It can’t be a bad week when the first thing to report is that one of my paintings at the 2014 North Ayrshire Open Art Exhibition, sold on the preview evening last Friday. It’s always so encouraging when someone buys one of your paintings, so a very big thank you to the lady and gentleman and I do hope that you enjoy having the piece. The exhibition looks very good and if you haven’t already done so, I’d recommend a visit to the Racquet Hall in Eglinton Country Park, Kilwinning to see it. It’s open daily from 10 am – 4 pm until Saturday 26th July 2014.
On Wednesday we held our first studio meeting to discuss the forthcoming Open Studios Weekend. The event will take place on the first weekend in October and as usual there should be a very good selection of work to see. We’re waiting to hear about WASPS plans for the event this year before I can confirm all the details and we have another meeting on 31st July when Michelle from WASPS head office in Glasgow is visiting the Courtyard to tell us all about their plans. Watch this space!
Work wise, I’ve had a good week this week, getting quite a lot done. It’s quite important as I have to make the final selection of work for the autumn exhibition at the Biscuit Factory in Tyne and Wear. I’ve been asked to provide 10 pieces of work of differing sizes and prices. I always find this part very difficult and seem to change my mind about which pieces to include on a regular basis! I am getting there though and three paintings have already been put aside for the show. As well as the paintings I would like to include one of my new large graphite drawings. This should work well with the other pieces and make quite a focal point for the work. Oh well, I have a couple more weeks yet before having to make the final decision ….plenty of time to change my mind again! The exhibition opens in September so full details a little nearer the time.
Talking of a little nearer the time, I have three paintings going into a local exhibition at Tour House, Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock. The group exhibition will include work by 6 artists and the preview is on Sunday evening. I’m really looking forward to the event especially so as Kilmaurs was the place we lived when we first moved to Ayrshire back in October 1998.
Of course, of course, we couldn’t go a whole week without heading out for the hills again, especially so as Nita has been on annual leave for the last two weeks. After our over heated walk up Beinn Each last week and our failure to get across from it to the Munro, Stuc a’ Chroin, we had another go at reaching its summit on Tuesday. The weather was once again fine but less hot thankfully and we approached the hill from a different direction this time. We started from Glen Artney at 08.20 and after a very long walk, reached the top at 13.35. It was a magnificent walk and gave us great views back over to Beinn Each ….although I couldn’t thankfully see or hear the bug that took a dislike to us last week! Stuc a’ Chroin really is a magnificent hill and we were lucky to have clear conditions and patchy bright sun as we sat at the top. This was our 3rd attempt to climb it, so I have to admit I felt quite a sense of achievement. We saw some magnificent colours during the walk and so I think I may well try and get something in the way of a painting out of this trip.
Well then, that’s about that for this week. I’ll be down my studio tomorrow and Sunday as Nita has pulled the short straw and is working night shifts. She’ll be exhausted for a couple of days so no thoughts of more walking until she’s recovered.
Oh yes, one final thing. We have a new branch of Wetherspoon’s in Irvine. It opened a couple of days ago and I’m really pleased to say that they have two of my pictures on the wall…… I haven’t had a chance to go in and see them yet, but once Nita has finished her night shifts I think we may well call in ……just to see the paintings I hasten to add …..nothing to do with the beer ……honest!