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February Report 2018: Kylesku Project & “Painting with Sound” Exhibition

Posted by admin on February 27th, 2018

There has been a lot happening since I last updated this home page back in November. 

The most significant happening, although not really art related ……. was that after just over 30 years of being together, Nita and I finally got married!  That was back at the start of December and we spent a fabulous week away staying in one of the old lodges in the Brodick Castle estate on the Isle of Arran.  We had magnificent weather the whole week and actually arrived as snow was falling.  We managed to get several good short walks done, enjoying the cold crisp weather and the amazing views of the snow covered Arran peaks.  Since returning to the studio, I’ve completed several new 30 x 30 cm paintings and one of them tries to capture the scene looking into Glen Sannox….see below.

'Glen Sannox, a December morning', Acrylic & Pastel, 2017, 30 x 30cm

“Glen Sannox”

 

'From the Devil's Staircase, winter', Acrylic & Pastel, 2018, 30 x 30 cm

‘From the Devil’s Staircase, winter’

1s 'A Coigach landscape, January', Acrylic & Pastel, 2018, 30 x 30 cm

‘A Coigach landscape, January’

1 Towards the Arran mountains from Brodick Castle ground

Towards the Arran mountains from Brodick Castle ground

Of course, much of my time has been taken up with the larger and more experimental audio paintings.   As you know, the first of these, called the Kylesku Project, has been on the go since the summer and in October we were able to test out the partially finished piece for a few days in the magnificent space at the Barony Centre in West Kilbride.  The work was only up for a few days, but it gave us a chance to assess how effective the 5.1 soundtrack was and how well it worked with the 120 x 120 cm Kylesku painting.   We were all very encouraged by this first test and especially by the response we had to the work from visitors and staff at the centre.  It was so positive that we have been invited back to the Barony for a full exhibition early in March.

 

The exhibition, which we are calling, “Painting with Sound”, will open on Monday 5th March and run until 22nd March.  Below is the exhibition poster with all the relevant details:

A2 Painting with sound poster 600px

“Painting with Sound”

“Painting with Sound” is an exhibition of work by Ayrshire artists and sound engineers, Keith Salmon, Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland.

The focal point of the exhibition is the “Kylesku Project”, the trio’s latest audio visual collaboration.  Created from a series of sound recordings made on the shore of the sea loch near Kylesku in Sutherland in May 2017, the work consists of a 120 x 120 cm oil painting, produced by Keith Salmon and inspired by a 30 minute long 5.1 surround-sound track. Engineered and installed by Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland, the sound track will be playing throughout the exhibition and contains sounds from the natural Kylesku environment, sounds recorded as the painter works in his studio and a unique selection of computer generated tones.  As a viewer looks at the painting and moves in front of it, different elements of the soundtrack are heard through the five surround-sound speakers.   The Kylesku Project is the first in a series of evolving and uniquely Scottish sound / landscapes.  

 The exhibition will also contain around 25 of Keith Salmon’s Scottish landscape paintings, along with drawing, text, video and projected film footage that will plot the development since 2014 of this new and exciting Ayrshire based audio visual collaboration.

 

Although we are only just about to exhibit the Kylesku Project for the first time, we have already started work on our second audio piece.  This will also focus on the dramatic coastal scenery of Sutherland in north west Scotland.  A week after New Year, Nita, me, Graham and his wife Tracy, headed up north, aiming for the Stoer Head lighthouse that is situated on the prominent and rugged Stoer peninsular about 10 miles to the north of Lochinver.  It’s a wild spot at the best of times and Nita and I had visited it on several occasions in the past.  On one such trip last year, we had seen a notice at the lighthouse saying that the two flats adjoining it were available to rent.  Now, just for instance, if you wanted to make sound recordings of waves breaking and crashing against huge cliffs…..where would be better? So that was our destination….. both cars arriving at this lonely spot just as the light was fading and the lighthouse was doing its business.  It was quite amazing unloading our gear and carrying it up the spiral staircase to the top flat….. with the sound of the waves crashing below.

 

We stayed there for a week, each day heading out, armed with a variety of sound recording equipment and cameras.  While Graham organised and set up each of the recordings, Tracy filmed everything so that we had a record of this part of the work for future promotional material.  It all worked very well and we were especially lucky with the weather, it not only being dry all week, but also not that windy.  On the Wednesday and Thursday it was very nearly calm….. but with a big swell rolling in that made for some great sound!  At the end of each afternoon we would retreat to the warmth of the flat and then spend several more hours checking through the sound and film we had recorded.  Beer, good food and conversation added to the enjoyment and the week raced by.  Before long it was Sunday morning and we were packing the cars for the journey back to Ayrshire.  Only then did the weather break and we had to battle our way around the side of the lighthouse in a howling gale to get to the cars!  It was certainly a dramatic departure and my final sound recording was made of the wind howling in the stairwell leading down from the flat.

We got some very good recordings from the trip and Graham has already edited the film footage Tracy took, into a series of short clips which we’ll be projecting onto a large screen as part of the “Painting with Sound” exhibition.  I do hope you can get along to both see and hear our work…. it will, I’m sure, be a very different and hopefully, thought provoking experience.

Posted in Exhibitions, Information Updates, Mountain Photos, Personal, Sound Art, Sound Recording 1 Comment »

Happy New Year! – A short review of the last few months

Posted by admin on January 9th, 2017

 

If you are one of those long suffering souls who have been reading my blogs over the last few years….. well, there are changes afoot.  I’ve written close on 300 blogs over this time and for the most, I’ve really enjoyed doing them.  I tried to write a new one each week and for quite a few years did this with very few breaks.  Over the last year – 18 months however, you will have noticed that they have appeared less regularly and indeed, during the whole of 2016 I wrote only 19 blogs I think.   The reasons for this are simply that I have become increasingly busy but at the same time, my little bit of sight has deteriorated further and this means that everything takes even longer and is more difficult to do.  In short, the writing of my weekly blog and ‘artwork of the week’, was taking more and more time to do…..on average, I guess it is taking me almost five hours a week.  With the increased work load now that I am developing the audio visual projects as well as my usual paintings, I just can’t do everything ….and something has to go.  Five hours a week doesn’t sound that much, but over a year that adds up to a huge amount of time which I could better use to produce more work, or promote and sell the work I have.  So then, I’ve decided to update my website less regularly this year.  I’ll be updating it about eight times over the year.  The blogs will become more like reports of what’s been happening over the previous couple of months and the home page will show one of my most recent paintings.  I hope this will still be of interest. Anyway, without further ado, here is a little catch-up on the last few months.

A large part of 2016 was, for me, taken up with The Oregon Project.  This is the large audio visual piece of work I did in collaboration with Microsoft researcher Neel Joshi, Ayrshire sound engineer, Graham Byron, and independent Seattle based film maker, Dan Thornton.  The work finally all came together in mid October when the work was installed as part of the big “9e2” Art, Science and Technology Exhibition in Seattle.  I’ve written much about this project as it developed and so I think the best will be to add the following links.  These will take you to an article and very short video that were commissioned by Microsoft to help promote The Oregon Project. 

article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/keith-salmon-oregon-project/

video: https://www.facebook.com/Microsoft/videos/10154184382973721/

As you will see, this was a huge project that required many months of almost non-stop work.  As such, I had little or no time to do anything else during the period May – end of October.  This meant that for the first time in almost 18 years, we didn’t do any serious hill or mountain walking during the summer.  Not only had we rapidly become unfit…. we had both put on a few pounds too!  So, on returning to Scotland from Seattle we’ve started to get out walking again.  We’ve only done some easy and fairly short walks but the legs are starting to feel a bit better already.  Our latest outings included a fine little tromp up and over the Dumyat on the edge of the Ochil Hills, just before Christmas and a fine wander up Cairn Table near Muirkirk, a couple of days ago.  Of course, it’s not just the fitness I miss when we don’t get out, it’s the ‘being out in the wild’ bit that I really miss and this is such an important part of my work.  On these two short walks we experienced hugely different conditions.  In the Ochil Hills the light was extremely poor with thick dark low cloud sitting on even this little 400 m hill.  On Cairn Table however, we had almost cloudless skies with very bright low winter sunshine that made the winter colours really glow at times.  I will probably not create paintings based on these two walks but I will draw on the memories of the differing light conditions, at some point in the future. 

I’ve also been working hard on getting back into the actual painting.  The Oregon Project was all about drawing and sound and so the painting got put to one side.  It’s been great getting back to sticky oil paint again and I’ve completed one painting, (see the artwork of the week) and have another three canvases well under way.  I haven’t given up on my smaller acrylic and pastel work either and managed to get several new pieces completed. 

Work in progress

Exhibitions have been rather limited this year too, but I was lucky enough to be invited to show some work at both The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff and Scotlandart.com on Bath Street in Glasgow.  Looking ahead, I will have work showing in an interesting exhibition of contemporary landscape painting taking place in Halifax during the summer.  I’m still waiting final details but will post these nearer the time.

Smaller artworks

The next major event for me however, is the continuation of The Oregon Project work.  We have been invited to show the work at the Tent Gallery in Edinburgh University in April and so we are already planning this.  Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as it sounds as not only will we have to re-configure the work (the space is a different size and shape to the one we used in Seattle), we will also have to generate the funding to bring the work and the US team over for the event.  This is going to be the most difficult part as my limited sight makes it very difficult for me to do all the computer based work required to make applications etc.  Thankfully I’m not on my own with this though, Nita and Graham are both helping and so between the three of us we should get there with a bit of luck.  No doubt that by the time I write my next update, we’ll know quite how successful we’ve been!  More details nearer the time. That said of course, if you are part of a company who sponsor innovative projects, please do get in touch ….we need all the help we can get!  Thank you.

Posted in Documentary, Exhibitions, Galleries with Keith Salmon artwork, Information Updates, Microsoft Project 2016, Personal, Sound Art, Visual Disability No Comments »

A long overdue update!

Posted by admin on July 29th, 2016

It’s almost 3 weeks since my last blog so I thought I’d better get down to it and write some kind of piece updating everyone with what I’ve been doing during this time.  Unfortunately there aren’t vast amounts to write about as in short, all I’ve been doing is working!  In all honesty though, I did have one day off a little over a week ago and spent it pottering around the garden at home.

We’ve done no walking of any note sadly and I just know that when we do eventually get time to head out into the hills again, my legs will be COMPLAINING!

climbing a mountain

Mountain Climbing

The reason for this lull in blogs and walking is simply because I am completely tied up with working on this big drawing / audio project.  There is so much to do in what is a relatively short space of time.  I have to complete the three big Oregon drawings, (each almost 8’ x 4’) and we have to sort out all the recordings we made, make new recordings and then mix 54 individual one minute long sound tracks, (18 for each drawing)……. all by the end of September so that we have time to ship everything over to Seattle ready for the team over there to install it in the exhibition space.

Now that the 3 drawings are well underway, sound engineer Graham Byron, has been working alongside me to help create and mix the kind of audio tracks I want.  I have to say that this side of things has been a bit of a worry for me as I couldn’t really see how we could manipulate and use the recordings we’d made.  When we finally came to starting to mix the sounds however, suddenly I started to see the light!  It was amazing; it was like drawing with sound….. really exciting.  I’m suddenly now a lot more confident about the outcome of this project and what is even more important; I am a lot more confident about my future as a professional artist.  The whole reason for my starting to explore the use of sound with my work, is that I am concerned about the gradual deterioration of the little bit of sight I have.

Abstract Landscape Art

Abstract Landscape

On top of all this work I have also been preparing for my talk, ‘Recording the landscape’, at the Harbour Arts Centre theatre.  This took place yesterday evening and was a 2 hour event.  I’m glad to say that it went off really well and that we had a good turn out.  It took a lot of work preparing for it as I have to get everything I’m going to say, into my head…. I can’t see a script or anything written. ….. I just have to talk.  I divided the evening into two halves, the first being mainly about my early career and how I came to join my art with the hill walking I do.  I used photographs to illustrate this.  After the break however, I just had a selection of paintings and drawings on stage and spent the second half of the evening talking about and explaining how the work is created.  I finished off by speaking briefly about this new use of sound and where I hoped this project would lead in the future.

I’m glad to say it seemed to go down extremely well and it was certainly very enjoyable.  Another important reason however for organizing this event was so that I could record the talk in order to promote myself as a guest speaker.  I see this as a very good way to promote my work as an artist and after doing a number of talks for various organisations over the past few years, it seems like this could be a good addition to my art practice.  As such, the whole talk was filmed last night and once we get it edited, we’ll have something to show folk what they will get if they book me as guest speaker

Right then, there are no obvious photos to include with this blog so I think I’ll just pluck a couple of nice hill snaps from the album and put them up so there is something interesting to look at!

Learning to climb

Learning to climb in snow

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Impression of Irvine Church

Irvine Church

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Posted in Buildings, Harbour Arts Centre, Microsoft Project 2016, Personal, Sound Recording, Visual Disability No Comments »

Drawing from the past

Posted by admin on April 28th, 2016

A couple of weeks ago I received a message on Face Book, from a chap called Kit.  He had sent this photo of a drawing ….. and asked whether I could confirm if it was one of mine.  He had picked it up in a charity shop and it had a label on the back, saying that it was by me.  As you can imagine, it was a bit of a surprise as on first inspection, it didn’t appear to be anything that I had done.

I looked at the image closely ….or as closely as I can these days and although there were certainly some similarities in some of the marks, the broader ink lines didn’t seem like something I’d do…….certainly not now or any time in the last twenty years.  That said however, there was something about it, something that seemed familiar, somewhere back in my memory.

rocking horse drawing

Newcastle drawing 1984

In the end however, I decided that I should get back to Kit and say that it probably wasn’t by me and if it was, then it was an early piece done sometime after leaving college in 1983.  I explained that at the time and indeed for a good number of years, I had very little money and could not afford to photograph virtually any of my work …. no digital cameras then, just expensive film and processing.  I was working as a sculptor in the 1980’s and doing a large number of drawings and very little of this work was recorded.  I also said that I sold very little work in those days but did give pieces away at times. If it was one of my drawings then it was probably one of these pieces and done when I had a studio in Newcastle upon Tyne or a little later when I was based in Shrewsbury.  More than that I couldn’t really say.

Kit got back to me to say that this actually started to make a bit more sense as he was based in Newcastle.  I looked at the drawing once again ….. and I started to think that I did recognise it, although quite how it had got to be in a charity shop in Newcastle after all these years …… I had no idea.  I asked Nita to take a look and she suddenly said that it appeared to have an vague image of a horse in it.  My gut reaction was that it couldn’t then be something by me ….I’m not or never have been a ‘horse’ person.  But there was still that familiarity about the image.  Then I remembered.  One of the first pieces of work I made when I set up my studio in the old Exchange Building at the side of the Tyne Bridge, was a piece of sculpture based around the idea of a rocking horse …..and I did a lot of drawings at the time…. this would be one of them.

The thing that clinched it however was when Kit said that the drawing appeared to have been done on some strange kind of paper ….it had an orange plastic backing and a soft yellowing kind of surface.  Sadly not a specialist kind of art paper or anything ….in fact, the complete opposite.  As I said earlier, I was completely skint at the time and could barely afford to pay my studio rent and could certainly not afford to buy purpose made and expensive art materials.  All my sculpture was constructed out of the contents of skips and on one occasion as I walked down one of the city centre roads towards my studio I spotted a skip full of lengths of old vinyl wall paper.  It had been stripped from the walls as part of a big refurbishment and when I took a closer look, it had a wonderful soft paper backing …..perfect for drawing on.  I spent a good time pulling all the strips of paper out of the skip and carefully rolling them.  As it turned out, there was enough to last me several years and many of my drawings were done on this recycled paper.  While I was pulling the paper out of the skip one of the builders came up to see what I was doing.  When I told him that I was an artist and needed materials he promised to put anything else of use to one side for me.  He was good as his word and over the next month or so I picked up plenty of timber for my sculpture.

So then, this drawing, created over 30 years ago, has re-surfaced.  It’s kind of nice to think that it has survived all this time and that Kit has not only found it but got in touch with me and reminded me of the work. Hope you continue to enjoy the drawing Kit.

Posted in #1 Art Blog, Information Updates, Personal Tags: , No Comments »

An interesting week

Posted by admin on November 22nd, 2015

Finally, after almost three weeks of dark, wet and very windy weather here in Irvine, today has turned out bright and sunny and cold. It’s really beautiful here on the Harbour-side this morning and it makes for a good end to what has been a very good and interesting week.

My working week actually started with a day off!! Can’t be bad eh? That said however, I did feel like I needed one as prior to Monday I’d been in the studio every day for the previous 2 weeks. My day off did include a working lunch however! You’ll remember perhaps that back in the summer one of my paintings, “Breaking mists, on Mam na Gualainn”, won the Probus Club of Irvine Prize at the North Ayrshire Open Art Exhibition. The club, formerly the Rotary Club of Irvine, kindly invited me to join them for lunch at their weekly meeting and asked if I’d give a short talk about my work afterwards. It was a really good deal as on Monday I joined them at a local hotel and enjoyed a fine lunch with them all. I’d taken the winning painting with me, along with two other pieces and after coffee I told them all about my work. It seemed to go down well and I managed just to keep within the time limit! Nita had warned them beforehand that they might need to bop me on the head with a mallet as I tend to talk too much. Me? Talk too much?!

Tuesday included a trip down to the Waverley Gallery in Prestwick to collect nine of my prints which I’d had framed ready for a couple of pre Christmas exhibitions that I’m taking part in. One of these is at “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh ….details of this “Winter Print Show”, at the end of this blog.

The other show is a local “Affordable Art Fair at the Harbour Arts Centre here in Irvine which will include work from many of the Courtyard Studios Artists and which will run from December 16th . Until January 8th. Full details slightly nearer the time.

Wednesday was a full day of painting and although it started badly …I completely wrecked a small 30 x 30 cm acrylic and pastel painting that I’d spent about 20 hours on, the remainder of the day went well. After the disaster with the acrylic and pastel piece, I went to work on a couple of my larger oil pieces ….and by the end of the evening at 8pm, I had developed both pieces quite well and I left for home feeling good.

Thursday was something a bit different as Nita and I had been invited along to the Opening of John Lowrie Morrison’s new exhibition, “Jolomo at the Mitchell”. The exhibition was to be officially opened by HRH the Princess Royal and so Thursday morning found me wearing smart clothes…..and a tie! The exhibition is in the magnificent space of the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and I have to say that the work looked great in the fabulous space. We had plenty of time to see the exhibition prior to the Royal party arriving and it all made for a very interesting, enjoyable and for Nita and I, very different kind of lunchtime. I think that the show is only on for another week so do pop in to see it if you are in Glasgow over the next few days. Look out for painting No 47 ….a fabulous piece of work I think.

Friday was another day spent painting and I finally finished one of my canvases and moved another one quite close to being finished. I’m really starting to enjoy working with oil at long last and am starting to think that this will be the way forward in the future.

305 'Breaking mists on Mam na Gualainnt', Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 80 x 80 cm

‘Breaking mists on Mam na Gualainn’

Yesterday was a good end to the week as I had some visitors to my studio who purchased the “Breaking mists, on Mam na Gualainn” painting. The lady and gentleman (Nettie and Ted) had earlier this year bought one of my small pen sketches at a charity auction in Ipswich and had then gone on to check out my website. A few weeks ago, Nettie contacted me to say they had seen the Mam na Gualainn painting on the website and really wanted to buy it ….but also wanted to visit my studio and collect it in person. As they live in Essex, it meant an almost 450 mile drive and they rather heroically made it despite their car having a major breakdown in the north of England and it having to be towed back to Essex. They however were determined to get to Ayrshire and so hired a car to complete the journey. They arrived yesterday afternoon along with their five small dogs and we had a very enjoyable couple of hours together. Nettie is a painter too and we had agreed a part exchange of work. We now have one of her beautiful wee paintings on our wall and to cap it all, Ted presented me with a copy of a book his father had written back in the late 1930’s I think. He was an established British climber and with two of his colleagues they produced this fabulous book called “British Hills and Mountains”. I’ve only had a short while to look through it, but it’s full of wonderful black and white photographs….. many of them of hills Nita and I have climbed over the years. What is really interesting is that many of these photos are of angles I’ve not seem before. Wow ….in my element or what! Sadly I can’t see print any longer but Nita has said she’ll read the book to me. So then, a big thank you to Nettie and Ted who, as I type will be driving back to Essex. As I said at the start of this blog ….it’s been a very interesting week.

Print show in irvine

Winter Print Show, Irvine

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Posted in Information Updates, Irvine, Jolomo Award, Personal, Studio Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

A trip to The Biscuit Factory

Posted by admin on October 23rd, 2015

You’ll probably remember that last year I was invited to show some work at the magnificent Biscuit Factory Contemporary Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. Thankfully the work seemed to go down quite well and they have invited me to show work with them again this year.

2015, 'Passing shower, Lochnagar', Acrylic & Pastel, 2015, 80 x 43 cm

‘Passing shower, Lochnagar’

I was asked to let them have ten pieces for their forth coming “Winter Exhibition” and I spent much of this week making the final selection and getting the work packed and ready for delivery. It sounds an easy job selecting just ten works, but I always find it quite difficult and this occasion was no different. I changed my mine several times and changed one piece on Wednesday at the last minute while I was wrapping everything!

2015, 'Winter afternoon, the Luss Hills' Acrylic & Pastel, 2015, 30 x 30 cm

‘Winter afternoon, the Luss Hills’

I did finally get everything ready and at 06.15 yesterday morning we were down at my studio packing everything into the car ready for the journey across to Newcastle. It turned out quite a pleasant drive over and we arrived at the gallery just after midday and had the work delivered in no time at all….. mission accomplished!

355 'Squall, on the edge of Rannoch Moor', Acrylic & Pastel, 2015, 30 x 30 cm

‘Squall, on the edge of Rannoch Moor’

For anyone who has read my biography, you’ll know that I studied Fine Art at Falmouth school of Art in the early 1980’s and then moved north to set up a studio in Newcastle upon Tyne in June 1983. I shared the studio with a colleague from Falmouth, a chap called Keith Barrett. While I moved south again several years later, Keith stayed in the North East and over the intervening years has made a very good career as a sculptor. We’ve kept in contact all these years and occasionally meet up for a few days hiking in the hills, a few beers and of course, a lot of talking.

So then, yesterday, once the work was safely delivered, we met up with Keith for lunch….. (they do some great food at The Biscuit Factory) and then drove the short distance to Heaton Park where Keith is working. He has been commissioned to work with a large tree that fell in the park and I have to say that what he has done is really quite beautiful. The work is still in progress but nearing completion. Of course, I forgot to take my camera so no pictures here I’m afraid, but quite simply he has sliced the main tree trunk lengthwise with a chain saw and then spread the five or six slices out where the tree lay in the clearing in the park. It’s so simple but very striking indeed. I’ve known Keith for over 30 years now and some of his work is seriously good. If you live in the area I would strongly recommend a visit to the park to check it out.

356 'Below Beinn Dorain, dusk, January', Acrylic & Pastel, 2015, 30 x 30 cm

‘Below Beinn Dorain, dusk, January’

Anyway, after a very pleasant couple of hours we made the journey back to Irvine and I’ve spent the first part of today sorting the studio out again now that the 10 pieces are away. I’ll post images here of some of the work I’ve taken to Newcastle for the exhibition. The exhibition previews on 13th November I think and runs right through until the end of February 2016….. so plenty of time to see it. The gallery is so big that the exhibition includes work by many artists ….so it would be difficult I’m sure not to see something you like. It’s not just paintings and prints either. There is always a wonderful array of sculpture, glass ware and ceramics and earlier this year they had some amazing furniture created by a sculptor who works in the north of England. One thing that I really like about this gallery is that it has a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere ….you can relax, wander and look…..and when you’re completely boggled by all the work ….you can enjoy some refreshment in their great cafe. I hope you can get along to see the work at some time while the show is on. I’ll be posting full details of the gallery and exhibition in a few weeks time prior to the preview.

Posted in Exhibitions, Galleries with Keith Salmon artwork, Information Updates, Personal Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

Line and Sound

Posted by admin on May 22nd, 2015

I’m taking a short break from the studio soon to visit some of the quieter more remote parts of northwest Scotland.  It will be as usual, a chance for me to get out into the wild and to walk some of the rugged and very dramatic hills, mountains and coastlines in the region.

'Suilven sketch'

‘Suilven sketch’

In the past, when we’ve been away on these walking trips, I’ve always taken sketch books and have usually spent some time scribbling away, trying to capture something of the place in the lines I put down on the paper.  This year however, I’m hoping to have slightly more purpose behind the work.

'Suilven sketch'

‘Suilven sketch’

As you know, I’ve been starting to play around with the idea of using sound as part of my work and have been experimenting with making some very basic sound recordings when we’ve been out walking.  In all honesty though, I don’t really know what I want to do and in a way I’ve just been hoping that I’ll be able to generate a clearer idea through the actual process of making the recordings.   Up until now, I’ve just been taking short time-outs from the walk in order to stop and record.  On this next short trip however, I’m hoping to have the time to do some more considered recordings….. and some related drawings.  Quite how exactly, the two might go together or be presented, I still haven’t a clue.  I’m not sure whether the drawing will inform the sound recording or the sound will cause me to do a drawing.  Whatever happens, it will be a great excuse to wander around in the wild, wild landscape of Assynt and just look and listen and think.

'Sutherland coastline sketch', Pen, 2012, 210 x 148 mm

‘Sutherland coastline sketch’, Pen, 2012, 210 x 148 mm

 

'Sutherland sketch, towards Ben Loyal', Pen, 2012, 210 x 148 mm

‘Sutherland sketch, towards Ben Loyal’, Pen, 2012, 210 x 148 mm

 

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Posted in Information Updates, Painting Themes, Personal, Sound Recording, Vacations Tags: , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Blog 250 staggering at times, but not quite out!

Posted by admin on March 2nd, 2015

Wow, I can’t quite believe I’ve written 250 of these blogs …but well that’s what the records say. My first blog was posted on 3rd March 2009 and talked about the exhibition I’d just had at Great Glen House in Inverness. This is the headquarters of Scottish Natural Heritage and it was a very interesting place to exhibit my work. I have to say that it doesn’t seem like over five years since Nita and I hired a van and drove up to Inverness with the paintings.

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

A lot has happened since that show in 2009. The following summer saw me living and working as guest artist with the Künstlerbund in the city of Speyer in southern Germany. I worked there for four months and had a really enjoyable and exciting time, creating I think, 14 paintings and 3 pastel drawings. One of these drawings was the large 4.5 m x 1.5m drawing based on the vast great cathedral that dominates the centre of the city.

Just before leaving Scotland to travel to Speyer, I was asked to act as patron to “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh. This magnificent little gallery is run by Autism Initiative Scotland and works both as a professional gallery supporting artists affected by autism and other health issues, and as a place for young people affected by autism to learn new skills in retail gallery work and / or practical art …in the workshops attached to the gallery. It was a fantastic launch in April that year and since then; the gallery has gone from strength to strength. Many trainees have completed their apprenticeships and are producing some excellent work. I’ve been privileged to be part of this project and try and visit several times each year to follow the progress of the gallery ….and indeed to exhibit some of my own work there. In 2013 I was invited to hold an exhibition there and it was during the preview for this show that I first met Dan Thornton ….the Seattle based landscape photographer and documentary maker

Talking at the gallery that night, Dan and I quickly realised that although we worked in very different ways, we both thought very similarly about the landscape. Before the evening ended, Dan and his colleague David Feeney asked if they could join Anita and me on our next walk into the hills.

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

As it happened, the next walk we’d planned was to go back to Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran. Just a couple of months earlier we had been walking in this magnificent glen with our friend Guy. It had been a very cold day with snow on the higher slopes of the hills and large patches right down to river level at the head of the glen. As I walked up the glen that day I first started to think about doing another Speyer sized drawing. Where as that drawing had been based on the idea of walking around the cathedral, I thought I could do another based on walking through Glen Rosa. When Dan and David joined us for this second walk in the glen….. I started to tell them about my plans for the drawing.

As you know, my plans came to fruition and just a few months ago I created this new large 4.5m x 1.5m drawing. After the walk that day, Dan had asked if I’d be interested in him making a full hour long documentary about my work and its close connection to the Scottish landscape. He was particularly interested in focusing it on the big Glen Rosa drawing project. Since the walk in 2013, Dan has made a number of visits to Scotland and has taken many hours of footage for the documentary. As I write we are now at the stage of seeking sponsorship to cover the costs of editing and producing the film. It’s all come along way since our meeting at “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh.

Of course, much else has happened since my first blog. I’ve had plenty of exhibitions and have walked many Scottish hills and glens in this time. It’s been a very exciting period of my life and this last six months with the trip to Brazil and the subsequent commissions has continued in a similar way. And it’s still going on.

Just last week, my colleague Alex Boyd, told me that he had been speaking with the people at the Isle of Arran Distillery and had told them about my work and the big glen Rosa drawing. They’ve been in contact with me and have asked me if I could hold an exhibition in their exhibition space during September and October. They are particularly keen to show the large Glen Rosa piece and have a perfect 5m long wall for it. I’m really delighted with this opportunity as I’m very interested in seeing the big drawing touring around Ayrshire…..and in particular going to the Isle of Arran. The distillery really is the perfect place for it as it is located beneath the very mountains on which the drawing is based. A very big thanks to Alex for opening up this opportunity for me.

So then, there’s lots of work to do to get ready for the three exhibitions that I have lined up this summer. First though, is to get 3 large pieces ready for the “Ailsa Gallery” who will be taking the work to the Glasgow Art Fair at the end of April. After that, I have my exhibition at the John Muir Trust “Wild Space” in Pitlochry during May and June and then quickly followed in August with an exhibition at “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh again.

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Right then, that’s the end of blog 250. Here’s hoping that there will be many more things to write about over the next five or so years as I creep my way towards Blog 500!

 

Link to Press Releases and Information created over the last few years.

Posted in #1 Art Blog, Art and Autism, Exhibitions, Information Updates, Personal, Speyer Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

A question of price

Posted by admin on February 20th, 2015

I have to say; that I haven’t really been looking forward to writing this blog, but it’s something that has to be done I’m afraid.  It is, as the title says, a question of price, or should I say, a question of increasing the price of my work.

'Towards the Mamores, a showery summers day'

‘Towards the Mamores, a showery summers day’

Ever since starting to work professionally back in 2009, I’ve tried to keep my prices at a level that matched my then newly emerged status as an artist ….in other words, a little on the low side .

Of course, what you can ask for and what you can get for a painting, may not match and so at the time, it seemed best to be realistic  ……people had to find my work, and, as it is rather different from so much Scottish landscape painting ……they not only had to like it, they also had to get used to it and gain confidence in it.   I have over these last almost 7 years, worked very hard to increase the quality of the paintings I create and I’ve also put almost as much effort into promoting both myself and my work,  in as professional a manner as possible.  This all takes a huge amount of time and time, as they say, is money.

As you know, I have a severe visual impairment and this doesn’t help when it comes to running an efficient small business.  Everything I do including the actual painting, takes much longer to do than if I was fully sighted.  As such I can not only produce less paintings but I have to spend much longer promoting them and so I tend to spend money paying others to do  this side of the work for me.  In short, my business expenses are quite high and my production levels are quite low.

I was however, fortunate enough back in 2009 to have my work win the prestigious £20,000 Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting.  I’ve used the award money very carefully to cover some of the increased costs I incur. It has also allowed me to continue developing my very distinctive style of work rather than be tempted to try and produce more “sellable”, more traditional Scottish paintings.  This has been great for me as an artist and it has been great for my work.

Now, 6 years on from the award and from my first steps into self employment, my work is being recognized and its quality and individuality  appreciated and sought after, both in Scotland, the rest of the UK, and to an increasing level, internationally too.    My prices however, do not reflect this and sadly despite all the hard work and time that I put into it, I am still not able to make a living or even a wage from it at present.  I either need to produce a lot more paintings ….which I can’t do, due to my very poor sight, or I have to increase my prices considerably.    This is good of course for those of you who have already purchased paintings, but not so good for those who haven’t!  I am therefore going to give six months notice of a general price increase so that people have an opportunity to purchase work at the 2014 level.  Any work commissioned in this period will also be at the current levels regardless of when the commission is completed.  So;

I will be increasing my prices by 40% as from 1st September 2015. I tend to work in standard sizes and so below you will find both the current and post 1st September 2015 prices:

Size                                       Current price                    Price from1st Sept 2015

 210 x 148mm                     £325                                      £455

30 x 30 cm                          £485                                      £679

76 x 23 cm                          £720                                      £1008

80 x 80 cm                          £1250                                   £1750

During the six months between now and 1st September, I will be holding exhibitions and showing work at the following locations.  My work can also be obtained at the same prices directly from my studio or website.

April 24, 25, 26th 2015     Glasgow Art Fair

May / June 2015              Wild Space, John Muir Trust, Pitlochry

August 2015                      “the gallery on the corner”, Edinburgh

I am also in negotiations to show work in two further locations in Ayrshire during this period.  Watch this space for more details.

Right then, that’s it.  I hope this hasn’t been too much of a shock and that you understand my reasons for this price increase.   I do however genuinely feel that the new post 1st September 2015 prices, still offer very good value in today’s art market.

I am also looking into introducing a larger range of prints in the future and will announce news on this front later this year.

After all is said and done, do remember that my studio is always open when I’m working and it doesn’t cost anything to come in and just look at the paintings and have a chat ….everyone is welcome.

Posted in Commissioned Artwork, Commissions, Information Updates, Jolomo Award, Personal, Visual Disability Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment »

“Listening to Arran”, or “Us humans are very noisy you know”

Posted by admin on February 6th, 2015
Approaching the Isle of Arran

Approaching the Isle of Arran

Yesterday Nita and I spent five hours over on the Isle of Arran.  We weren’t up in the snow covered hills, or enjoying the wilds of Glen Rosa or Sannox however, instead we simply took our time wandering along the shore-line from the ferry to Brodick Castle gardens and back.  Now then, I know I haven’t been getting out walking much this last few months, but even I’m not that unfit that it takes me five hours to walk this relatively short distance!

If you follow my Face Book page, (Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist) you’ll have seen that I’ve been pondering over how I might develop my work if the little bit of sight I currently have, deteriorates.   Apart from the obvious solution, to return to making sculpture, I have over the last couple of years been thinking about the possibilities of using sound in some way to compliment the paintings and drawings.

You’ll remember that when I created the big Glen Rosa drawing last month, I had arranged for a time lapse camera to be fitted to record each days work.  This was done by Graham Byron and his team at Model X Media and as Graham is the sound engineer at the Harbour Arts Centre, Nita suggested to me that I ask him for advice about how I might create outdoor sound recordings.  I spent some time explaining what I was thinking of trying to do and he very kindly offered to lend me some recording equipment and show me how to use it.

So then, the purpose of yesterday’s leisurely stroll around Brodick Bay to the castle and back was for me to tryout the small recorder Graham lent me.  I’d already tried it out a couple of times along the harbour side here in Irvine and so had, I thought, a rough idea of which buttons to press.  Well, it wasn’t quite that easy. When you can’t read the screen and are basically a bit of a technology dork…. even four buttons can be a bit confusing when you’re out there in the field!!  My first attempt at recording some sound, (at the point where the path crosses a wee bridge very close to the sea shore) was a bit of an epic.  Needless to say I couldn’t get the recorder to work!  Nita came to the rescue and pointed out that the batteries were flat.  After that, with a new set of batteries, I was off and running …or stumbling.  I thought it would be nice to record the twin sounds of the waves breaking on the shore to my right and the water slopping around in the stream to my left.  Simple…..only I’d forgotten that the path over the bridge was a popular one and after just a few seconds of recording, a small school party on bicycles trundled by. Not too bad you’d have thought, only that one of the children fell off their bike, (luckily no damage done) but there was much kafuffle.  It was amazing ….the wee microphone caught it all!

We continued along the shore with me stopping regularly to record some more sounds.  After two or three attempts I was fairly confident that I was pushing the right buttons and I started to think more about the sounds around me and how I might use them with my work.  The microphone was really quite sensitive and picked up a very broad range of sounds ….giving great depth to the recordings.  Of course, I found that there was a huge amount of “noise pollution”, (not all of it made by me I hasten to add).  However, at one point in the grounds of Brodick castle I thought I’d try record the sound of a very small stream of water that was trickling over some rocks.  No sooner had I started the recording than a fishing boat out in the bay, fired up its marine diesel, a vehicle came along the road behind us and a plane flew overhead on its way to Prestwick airport …..and I started swearing! We humans are very noisy!   Of course though, it didn’t matter.  I was just out to see what the machine would do and what kind of problems I might encounter ….it was all good fun.

A fuzzy Beinn Nuis ....I think!

A fuzzy Beinn Nuis ….I think!

On our return to the ferry, I’d made about 20 short recordings and the whole process had started to make me think about my work in a slightly different way.  I still haven’t a clue how I might use sound in my work, but I’m very excited after this first day out with the recorder.  I think there are a lot of possibilities.  I now have to ask Graham to show me the next step, of downloading the recordings onto my PC and how to edit them.  This blog is therefore; very silent ….but watch out, future blogs could get very noisy!

Posted in Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, Personal, Photography, Sound Recording, Visual Disability Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »
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  • Tel: 07568 380552 or 01294 216427
    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org