second outer edge of gold.  This made them look like window frames and so they all had to be completely re-painted ….ooops!  Oh well, we got there in the end and as my framer said …the customer is always right …but not always correct.  He may have a point

The show, containing work by the seven of us short listed for last years Jolomo Awards for Scottish Landscape Painting, looks good.  It’s a smashing gallery with large well lit spaces on two levels.  It was great meeting up with the others again and seeing what they’d all been doing.  There’s a lot of very fine work there, so if you can get to Crieff before the show ends on March 20th, then I’d recommend it …not that I’m at all biased of course!  Of all the work though, my fuzzy eye was caught by Toby Cooke’s fantastic painting, ‘View from Leith’.  It’s quite big and the composition is just great.  Anyway, you can see for yourself, even if you don’t live in driving distance of Crieff …the show can be seen on-line:  www.strathearn-gallery.com .

At the end of the preview on Saturday I was feeling pretty happy as I’d sold a few of my paintings and the gallery has asked if I’d like to put on a solo show in 2011 …Wow!  Mind you it’ll be a lot of work – something in the region of forty pieces, so it’s a good job I’ve a year to work on it!

Jolomo 2009 Finalists Catalogue

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'Below Ben Oss, winter'

Interestingly I originally did this painting for a show organised by Jean and Hilary at Gallimaufry a number of years ago.  I’ve had the painting in my studio ever since and have always like the colours but as time has gone by and my work has developed, I’ve felt I could improve it.  I’ve never really been one for that ‘don’t go back to a painting once it’s finished’ malarkey and so a few months ago I decided to‘re-work’ it.  As I’ve said in previous blogs, my work is very gradually erring more towards the abstract and is certainly more painterly.  I’ve been using broad sweeps of paint in many of the more recent works and this is how I’ve‘re-worked’ this painting.  The basic underlying structure is still there, but a new semi translucent diagonal sweep of blue / purple, has completely changed the composition.  I am very pleased with this new version and hope someone at the Oban sale will like it too.

The work will be part of the sale which will take place on:

SATURDAY 27^TH FEBRUARY AT THE REGENT HOTEL IN OBAN – FROM 2.00 – 7.00PM

Many artists will be taking part, so if you can get along your support will be much appreciated.  Full details of the event below.  If you are an artist yourself and would like to take part in the sale, please contact the organiser Jean Thompson by email:  jean_thompson47@yahoo.co.uk

Help for Haiti

To raise much needed funds to relieve the suffering of people in the devastated island of Haiti, an Art Sale will be held on Saturday 27th Feb. in the Regent Hotel, Oban from 2.00-7.00pm. Many Scottish artists will take part to make a truly eclectic collection of works.

Among those is Elizabeth Bruce, a Scottish contemporary artist whose painting style is representational but not photorealist. She has worked in all media on a variety of subjects, usually concentrating on acrylics – still life, treescapes, figures, interiors and landscapes. In January 2003 she was elected a member of the Glasgow Society of Women Artists. Her work has been shown in various galleries in Argyll, as well as the RGI Kelly Gallery and the Lillie Gallery, both in Glasgow, and the Torrance Gallery in Edinburgh. Elizabeth likes to keep her work within the Affordable Art bracket and prices start as low as £25 for an unframed lino-cut, while paintings are all between £140 and £500.

Sue Challis has lived and worked on the West Coast of Scotland for over twenty years. Educated in North London, she qualified as a lecturer in craft and design and youth leadership.   She now concentrates on acrylic painting and pen & ink drawing. When she is not painting, Sue and her husband run the Raven Trust sending containers of aid, medical, educational and small business start-up equipment to Malawi. Sue loves the bright colours and dancing light of the North West Coast of Scotland and this is passionately evoked in her work.

Aiming to be there in person is award winning artist, Keith Salmon. Keith combines his twin passions of hill walking and landscape painting in his work. What makes him truly remarkable, though, is that he lost much of his sight almost 20 years ago. Despite these “difficulties”, his work won the Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting in 2009. Describing some of his visits with partner Anita to some wild and remote glens and summits, under all conditions throughout all four seasons, Keith says “Even with my fuzzy vision this is a truly wonderful and stunning landscape. In my paintings I try to capture something of these incredible places, something of their sheer scale, complexity and beauty.”

This sale of art is being organised by 2 former gallery owners who will donate all profits to Mary’s Meals for their ongoing work in Haiti. Many of the artists are donating the full sale price of their works to the appeal. One such is Calum MacFarlane-Barrow whose son Magnus runs this international movement from Dalmally. The following news update comes from their web page.

“Mary’s Meals has been working in Haiti since 2006 providing meals for over 12 000 children in schools in Cite Soleil, Gonaives and Hinche.    We now know that our seven schools in Cite Soleil have been damaged, but not destroyed. We will be working to help repair and rebuild these schools, to support their pupils and to assist with the wider recovery in the capital in any way we can.

In the city of Hinche, we have started to provide food and medical supplies for earthquake victims and their families who have arrived looking for food and treatment. Many have nothing but the clothes on their backs and these regional hospitals are now over-flowing as well. When local stocks run out, as we expect them to soon, we will make arrangements for aid to be brought in from the Dominican Republic.

It is becoming clear that the recovery effort in Haiti will need to be long term and widespread. Anything at all that you can give to help us will be appreciated.”

Please come along to this event to help this cause and maybe pick up a prized original art work. Prices will suit all pockets from £1 art cards to the much bigger paintings.

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