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Space

Courtyard Artists´Studios - Irvine

Courtyard Artists´Studios – Irvine

Once again, this is going to be a rather short blog.  It’s been a good week but not one in which there is too much to write about.  I’ve spent most of my time down at the studio, for the most part painting but also sorting out a few studio issues.  Anita and I took on the ‘job’ of studio reps at the Courtyard Studios back in May.  For the most part there’s not that much to do, but one thing that has been important is to try and find occupants for the empty spaces that we have…..when we started there were five!  Unfortunately several artists had left during the previous year and whereas in the past we had always had a waiting list of people wanting to move in, suddenly we had no one.  Thankfully one of the artists who left, told a friend about the studios and she moved in.  This still left four spaces empty …two of them quite large.

Courtyard Artists´Studios - Irvine

Courtyard Artists´Studios – Irvine

Things are looking up though as during the last month or so we’ve had enquires from six artists.  Three of these have definitely applied for a space….indeed; I’ve just heard from head office that two of them are definitely taking spaces …one permanently and another for one month ….in order to work on a special project ….great news.   So then, hopefully there will be a few new faces at the Courtyard soon. Just a couple of days ago a local photographer came to the studios and is very interested in the large space …so hopefully he may take this too.

Keith in his WASPS studio, Irvine

Keith in his WASPS studio, Irvine

For anyone who doesn’t already know about WASPS (Workshop and Studio provision Scotland), they are a charitable organisation set up to provide affordable studio spaces for artists and craftspeople working in Scotland.  The Courtyard Studios at Irvine is just one of many studio complexes (big and small) run by WASPS and situated throughout Scotland.  Rents are based on the size of the space rented but are considerably lower than comparable space in commercial buildings.  Tenants are expected to pay monthly and for this they have 24 hour a day, 365 days a year access to their studio.  At the Courtyard in Irvine, all studio spaces have heating and a hot and cold water supply.  These spaces really are very good value and I would recommend them to any artist looking for a proper studio space.

My WASPS studio, Irvine

My WASPS studio, Irvine

Anyway, if you’re looking for a studio and live in Ayrshire, depending on how things turn out with the recent enquiries, we may still have a couple of spaces available.  Although spaces are normally let to individual artists, WASPS are also happy to discuss applications from 2 or 3 friends or colleagues who wish to share a space.

For full information about spaces at the Courtyard in Irvine or for more general information about space available at WASPS studios throughout Scotland, contact Michelle Emery Barker: Michelle@waspsstudios.org.uk .

Catching up

Inside my new studio (Studio J)

Inside my new studio (Studio J)

I’ve been back from Speyer for a week now…..and it was only yesterday that I started to feel like I was getting back into the swing of painting again!  Anyway, before anything else …the good news.  The paintings which were left in Speyer last week ….are now back in Irvine.  The company had insisted that the best they could offer (after failing to collect the packages on the day they were booked to) was a four hour collection slot one day this week.  I was trying to contact one of the chaps in the Künstlerbund to seek his help with this …when on Tuesday morning I had a phone call to say that the packages had been collected on the Monday and were due in Irvine on Wednesday!  I didn’t quite know what had happened until I got through to Mike Lauter a little later.  It appears that Mike having heard from Andrea about the problems we were having ….rang the companies local depot ….and had words.  What those words were I don’t know, but they gave him an exact collection time and arrived promptly’ …..a much better service and Mike didn’t have to wait around half or all the day waiting for them.  So, an even bigger thanks to Mike for fixing this.

It has as I say, been a week of catching up…..emails, letters, phone calls etc….but I seem to be getting through all that now.  The biggest thing really though has been trying to get back into the painting.  Since the end of September when the ‘rat’ forced me out of my old studio and into the new one, it’s been pretty hectic and so with the Open Weekend at the start of October, then all the preparations for the Speyer and Dundee exhibitions ……and then the two weeks in Germany ….well, I hadn’t really got much painting done.  I’ve always found in the past when we go away for our two weeks holiday in May that on returning it takes me quite a time to get back into work again.  Not doing any serious painting for the best part of five weeks has meant that it’s been a bit of a shock to the system the last few days.

My new studio building (Studio J)

My new studio building (Studio J)

I really like this new studio and once I’ve found places for everything and got into some kind of routine it should be very good.  It’ll take a bit of time though because with my sight so bad, I rely on memory as to where everything is.  When you move to a new place suddenly you have to once again rely on your sight to find things!  Suffice to say, I spend a lot of time at present wandering around peering vaguely and patting surfaces in the hope I’ll find whatever item it is I’m looking for …oh, and after five minutes of this there’s usually some choice language too!  It’s incredible how a magnifier or a certain paint brush or palette knife can simply disappear ….only to reappear in my back pocket or on the table in front of me fifteen minutes later!  Eventually though, as I get used to the space and layout of the new studio, everything will have its own place in the general mayhem that constitutes my work place …..and time wasting searches like this will become fewer.

The Courtyard Studios, Irvine

The Courtyard Studios, Irvine

The new studio is certainly in a good position, being right in the middle of the main studio building, facing into the courtyard and the main entrance way between The Ship Inn and the old courtyard studios building.  I will I’m sure miss the lovely view I had and the sounds of the birds I had in the summer …but I feel much more part of the small community of artists at the Courtyard now.  Indeed, with Gillian, David and Sheila working at the studios, the whole place has a much more lively appearance than a few years ago.  Yesterday for instance, only a couple of the doors were closed …most were open and busy …..it’s looking good for the future.  You’ll see from the photo of the building, that we still have no sign, but the last we heard was that  we’re waiting on planning permission which should be granted by end of November ….so keep your fingers crossed for us and if you live in Ayrshire don’t be afraid of calling in to see what we’re doing.

Changes

Open weekend studio J

Open weekend studio J

For the last few days the news seems to have been full of the autumn ‘heat wave’ and record temperatures for September and October.  That’s all very well if you’re one of those folk living in England or Wales…if you live in Ayrshire and no doubt much of the west of Scotland or Northern Ireland…well, it’s not been quite so good.

As you know from my previous blogs and posts on Face Book, this weekend is the WASPS Studios Open Weekend and yesterday I awoke to find the skies dark and the rain teeming down.  And it didn’t get any better through the rest of the day..it just rained and rained and rained.  Not surprisingly visitor numbers were down ….well, they were the worst at the Courtyard for any single day since we started the Open Studios Weekends six or seven years ago.  I’m not sure of the exact number but it was in the region of 35 I guess. Seeing as we normally get around 200 visitors over the two days we’ve got a lot of catching up to do today.   However, considering the day long deluge, it really was quite good that we got 35 visitors yesterday and everyone who donned their hats and coats and came down to the studios deserves a medal I think …so a big thanks to all of those.

Open weekend studio JWhen I got up this morning at about 06.45 it was still chucking it down with rain and as the light increased, things looked no different from yesterday!  However, it’s now about 08.45 and I do believe it’s just stopped ..I can hear some birds singing in the garden so perhaps they sense a change to slightly better brighter conditions later in the day …let’s hope so.  The studios are open again today from noon until 5pm so with a bit of luck we’ll see a lot more people this afternoon.

The weather though isn’t the only thing to change this week.  Last weekend I arrived at my studio to find a very bad pong emanating from somewhere under the floor boards or from behind a wall cavity.  Very unpleasant and I had to work all last weekend with the front door wide open.  As I said to a couple of local ladies who stopped to look in through the front door, ‘I think we have a dead ‘mouse’ under the floor boards’.  As the weekend progressed it became patently obvious that the ‘mouse’ should have been spelt ‘rat’!  Ahhhhhh.

Thankfully, there are several empty studio spaces at the moment and head office agreed for me to move into one of these temporarily while they decided what to do …and most importantly, for the period of the Open Weekend.  So, much moving of gear, especially as builders arrived on Wednesday to take up part of the floor in search of the culprit….which they couldn’t find.  Since then, the pest man has been, the builders have been back again and the architect is now involved.  It really is a case of trying to find how the thing got into the wall or floor space.  Oh well, as one of my colleagues said, ‘every rat has a silver lining’!  The studio I moved into for the Open Weekend, is superb.  It’s in the main courtyard and is twice the size of my current space.  Within a day of moving in, I realised that I wanted to make the move permanent.  I’ve been doing this slightly larger work this summer and Studio E was becoming very congested with all the paintings and materials.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have tried ‘swinging that cat’ the other week …it might have caught the rat!

Open weekend studio JOpen weekend studio J

Anyway, to cut a long story short …I’ve asked head office to let me change studios immediately and so I’ll start moving the rest of my gear into studio J on Monday.  It’s going to be great having more space although I’ll miss the wonderful view I had out over the river and saltings …but sometimes you just have to move on …and I think all things considered, that this is the right thing to do.

The work looks great on the wall so hopefully a good few people will get to see it and the new studio, later today.   Oh, and by the way, for all of you down south in your shades and flip flops …have pity on us up here …it’s just started raining heavily again!

Dismantled crane ….a taste of things to come?

Irvine harbour side

Irvine harbour side

As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I work at the Courtyard Studios on the harbour side at Irvine. My space is in the old part of the building that faces the road, and across that, the river and saltings. Until three days ago, just 200 m up the road was an old crane, one of several that used to be used to load and unload vessels visiting Irvine. Even to an outsider like me, it seemed to be an important part of the harbour side, indeed of Irvine’s history …..It was definitely a local landmark and one that gave interest to this wonderful harbour side.

That was of course until three days ago….when it was dismantled and carted half a mile away to be placed in the yard of the Maritime Museum. For the last five or so years I guess, the old crane had not been maintained and the buffeting winter gales had taken their toll. Bits had blown off, the paintwork peeled and the jib was a mass of rust. It seems a shame that such an important part of the towns history and identity as a once important port, should be allowed to fall into disrepair. On hearing of the cranes demise, one of my colleagues visited the towns planning department and apparently the crane has been taken to the Maritime Museum and if funds become available it’ll be restored and a place found for it once again…..lets hope so. Of course, its removal has nothing to do with the planned redevelopment of the Harbour side area ……hmmmmm!

The crane, Irvine harbour side

The crane, Irvine harbour side

Today has been a beautiful day, bright sun and the first real heat of the year. We had thought about heading for a hill today but as we both have a lot of work on we decided to have a less tiring day. Instead, we walked from my studio, out to the sea and then along the beach all the way to Troon, several miles down the Ayrshire coast.

We started, of course, by looking at the space where the crane used to be ..nothing now but the old wooden jetty that similarly, seems to be falling into disrepair and has been fenced off for a good number of years. Will this too be removed at some stage? Just beyond this point the River Irvine meets the River Garnock and together they flow the last few hundred metres before entering the Firth of Clyde. They flow under the footbridge that was built at huge expense to get visitors over to the Big Idea …a science centre that was built to mark the millennium. Sadly, although it was apparently very good, it only lasted for a few years before closing and sitting empty ever since. The wonderful bridge (built to open and close to allow boats access to the harbour) was opened after the final visitor left and has remained so ever since. Let’s hope the new planned developments for the harbour side are going to be better thought out than this our local millennium white elephant.

Close up of the crane, Irvine harbour side

Close up of the crane, Irvine harbour side

Most of the area between the Courtyard studios and the sea is grass. It’s a large area containing a large pond, good quality footpaths and is a fine safe area for folk to come for a stroll, joggers to jog and kids to play …it’s an important recreational area for the town. Today with this warm weather, a lot of people had made their way to the harbour side, all enjoying the grassed areas, the fine views and the beach. The wild life too was out in force this morning with the Skylarks singing above the dunes and the saltings, Eider ducks floating just off of the beach, Oyster catchers and Curlews calling from the mud on the far side of the river.

Much of this area is due for development …housing, retail and commercial units apparently. And there was a big sign on the bridge that suggested development on the far side of the river too. If this takes place I wonder what will happen to the wildlife and whether this now quite peaceful area that pulls in visitors both local and from far afield, will lose the very thing that people come for.

 

The crane close up

The crane close up

People say that with the studios being right in the middle of the new development, that it’ll be good for business. Maybe, but as an artist I worry about what the developers have in mind. I very much doubt that it is going to be as peaceful, as beautiful or indeed as interesting as it is now. Is the missing crane just a taste of things to come? We’ll wait and see I guess. I hope in a few years I can write and say I was wrong.

Seasons Greetings

Irvine-Harbour-December-2010

Irvine Harbour, December 2010

It’s Christmas Eve and yet another bright sunny and very cold day here in Irvine. The snow we had last weekend is still lying and once again I doubt the temperature is going to get above freezing. Everything certainly looks fantastic, especially down on the harbour side where for quite a few days now the water has been completely frozen.

The pipes at the Courtyard thawed out briefly last weekend but have been solid again since Sunday afternoon and so it’s been a week of short shifts at Studio E mixed with drawing at home. I have to admit though that I was a little optimistic last week about the progress of my new pencil drawing …it’s still not finished although its coming on quite well. I’ll probably have another crack at it later today.

Ship-in-Frozen-Harbour-Irvine-2010

Ship in Frozen Harbour, Irvine 2010

The rest of the work for the show at Strathearn is coming on well and although I have almost daily panics …causing me to count and re count the work that I have ready, I should have everything completed and framed by the end of January and in time to get it delivered to the gallery for hanging. I’ll need something in the region of 40 – 45 pieces and I’m trying to get a quite varied selection of work together……all based on the Scottish landscape but a mix of the slightly more traditional views as well as the more abstract impressions. Having some drawings in the show too is important and I hope to include a couple of more finished drawings as well as some of my quicker line drawings in pastel or pen.

Irvine-Harbour-2010

Frozen Estuary at Irvine Harbour, 2010

I also plan to include one largish piece although this is still on the go at the studio. It’s 135 cm x 61 cm and is based on a couple of small drawings I did a few years ago. The piece is quite abstract and done in a mix of reds, oranges and yellows. I think it should work well and will help to give the exhibition a bit of diversity. We’ll have to wait and see I guess!

My partner Anita is working at the hospital on Christmas night and then doing a twelve and a half hour shift on Monday 27th, so we’re going to postpone festivities for a few days and then enjoy a quiet day on the 28th. I’ll probably carry on with the drawing until then so that I can enjoy a few days off and perhaps a day or two walking in the hills later in the week.

Right well, for all of you who have suffered my weekly ramblings during 2010, …..my very best wishes to you over this festive period.

Drawing away from the cold

December afternoon, Glen Etive', Graphite pencil & white pastel, 50cm (w) x 70cm (h)

December afternoon, Glen Etive', Graphite pencil & white pastel

For the last few days now it’s been getting progressively colder here in Irvine.  The night time frost has been lasting all day and building up in a thick layer everywhere, making it look more like a light covering of snow.  The River Irvine has been frozen again and even down at the harbour side where the river is tidal and brackish, the ice is forming along the edge in a band several metres wide.  When it’s like this you get wonderful creaking and cracking sounds as the tide flows in or out beneath the ice.

This morning as I walked to the studio it was quite beautiful, everything shrouded in freezing fog, the frost covering everything and the sound of the ice gently moving with the water.  On top of this were the shrill calls of a huge flock of what I think are Widgeon. They arrived a few weeks ago and seem to be staying for the winter.  I can just make them out through my monocular and I guess there must be 100 – 150 of them.  Several Curlews were calling from the saltings on the other side of the river and this made the scene even more special …..what a wonderful place to come to work.

The trouble was, that when I got to the studio, all the pipes where frozen up.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I had a full size kettle to store some water in as the Harbour Arts Centre is just two doors away down the street and several of my colleagues were getting water from there …and of course using the facilities!  In my studio though I only have one of these tiny one cup travel kettles and even in warm weather I like to have a constant stream of coffee when I’m working …to have to keep walking to and fro between the studio and the HAC seemed a bit much and so after an hour I decided to retreat home and get on with some drawing there.

As it turns out this is not so much of a disaster.  I’ve wanted to try and get several pencil drawings done for the show at Strathearn and to be honest have been putting it off while at the studio …preferring instead to paint.  On the odd occasion I do settle down to working with a pencil I generally find I enjoy it …its certainly different from my usual work and so once in a while makes a nice change.  It’s just a case of getting started.  So then, the frozen pipes and my lack of a decent size kettle forced me home and I’ve spent an enjoyable afternoon starting this new drawing.  The last drawing I did in pencil took me a full eight hours of painstaking work …I have to peer through a magnifier to see the point of the pencil and the line ….and then as soon as I stand back it nearly all disappears!  I must be mad.  Anyway, I’ve a long way to go with this piece and may carry on with it at home tomorrow.

118, 'Assynt sky-line', Pencil, 46cm (w) x 36cm (h)

'Assynt sky-line'

Of course ….I’ve just looked outside and the frost has all melted, the wind is blowing and no doubt the pipes at the studio will at this very moment, be defrosting ….lets just hope we have no broken pipes.  Thankfully as far as I know there are no pipes running through the loft space above my studio and so even if there is a break, I should be saved a flood …it’s a worry though and it does make me wonder whether when all that money was spent on refurbishing the buildings last summer …they forgot to lag the pipes.  This is the second time this has happened this winter and it’s still not Christmas!

Right, well, as a reminder of the type of pencil / graphite drawings I’ve done in the past, I’ll include a couple of images with this blog.  Hopefully by Saturday I’ll have a new drawing to show you.

Bugged, snowed on, frozen and no work worked for six days!….Slacking or what?

'In Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

'In Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

A late blog again I’m afraid.  Suddenly it’s Sunday evening and I’ve just realised I haven’t written anything.  It’s been one of those weeks and one best forgotten.  Not only did I not get the blog written, I also got no painting done either.

The week started out well last Sunday with a very enjoyable few hours at the Courtyard Studios Christmas Fair.  It was the first time we’d held such an event and so I think we were all a little uncertain as to quite how many people might come along.  The fair took place at the Harbour Arts Centre which is just two doors down the street from the studios.  It’s an excellent venue and has a great bar / restaurant too.  We are though out along the harbour side and as such, a 15 minute walk from the main shopping area in Irvine.  At this time of year not too many people leave their town based Christmas shopping to venture in our direction.  That said though, Gordon (our new studio rep) did a grand job at promoting the event and had managed to get the local paper to write a piece about the fair….and it worked.  We had a very good turn out and although none of us I guess will be able to retire on the proceeds, we all I think sold a few items and most importantly, we helped let people know where we are.

'Trees in Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

'Trees in Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

From that point though, the week took a decided downward trend.  By Sunday evening I was feeling decidedly rough and as things hadn’t improved the next morning I decided to stay at home and catch up with some work on the computer.  Then it started snowing …and sticking, which is quite an event for Irvine.  Being on the coast we quite often miss the snow …but not this time.  We didn’t have the falls that so badly affected most of the central belt but it was nice and by the afternoon despite feeling ill, I just had to go out for a wee walk in it.  From the house you can follow an old disused railway line up to the edge of Eglinton Country Park and from their follow any number of paths through the rough mixture of grass and woodland.  It makes a very pleasant wander and with the snow down it looked great even under the dark grey skies.

By Tuesday I felt even worse and took to my bed and slept.  Wednesday was just as bad and Thursday too, but on Friday I suddenly started to feel a good deal better and so finally made it back to the studio on Saturday.  Today I’m still sniffing and coughing but just about back to rights but with six days missed I now have to try and catch up with my work.  I don’t normally work to a deadline but with the show coming up in Strathearn Gallery in early February I have quite a tight schedule.  I also sold one painting the previous weekend and have heard that I may have sold another one at one of the galleries …so a bit more work to be done….it’s all go.

A busy week

Courtyard Studio Artists 2010

Courtyard Studio Artists 2010

To say it’s been busy this week is a bit of an understatement. Of course it is the perfect excuse for why this blog is so late, ….well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

As I’ve already said in past blogs, I’m busy working on six paintings for an exhibition with Scotlandart.com at their Edinburgh gallery starting at the end of October. These paintings have to be ready and delivered in about two weeks. They’re coming on well. Two are finished and framed, two more are finished and just need putting into their frames and two are well under way and hopefully will be finished by the end of the week. I’m pleased with the four completed ones and they’ve been getting quite a lot of interest from visitors to the studio …so hopefully some of these people may go to see the exhibition once it opens.

All painting stopped on Monday evening as on Tuesday I had to travel down to London for the private view of the ‘Jolomo Landscape Painting Awards 2009 Finalists Exhibition – One Year On’. This was held at the Royal Opera Arcade Gallery in Pall-mall and luckily the organiser had managed to book us a room at the Civil Service Club not far away. It was a good journey down by train and very quick too …just five hours from Irvine to Euston and so we didn’t have to set off too early and arrived in ample time to get to the gallery by 6.30pm. It was a busy event and a very enjoyable evening. It seemed to go well with lots of interest and several paintings sold …so it’ll be interesting to hear how the remainder of the week long exhibition went. These events are always pretty tiring I find and so by half past nine we were in need of food and a beer and found somewhere just off of Trafalgar Square to recover and relax .

As we were holding our studio open weekend at the Courtyard at the weekend, there was no time for us to stay down in London to enjoy a few days of gallery visits and wandering the city. It was straight back to Scotland on Wednesday morning and a mad day and a half on Thursday and Friday morning, getting the studio ready for the weekend event. This is normally something that takes me around four days but Anita was on holiday all that week so she did a lot of work to help me. We just about got everything done by mid afternoon on Friday and then after a quick change we rushed for the train and headed over to Edinburgh for the preview of a group exhibition at the Gallery on the Corner ….in which a close friend, Lorraine Nicholson, was showing some of her photographs and paintings. It was a good show with some excellent work. The exhibition runs for two weeks so well worth a look if you’re in Edinburgh. The journey back wasn’t quite so good though. We managed to miss the half past eight train and the nine o’clock one was cancelled due to a lack of a driver. The half past nine train was then a little late leaving but at least got us back into Glasgow well in time to catch the eleven o’clock train to Irvine. We were back home by midnight …and it was at this point I decided that this blog would have to be late ….there was no way I was going to try and write it at that time of night!

We were back down the studio first thing on Saturday morning, hanging the last couple of paintings, putting labels up, sweeping the floor and going around with the spirit level checking that everything was straight. The first visitor arrived just on eleven and just as everything was completed.

It was a good weekend. The weather was fine and this brought out lots of people. I’m not sure of the exact numbers but I’d estimate around about two hundred over the course of the weekend …so pretty good. I have a couple of potential sales along with much interest …so I’m more than happy. I think most of the other twelve artists made sales or potential sales and I know one artist got a commission …so at the end yesterday evening we were all happy, if just a little tired.

Courtyard Studio Artists 2010

Courtyard Studio Artists 2010

Back on the Harbourside

On Irvine Harbourside

"On Irvine Harbourside"

You know, it really is good to be back on the Harbourside. Over the last week I have seen it under a great variety of conditions. Summer is definitely on the way out here and we have had the first of the autumn gales. What makes it extra special at this time of year are the big tides.

With my studio set just the width of the road and the old wooden quay away from the river, I am in a prime location to watch the changing seasons and conditions. On Friday it was a beautiful day here – bright skies, white clouds and the afternoon sun bringing out all the late summer colours of the saltings that lie between the River Irvine and the River Garnock. It was so good that I had to down brushes for a bit and just stand in my studio doorway, taking it all in. There were the ever present calls of curlews, oyster catchers and gulls…it was just great.

By Monday though, it was all change. I walked up the Harbourside to my studio, head down against the wind and rain and with all the usual views across the saltings completely gone – shrouded in a thick murk that was blowing in from the sea. It was great! – well, it was once I’d reached my studio and could watch it from my doorway. We have these old fashioned little street lights along the front of the harbour and for some reason, when there is a gale blowing, many of them create an eerie, but very atmospheric, whistling sound. Even in these conditions though, the light is still very special. Added to this, was a very high tide and as the day went by, the water rose, covering nearly all of the saltings and leaving just a narrow spit of mud and grass between the two rivers. I didn’t have my monocular this day, but normally, in these conditions, the birds congregate in an ever tighter group as the water rises. On this occasion, it didn’t completely cover the narrow strip of land, so I guess their feet stayed dry!

Harbourside, Irvine

"Harbourside, Irvine"

"Harbourside"

Anyway, after spending the summer painting the buildings in Speyer, it has got me thinking that it might be quite nice to do some work once again, based on the harbourside. When I first moved to the studios back in 2003, I did a number of paintings and drawings based on the buildings and river here. I am not quite sure how I would tackle it now, but here are a few of those earlier attempts.

A change of scene

New Look Courtyard

New Look Courtyard

When I left Irvine for Speyer on May 11th, big changes were afoot at the courtyard studios. WASPS had decided to refurbish the studios and while doing so, were taking the opportunity to create several new spaces in the roof space. The work was planned to last until around the start of July and in a way, it was perfect timing for me as I would miss much of the disruption. As it turned out, I heard tell of the disruption every few days as Anita was ‘studio sitting’. My space is in the old part of the building. I’m not quite sure how old, but a chap came in the other year and told me that my studio used to be his office back in the 1950s…when he was a customs officer. Since then it had fallen into disrepair….understatement. When the builders moved in, they found that a section of the floor joists had rotted through and it was only the patchwork of pink and yellow carpet that was holding the floor up! The rear wall, covered by a chipboard outer, was completely crumbling away and Gordon, one of the other artists, described it as being like a waterfall when it rained…explains the dampness I think.

Anyway, I flew back to Scotland last Thursday evening and went down to my studio on Friday…and what a difference. For starters, the dreadful pink outer walls are now a slightly better, if somewhat strange, green colour….but it does look a lot better and people have started to notice us. As for my own studio, they have done a great job…a new floor, the waterworks completely repaired and a new door that actually fits the frame…and a heater! With a bit of luck, it will be a much more pleasant experience during the winter months and I’ll not need to dress up like the Michelin man.

New Look for the WASP Courtyard Studios, Irvine, Ayrshire

The WASP Courtyard Studios, Irvine, Ayrshire

So then, it has been straight back to work, as I have to get 6 pieces ready for a group show at Scotlandart.com which opens in late October. It’s great to be back in Scotland but although there’s lots of work to do, I am going to make sure there’s time to relax too. Today Anita and I have been to see the magnificent exhibition of the Lewis chessmen at the National Museum of Scotland and the Impressionist Gardens exhibition at the RSA, both in Edinburgh. We’re heading up for a walk near the Cairngorms on Sunday and have already organised a day on the hill with our very good friend Guy…I can’t wait. Well and truly back in business I think.

*** Please note that WASP Courtyard Studios will be having its traditional Open Weekend from the 2nd and 3rd of October. So why not come along and see the changes. Everyone is very welcome!  ***