It is amazing quite how fast time has flown recently, as we’re already well into the second month of the exhibition at the Isle of Arran Distillery. Nita went over for me a few weeks ago to deliver a few more prints and gift cards for the visitor centre shop and she said that they reckoned they’d been getting a very good response to the work. I was certainly very pleased with the way the big Glen Rosa drawing looked in the space as well as the five paintings we hung with it, so if you haven’t been to see the show and you either live in the region or are visiting on holiday ….you’ve got three weeks left to catch it. Of course, if you can’t get over to Arran but are in Irvine at any time, you can see the full size reproduction of the Glen Rosa drawing near the Town House in the centre of Irvine. North Ayrshire Council produced this high quality print of the drawing and has sited it in this very central part of town.
The reason I’ve been so busy of late has been because we were preparing for our annual Open Studios Weekend and our “21 Years” group exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre. The exhibition preview was last Friday 2nd October and we had a very enjoyable and busy evening. It was the first time for many years that the artists here at the WASPS Courtyard Studios have held an exhibition together and I’m delighted to say that it’s a “good’n”. Do pop in to see it if you have a spare half an hour or so …there is some really excellent work included…… do check out the display cabinet containing book-binding by Tom McEwen and ceramics by Nita Groves ….very different, very exciting. The exhibition runs until 23rd October 2015, so plenty of time left to see it.
The Open Studios Weekend went really well. In fact it was the busiest event we’ve ever had…. by a long way. During the course of last weekend we saw just under 500 visitors come into the studios! It made for a great atmosphere and has hopefully raised our profile somewhat. A big thanks to everyone who came to the Courtyard Studios last weekend, I hope you enjoyed the experience. We are of course, open to the public right throughout the year so don’t be afraid to call back and see the studios in their working mode.
To get such a good turn out we had to get the event publicised really well and this year we seemed to get everything right. Much work was done by event rep Nita, studio rep Brian, Alison and Marie in the Harbour Arts Centre and the good folk at WASPS head office in Glasgow….. So well done all. We were also helped significantly by all the local harbour side businesses that put up posters and gave out event flyers and leaflets for us. Our local press were great too, giving us good coverage in the run-up to the event, as was our local radio station Irvine Beat, who allowed me to tell their listeners all about the event. We were also helped by the people at Irvine’s Big Screen in the centre of town. They very kindly screened details of the event during the week before. So then a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped make last weekend at the Courtyard Studios and Harbour Arts Centre such a success.
It’s back to normal this week and I’ve already started work on several new oil paintings and the tidy studio space of the weekend is fast becoming messy again!
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