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Posts Tagged ‘strathearn gallery’

A day of small drawings

Posted by admin on October 19th, 2012
'Canisp & Suilven, Assynt', Graphite on wood, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Canisp & Suilven, Assynt’, Graphite on wood, 2012

As the title suggests, today has been a day of graphite pencils rather than paint and brushes.  It has made a good change and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my few hours at the studio.  Yesterday I started playing around with a few ideas for drawings about Ailsa Craig and spent my last hour in the studio scribbling in a sketch book.  I quite liked one of the small drawings and today decided to try and do another version …..this time using a graphite pencil on board.  It made for some very nice marks and after doing one I got into it and over the next few hours did another three small pieces in this manner.  One of them based on the idea of looking across to the hills over on the Isle of Arran and the other two based on sketches I did up in Assynt a few years ago.

2 'Ailsa', Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Ailsa’, Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

It is surprising what interesting marks can be made working onto wood as opposed to paper and in a similar way that the pastels I use pick up the surface of the paint, here the pencil picked up the small ridges in the primed surface. I was using a fairly soft graphite pencil most of the time – 6B, but for finer marks I worked with a 2B.  Each of the drawings are quite small …just A5 size and I may include several of these in a local exhibition next month.  The exhibition organiser asked especially for small pieces at the lower end of the price range.  I’ll post full details about this in a few weeks time.

'Assynt skyline', Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Assynt skyline’, Graphite on board, 2012

Of course, now I’ve done these small pieces I’m already wondering quite what a larger piece would look like done in the same way?  As I already have several boards cut that are either 60 x 60 cm or 80 x 80 cm, I’ll probably try something at this size.  However, I’m getting a vague thought that perhaps something considerably bigger might work really well …perhaps 90 cm wide by 160 cm high.  Using the same scale of mark as the small pieces would be very time consuming on a large area but would be very interesting.  If I do try something like this then I think I’ll have to buy myself a good audio book to listen too while I’m drawing.

When I was in Speyer two years ago I worked on a fairly abstract painting that was I think 80 x 140 cm and I scribbled very fine marks into the whole of the surface.  This took me a couple of days of very slow work …and I was thankful there of having a good book to read while I worked.  Oh well, I guess it’s just a case of watch this space ….I’ll hopefully have time to try something like this soon.

'Across to Arran', Graphite on board, 2012, 148 x 210 mm

‘Across to Arran’, Graphite on board, 2012

I’ve just heard from ‘the gallery on the corner’ in Edinburgh that they’ve just sold one of my 76 x 23 cm paintings.  As they also sold one of my 30 x 30 cm pieces not long ago, I’ll have to get some replacements to them soon.  I have work going to The Strathearn Gallery for their Christmas Exhibition as well as several pieces going to The Framework Gallery in Troon for their pre Christmas exhibition too.  As I say, full details of both of these exhibitions soon ….the point is, that I’ll have to get a few new small acrylic and pastel pieces done ….it’s all go…..but very enjoyable!

 

Posted in Drawings, Exhibitions, Galleries with Keith Salmon artwork, Speyer Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Behind the paint

Posted by admin on September 24th, 2011
'From the studio, Irvine harbour side'

'From the studio, Irvine harbour side'

The last week has been a fairly typical week recently ….lots of painting.  But behind every finished and exhibited painting there’s a safe full of other tasks.

I’m now on the final run up to the Wasps Studios Open Weekend, my exhibitions in Speyer and Dundee and ….the Battersea Affordable Arts Fair.  I have I think now completed the minimum amount of work needed for these shows but am still trying to complete another two 80 x 80 cm paintings and another one 76 x 23 cm piece.  Whether I will get these three pieces completed is debatable as from now on the back room tasks start to take precedence.   Thankfully many of these have already been taken on by my partner Anita (who reckons the pay rate for artists assistant is ****!).   While I’ve been wielding the paint brushes she has spent many hours doing this less romantic side of the job for me.

I’ll not only be shipping work out to Germany for my exhibition but am also finally in the process of setting up Papal on this website so that it will make it easier for customers to purchase paintings.  Before I can do this though I’ve needed to think carefully about how I ship work ….in other words I’ve needed to find out about and order boxes.  This doesn’t seem a great deal of effort but with there being a number of different sized paintings with several different framing options, it’s been vitally important that we’ve found the very best box ‘solutions’.  Part of the problem is storage space….or the lack of it!  As anyone who has visited my studio will know …there aint a lot of space there ….and as I said last week …the house is rather chock a’ block too.  The boxes I’m getting have a minimum order of 25 …so they’ll take up quite a lot of space…. hence the need to work out the very minimum number of different size boxes.  It’s all taken a lot of time especially as we’ve needed to get samples sent out and each of the different boxes tested out …but we’re getting there and Nita has just  placed the first order for me.

Other back room jobs this week have included sending out around 50 invitations to the Open Studios Weekend, delivering the last five paintings to the Waverley Gallery in Prestwick for framing …and collecting the one large painting (122 cm x 61cm).  I also spent an entire morning putting together a press release for our local paper the Irvine Times…..this to try and get some coverage for the Open Studios event next weekend.  The local papers have always been very helpful in the past and I received an email from the Irvine Times saying they’d put something in next week’s edition …perfect..it makes the time I spent on the press release worth while.  Hopefully it’ll bring a few extra folk through the doors and perhaps a sale or two for some of the artists taking part.

I’m leaving the actual organisation of the studio right to the last minute …well I’ll start tidying and cleaning on Thursday morning after we’ve been down to pick up the work from the Waverley  in Prestwick.   The tidying is the biggest job but I should have that done and the couple of walls painted by the time I go home on Thursday evening …quite late in the evening I reckon especially as I’ll also have to transport  one of the work benches, all paints and a good number of paintings home for the weekend.  Friday will be a day of setting up …selecting and hanging the paintings, printing and fixing labels, putting out a selection of business cards and other postcards, fixing clear signs directing folk to my studios and arranging lighting.  There’s probably a load of other jobs that I’ve forgotten now but will no doubt come to me on the day …and cause PANIC!

On top of this there’s a statement I need to write and send for my Queens Gallery exhibition, a van to be hired for delivering the work there and to the Strathearn Gallery on the 10th, and after the Open Weekend on 1st and 2nd, we have to wrap and box all 19 or 20 paintings ready for shipping to Germany.  These all have to be very carefully measured and weighed before I contact the shipping company.  Oh well, it keeps me busy …and Nita too.  It’s amazing isn’t it …you think you’re just doing a nice bit of relaxing painting……!   I love it, though it might not be so good when Nita sends her bill in!.

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Light relief

Posted by admin on February 11th, 2011
Fairly moor

Fairlie moor

If you’ve been reading these blogs over the last month or so you’ve probably gathered that there’s been one thing very much on my mind …the exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery.  Getting all the work finished, framed, photographed, catalogued and wrapped …has been quite a lot of work.

On Monday we went into town and hired a Transit van, and went back to the house to load all the pictures.  Of course, after several weeks of generally mild weather, Monday morning dawned very wet but cold …just 3 C here in Irvine and the forecast of snow for the Central Belt of Scotland …great!  The rain was really heavy here and we decided we could afford to wait a while to see if it would ease before loading the paintings into the van.  Thankfully it did improve and we were able to get everything on board in a relatively dry state.  The journey up to Crieff though was interesting. The rain turned to snow on the M77 and we had a mixture of rain, sleet and snow all the way.

Towards Arran from Whatside Hill

Towards Arran from Whatside Hill

By the time we reached Stirling the ground all around was white and on leaving the A9 to take the smaller road to Crieff ….well, everything was really quite white, including the road!  This particular road goes up quite high at one point and Nita found herself driving a hired Transit van containing almost a years worth of work, along a snow, slush, ice and water covered road.  At one point we went through a huge pool of water that sprayed up onto the screen and made it impossible to see.  No sooner had the wipers cleared this than a large lump of snow fell from an overhanging tree and once again covered the screen!  At this point, Nita just started laughing …well, it was rather funny.

Overlooking the Firth of Clyde

Overlooking the Firth of Clyde

We got to Crieff unscathed though and quickly had the work unloaded and into the gallery. What a relief, now it was in somebody else’s hands.  Mind you, I still fretted for a couple of days about whether the work would look any good but was most relieved to receive an email from the gallery yesterday to say it was all up and looking great …phew!  Oh, and they’d sold a piece as well …so a fine start.  I’m really looking forward to the preview tomorrow.

After all this, I really needed to take a wee break and yesterday in clear sunny calm weather I went for a smashing little walk with my friend Guy.    He’d plotted a nice route that led up onto Fairlie Moor and along its western edge over Whatside Hill before descending into and then walking through Kelburn Glen and on along the shore to Largs.  It made a great little day, catching the train to Fairlie and then returning by train in the evening from Largs.

Overlooking Great Cumbrae

Overlooking Great Cumbrae

As we were right on the edge of the North Ayrshire coast we had superb views out over the Firth of Clyde, across Great Cumbrae and Little Cumbrae islands to their bigger neighbours of Bute and Arran.  From this location you get an interesting view of the Arran Hills.  In the bright sunshine, the colours looked lovely and it was definitely very spring like.

Both Guy and I tend to like the bigger hills and the wilder places but this really was an excellent walk and one to be recommended to anyone living in North Ayrshire.  For me, the surprise came towards the end.  On descending into Kelburn Glen, we followed the path that led down the glen through beautiful woods and above the roar of the river as it poured over a whole series of waterfalls.  It was really quite spectacular especially with the late afternoon sunlight illuminating all the trees and rocks.


In Kelburn Glen

In Kelburn Glen

Kelburn Glen Waterfall

Kelburn Glen Waterfall


A fish supper while waiting for our train home finished off the day nicely and I’m now already thinking about the next walk.  With the exhibition opening tomorrow morning, I can now just get back to the painting and getting some more walks done.  I’ve started a new piece of work based, not on the hills, but on the view across the river and saltings outside my studio.  It’s a bit different but still Scottish landscape.  I’m quite enjoying this slight tangent and it’ll be interesting to see where it leads.

Posted in Exhibitions, Information Updates, Inspiring Mountain Walks, Mountain Photos Tags: , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

‘Towards Am Bodach, Glen Coe’

Posted by admin on January 21st, 2011
towards-am-bodach-glen-coe-acrylic-pastel-2011-30-x-30-cm

'Towards Am Bodach, Glen Coe'

‘Towards Am Bodach, Glen Coe’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 30 x 30 cm

This is my most recent small painting. It’s a re-working of a piece I did last year, but looks at the view from a slightly different position. The ridge starts as a broad rough grassy shoulder at the point where the West Highland Way crosses at the top of the Devils Staircase. It gradually turns into a more defined ridge and continues over several tops all the way to Am Bodach …and the start of the Aonach Eagach. It makes wonderful wild but easy walking for us lesser mortals who avoid the really serious stuff ahead and the views the whole way along are just spectacular …being as it is, in the heart of Glen Coe. A grand day out, especially if followed almost all the way to Am Bodach before following an awkward little path down to the A82 in the base of the glen and then following the old military road back to your start point. I’m really rather pleased with this little painting as I think it combines the paint and the pastel well. Its first public airing will be at The Strathearn Gallery as part of my solo exhibition, ‘On the hill – impressions of the Scottish upland landscape’. The exhibition runs 12th February – 12th March.

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‘In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran’

Posted by admin on January 8th, 2011
'In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran', Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 30 x 30 cm (Ref 158)

'In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran'

‘In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 30 x 30 cm (Ref 158)

It snowed again here yesterday evening and they’re forecasting a little more later this afternoon. Everything certainly looks very beautiful again and when I was down on the harbour side earlier this morning, the snow covered mountains over on the Isle of Arran were standing out quite clearly ….viewed through my monocular that is! It made me realise quite how fast 2010 seems to have gone by …it is only just under a year since Nita and I spent a very memorable day walking in Glen Rosa, spending time to sit and sketch and photograph the stunning Arran peaks covered in snow.

I did a number of small drawings that day and from these I developed several paintings. This piece, although quite small (30 x 30cm) was probably the most successful and it has just reminded me that on the day we were there, we decided we needed to return and walk Beinn a’ Chliabhain from Glen Rosa via Coire Beag. It certainly looked a nice route – better than following the rather worn and more traditional path up the side of the Garbh Allt.

Anyway, this is one of the paintings that will be displayed at The Strathearn Gallery as part of my solo exhibition ‘On the hill – impressions of the Scottish upland landscape’. The exhibition will run from February 12th – March 12th 2011. Full details nearer the time.

Posted in Artwork of the Week, Exhibitions, Inspiring Mountain Walks Tags: , , , , , , , No Comments »

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2010
177-autumn-hillside-above-crieff-acrylic-pastel-2010-76-x-23-cm-large

'Autumn-hillside, above Crieff'

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’, Acrylic and pastel, 76 x 23 cm.

This is one of my recent paintings and is one of several that I have been working on based on the beautiful upland countryside near Crieff, in Perthshire. We have walked these hills on a number of occasions and under very different conditions. Only a year ago, we were forced to retreat from the upper slopes of Ben Chonzie by an increasingly ferocious, winter gale, but when we visited earlier this autumn, we saw the landscape in fine weather. As we started to descend, the late afternoon sun picked out the vivid autumn colours.

This painting will be exhibited as part of my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in February.

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Backward and forward

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2010

Mike,me and the tandem - fun days in Speyer

Mike,me and the tandem - fun days in Speyer

I’m sat here, typing this on New Years’ Eve and looking back, it has been a pretty good year. I have certainly got a lot of work done and sales of paintings, if rather slow, have been quite steady, despite all the economic woes.

I’ve had work displayed in a good number of group exhibitions this year, but I guess the biggest thing to happen, of course, was my four month long visit to Speyer. This time last year, I still didn’t know whether my application had been successful. Apparently, a young New York artist and I were both being considered for the scholarship……but at a final meeting of the Kunstlerbund, towards the end of January, I got the vote. It seems likely that my age (at 51 I’m knocking on a bit) gave me the edge! The young chap from New York is doing some great work by all accounts and will hopefully be successful either this year or in the future.

As anyone who followed my blogs through the summer will know, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, met some wonderful people and superb artists. It certainly gave me a great opportunity to paint completely different subject matter and the response to it by the people of Speyer was hugely encouraging.

Art aside, one of the most memorable days in Speyer took place in the final week, when Michael Lauter (one of the Kunstlerbund artists) turned up with a tandem. He had also brought along an electrical bicycle for Anita. The ensuing few hours cycling along the Rhine were wonderful. I hadn’t been on a bicycle for over twenty years and it really was so funny being on a tandem…..I split my trousers on the saddle, we ended up cycling in circles, opposite a nuclear power station and cycled rather precariously through a flooded section of the path….with Michael shouting, ‘’Power, power!’’ I obviously wasn’t peddling hard enough.

Late evening, Achmelvich, Assynt

Late evening, Achmelvich, Assynt

Despite being away all summer, we have still managed to fit in a reasonable number of days on the hills this year. We’re still not very fit though and although I’m not really a New Years’ Resolution kind of person, we have decided we need to make special efforts to get fit now that January has all but arrived.

Ben More Assynt from Conival

Ben More Assynt from Conival

As I may have already said in past blogs, we are heading back to Achmelvich for two weeks in May. Maysie and Durrant Macleod, owners of Hillhead Caravans sent us through the booking form just last week and we have become all excited…the long, light days of May really don’t seem too far away. We’ve already been talking about having a third attempt at reaching Ben More Assynt. But for me, it’ll require a very long day of fine weather to do this…hence the need to get fit! I have also realised (not that I’m a bagger of hills of course) that I am only seven Corbetts short of fifty and so this should give me something to aim for in 2011.

Right, well, there’s lots to be done this year, not least getting the final few pieces finished for my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in February. So, it will be a few beers tonight but then back to the studio tomorrow afternoon. Best wishes for 2011.

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Battersea Park Affordable Art Fair – with The Strathearn Gallery, Crieff

Posted by admin on October 8th, 2010

'Below Cul Mor, Assynt', Acrylic & Pastel, 2008, 80 x 110 Ref-95

'Below Cul Mor, Assynt'

Earlier this year, Fiona at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff, asked me if I could let them have six paintings for the Battersea Park Affordable Art Fair. The gallery is taking a stand at the fair this autumn and it seems a great opportunity.

Of course, it’s always difficult deciding quite which pieces to send and to be honest I changed my mind a few times before finally settling on the six paintings. Fiona has asked for two small pieces, three medium and one large. I had the choice of two large pieces but in the end have gone with ‘Below Cul Mor, Assynt’. This is quite a bold piece for me, with bright colours and broad sweeps of paint. It is based on the view of the main rocky summit of the hill from the small loch that nestles below it in an area of beautiful exposed horizontal beds of red sandstone. We sat here for a while a couple of years ago, contemplating the steep and at the top, rocky ascent ahead of us.

The three medium size pieces were slightly more difficult to select. At first I was going to include three of my long thin 76 x 23 cm paintings, but in the end I’ve omitted one of these and have included instead the slightly larger piece, ‘Winter afternoon, Beinn Dorain’. I think this will work well with the Cul Mor painting as it has similar sweeps of paint and is another quite bold piece.

When it came to the two small pieces I was swayed by popular opinion. Last weekend at the Courtyard studios Open Weekend I had a number of my small 30 x 30 cm paintings on display and a couple of them were getting a lot of attention. These were ‘Autumn grasses, Beinn Inverveigh’ and ‘On Beinn a’Ghlo, autumn’.

'Winter afternoon, Beinn Dorain', Acrylic & Pastel, 2009 Ref 137

'Winter afternoon, Beinn Dorain'

I’m currently sat in the kitchen typing this and upstairs Anita has the six paintings. In the past I’ve managed to send paintings to galleries that have on occasions had marks on their frames and on one infamous occasion, even sent one small piece with its glass missing! The joys of limited vision I’m afraid and so now I ask Nita to check all the work before we wrap it up and send it off to the gallery.

So then, that’s us away up to Crieff tomorrow to deliver the work to The Strathearn Gallery. From Irvine it’s about an hour and three quarters in the car I guess and once beyond Glasgow the route goes through some very pleasant country….so it’ll make a nice trip. Rising just to the north of the town, are the hills surrounding Loch Turret. You may remember we were walking up here early this year and we’re now planning another walk in the area one day soon. I’m hoping it’ll be warm enough to sit and do some sketching as I really want to get some paintings done of this beautiful area.

'Autumn grass, Beinn Inverveigh', Acrylic & Pastel, 2009 Ref 136

'Autumn grass, Beinn Inverveigh'

If you’re in London and can get along to the fair, the details are:

The Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Park, London

The Strathearn Gallery stand number is: I 14.

The fair opens on Wednesday evening 20th October.

The last day of the fair is Sunday 24th October.

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The Jolomo Scottish Landscape Awards – ‘2009 Finalists’ – Strathearn Gallery, Crieff

Posted by admin on February 18th, 2010

144 'Breaking cloud, Am Bodach', Acyrlic & Pastel, 2010, 80 x 80 cm

'Breaking cloud, Am Bodach'

Well, the exhibition opened last Saturday and the eight paintings I included in the show were finally completed, framed, delivered and hanging on the walls in time for the opening at 11.00am that morning!  Now, that doesn’t sound difficult does it?  Just eight pieces.

Of course, I couldn’t do it the easy way and select eight already completed pieces.  No, I was determined to do a few completely new paintings for this show.  And, bar for a few days of panic while I was trying to finish the ‘Winter, Blackmount’ painting … (I just couldn’t get it right for a while), everything went ok.

The framing though was another matter.  The five smaller paintings were fine.  These are always framed the same way; behind glass with a wide single mount and a stylish but simple 7 cm wide distressed ‘York’ silver frame.  This seems to work well with the scratchy, scribbled nature of my paintings.  The three larger pieces were another thing entirely.  At this scale (80 x 80 cm and 60 x 60 cm) I needed a different kind of frame; something without a mount and glass.  I tried a lot of different mouldings and colour combinations before hitting on the right thing.

It’s a fairly broad simple wooden frame with a raised outer edge, painted a pale cream colour and with a thin gold inner edge.  This seems to work well with these paintings.  This sounds quite simple but getting to this point took much bashing of my head against the wall as to start with I’d decided the frames should be dark and with a second outer edge of gold.  This made them look like window frames and so they all had to be completely re-painted ….ooops!  Oh well, we got there in the end and as my framer said …the customer is always right …but not always correct.  He may have a point

The show, containing work by the seven of us short listed for last years Jolomo Awards for Scottish Landscape Painting, looks good.  It’s a smashing gallery with large well lit spaces on two levels.  It was great meeting up with the others again and seeing what they’d all been doing.  There’s a lot of very fine work there, so if you can get to Crieff before the show ends on March 20th, then I’d recommend it …not that I’m at all biased of course!  Of all the work though, my fuzzy eye was caught by Toby Cooke’s fantastic painting, ‘View from Leith’.  It’s quite big and the composition is just great.  Anyway, you can see for yourself, even if you don’t live in driving distance of Crieff …the show can be seen on-line:  www.strathearn-gallery.com .

At the end of the preview on Saturday I was feeling pretty happy as I’d sold a few of my paintings and the gallery has asked if I’d like to put on a solo show in 2011 …Wow!  Mind you it’ll be a lot of work – something in the region of forty pieces, so it’s a good job I’ve a year to work on it!

Jolomo 2009 Finalists Catalogue

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A week in the life of …

Posted by admin on January 29th, 2010

'From Beinn Inverveigh, October', Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 60 x 60 cm

'From Beinn Inverveigh, October'

Saturday 23rd January

The main aim of the day was to try and get a painting finished.  I’ve been working on two pieces that I plan to exhibit at the Strathearn Gallery in Creiff as part of the Jolomo Awards 2009 Finalists exhibition.  This opens on Saturday 13th February and the work has to be delivered a week before.  So not long!  I’d completed the first piece the week before but this second piece was causing me a few problems.  However, before I could start painting there was the small matter of meeting the Pest control man who we’d contacted the day before after hearing some ominous scratching and movement in the studio walls and loft spaces.  It appears that while we were away from the building due to the frozen pipes, some furry friends have moved in.  Great!  By the end of the day the painting still wasn’t completed.

Sunday 24th January

So back to it again.  The painting in question is based on the view I had over to the hills of the Blackmount from the relative warmth of Rannoch Moor.  I’d been watching the bad weather through the monocular and it seemed an excellent subject for a painting.  Easier said than done sometimes but by the end of the evening I had the piece finally finished.  In the end, although it had caused me problems, I’m quite pleased with it and am looking forward to seeing it in a frame and on the wall.  Mind you, I was working on this picture for almost ten days!

'Winter, Blackmount', Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 76 x 23 cm

'Winter, Blackmount', Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 76 x 23 cm

Monday 25th January

Of course as I’ve said before, being a painter isn’t just about doing paintings …oh if that were only  the case.  We’ve been in the process of up-grading this website … as hopefully you’ve noticed.  Well, that of course means someone else doing the actual work on the site, but I’ve had to do quite a bit of work on the computer for this too.  The new works on the website are now shown much better with larger clearer images and more information about each painting.  So then, Monday morning started with a session on the computer, sorting images and writing details etc.  As anyone who’s visually impaired will know, using a PC can be quite time consuming and frustrating.  I use a screen magnifier mostly but of course I have to have the magnification so high I can only see a very small portion of the screen at any one time.  Suffice to say, I started work at 07.30 and by 11.00 I’d got some things done …but not much.  Added to this, my computer crashed in the middle of everything and I can honestly say it wasn’t the best starts to the day!

It did improve once down the studio and  as well as getting some interesting small drawings done I also got the painting I’d finished the day before, into it’s frame….and it looks great …he said modestly!

Tuesday 26th January

A slightly different day ….I’ve been asked by the Edinburgh based charity Autism Initiatives Scotland to become one of their patrons for a new project they’re starting in the city.   I had arranged to meet three of the people responsible for setting up and running the project, and to learn more of it and about my role as a patron.  More in detail in another blog but suffice to say that the project involves creating a working gallery through which people affected by autism can undertake apprenticeships in both the creative business sides of the gallery.  The meeting went very well and later we were taken to see the building that is to be the gallery.  It’s a wonderful building in a superb location in the heart of the gallery district on the edge of the city centre.  I’m very excited and delighted to have been asked to be involved in it.  Back in Irvine by 17.30 …and back on the computer for several more hours.

Wednesday 27th January

After another lengthy session on the computer, this time working on information requested by the Scottish Arts Circle, I then received an email from Germany informing me that I’d been selected for the 2010 Speyer Artists Scholarship.  Wow!  I’d applied back in January last year and didn’t really hold out much hope …but there you go ..if you don’t apply …etc etc.  More details in another blog …but basically it means I’ll be living and working in a purpose built house and studio in the centre of the historic and beautiful city of Speyer for the four months May – August.  What a great opportunity and chance to export a little bit of contemporary Scottish landscape painting into Europe.   Despite the elation at hearing this news, it was back to the studio and work through to 20.00.

Thursday 28th January

A whole day on the computer …getting images ready and sent to the Strathearn Gallery for their website.  Also a CV and statement. Emails to read, emails to answer.  We’ve just set up a link with Facebook and already have 20 plus fans (are you one?).  I finished my marathon session on the computer (about 10 hours and boggled eyes) by trying to learn my way around the Facebook website … I’m feeling a bit old!

Friday 29th ..today

Well, it’s 09.30 and I’ve been working at this keyboard for the last two hours.  Almost finished here so I plan to get a full days painting in.  Nita will pick me up when she finishes work at 20.00 …and then I think we’ll both deserve a pint!  Signing off … a rather frazzled artist!

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    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org