Scottish Landscape Art – Scottish Landscape Paintings

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)

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 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.