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A mixed bag | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

A mixed bag

'Below Ben Oss'

'Below Ben Oss': One of the paintings to be displayed in the Framework Gallery, Troon

I honestly can’t say that it’s been a particularly productive week so far this week but it has been quite busy all the same.

My week started with a visit to my studio from photographer Chris McNulty and a journalist friend called Julie Anne.  Chris had photographed a load of my work back last year and in return had asked if I’d spend a few hours doing an interview and get some photos.  It seemed a good deal to me and so Monday was marked down as the day for the interview.   My studio is linked by stairs to an upper space which is occupied by another artist.  This said however, since I took on the new studio I think I’ve only seen her once and so when I arranged with Chris and Julie Anne to do the interview at the studio …I hadn’t thought that anyone else would be there.  My mistake.  When we arrived at the studio she was working and also had some customers in buying a drawing.   We postponed temporarily and went for a chat and a coffee in the Harbour Arts Centre bar and when we returned forty five minutes later, everything was quiet and with no voices in the background we could get on with the interview.  Chris was taking photographs much of the time and after an hour or so they reckoned they’d got enough to carry on with.  Quite what they got though I really don’t know …I’m convinced now that I didn’t make any sense and I’m kind of dreading hearing it when it’s completed.  Oh well with a bit of luck Julie Anne can edit it and make me sound, if not intelligent, then at least not too stupid!!  It could be a tough job for her though!

Tuesday had been earmarked as the day to go up to Queens Gallery in Dundee to collect the work after my exhibition there.  Sales weren’t huge but two paintings did sell including one of the new 80 x 80 cm pieces.  It happened to be the last piece I completed …..just in time for the exhibition.   Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day with almost clear blue skies and it made for a lovely drive to and from the gallery.  The countryside looked stunning in the bright winter light ….but very wintry suddenly with virtually all the trees bare now.  It was quite a quick trip really especially as we managed to get a parking space opposite the gallery which meant a quick turn around.  We were back in Irvine by about quarter past two and I managed to fit in almost five hours of painting …so not bad.

Wednesday was a nice relaxing day of painting.  For the first time for a while I could just paint.  I didn’t have to get the piece completed, or anything …..I could just experiment.

Back at the start of October at the Open Studios Weekend I’d met Peter from Framework Gallery in Troon.  I’d shown a few of my small paintings with him when I first moved to Irvine and he has always been enthusiastic about the work.  Anyway, we discussed my taking a few pieces along to the gallery on my return from Germany and yesterday I did just that.  I took four of the small paintings and one of the new 80 x 80 cm pieces and he has agreed to try them all.  It’ll be nice to have some work on show in Ayrshire again and once it’s on display (early December I think) I’ll post details and set up a link to the Framework Gallery website.  Full details to come shortly.

I was also contacted the other evening by Ali Abubakar …the chap who runs the Scottish Art Circle website.  He is planning to advertise members work on the site in the run up to Christmas and he has asked me to let him have details of four pieces that are currently available for sale.  He’ll then post this along with the artists contact details so that any visitors to the site who are interested in one of the paintings can simply contact the artist directly.  It’s an excellent way to increase the number of people seeing the work and so I’ll be getting back to him with the information and images shortly.

As for today?  Well, it’s been a bit of a strange one.  I had an appointment at the dentists this morning and arrived on time and waited.  After half an hour they very apologetically announced that due to a slight emergency, they’d have to cancel my appointment ..and that of another lady.  Couldn’t be helped, these things happen, but I then had to decide quite what to do with the rest of the day …as by this time it was almost lunch time.  I decided to catch a bus home and get on with the many things I have to do on the computer ….writing the weeks blog being just one of them!  One good thing though, while I was writing this earlier, I had a knock on the front door and two large parcels arrived ….the order from Great Art, containing a range of oil paints and mediums and a bunch of 80 x 80 cm canvases.  As I said in the past, I’m quite looking forward to working with oil again ….probably take a long time to find out exactly what I’m doing but now I have a larger studio I can work on both oil and acrylic and pastel pieces at the same time.   With a bit of luck I’ll have most of the ‘paperwork’ done by this evening and I can have an enjoyable few days down the studio now.

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