The Aspect Prize

This is Green Girl by Steven Lindsay who is our fourth finalist.
It's a strong foursome.
Goodness knows how the judges will decide.

The Aspect Prize

This is 'Clyde Shipyard Study' by Adam Kennedy. If you read The Jackdaw there is an article on Adam and his work.

The Aspect Prize

This is 'Inception' by Frances Law. Big painting. Will look good in The Fleming Collection Gallery.

The Aspect Prize

This is 'Leeward' by Rowena Comrie who is one of the four finalists in this years Aspect Prize.
The finalists exhibition runs at The Fleming Collection gallery in Berkeley Street in London from January 10th until the 14th. It's not long but it's worth catching.

Like this shot of the birds feeding on the bird table

A little reminder of how fabulous the snow was last week.

Mike Marlin at Barrowland

Last night Mike Marlin played at Barrowland in Glasgow. Backing 'From the Jam', Mike faced a largely male audience who only wanted to see the main act. It was a hard one but they did well.
Mike said it was the toughest gig of the tour so far....but that's Glasgow for you.

Clerkland Farm Tearoom and Shop

Exhibiting for the next few weeks at Clerkland Farm Tearoom is Janet
Anderson. The tearoom is between Dunlop and Stewarton. Good
lunches. Good cakes. Always some paintings or prints on the walls.
Janet's show will run until the end of January. The Tearoom will be
closed over Christmas and the New year.

Life at the bird table.

Nice and snowy and cold. Lovely for walking.

Wiltshire Art fair

If you need a little heat in this cold weather then head to the Wiltshire
Art fair (if you can get there through the snow) and visit this painting
and others in the Quiddity Fine Art stand.
Painting is called 'On the Malecon, Havana.'

Snow

Went for a great walk yesterday.

Christmas books

Today it's the turn of Santa. He has his very own book telling you all
you need to know about life in Santa's household and the history of
his work. Lots of pictures and letters and even a giant snowflake.
Compiled by John and Juliette Atkinson, this is a terrific book and
one for every home.
Called 'All About Me' you will find it on Amazon and I'm sure it will
be available in all major book stores.

Christmas books

A couple of pals have books published in time for Christmas.
Today we'll look at 'Life of Pee' by Sally Magnusson. This is a
smallish book....about 7 inches by 5 and costing £10.99. Knowing
Sally's writing and her fastidious approach to her work I knew this
would be good and it certainly lives up to my expectations and more.
The research she has done is exemplary. This is not only a fun book
but a deeply interesting insight into the world of urine. I had no idea
there were so many uses or that gallons of the stuff were shipped to
and fro to factories various.
Highly recommend this both as a stocking filler and a present in its
own right. I'm about to purchase a few for lucky friends.

studio sale today

It's early in the morning and today is the studio sale. Overnight we had

two inches of snow. Will anyone venture out into the country in the

snow? Very few I would think. We'll wait and see. Some will think it

an adventure. Some will not. If no-one comes I'll delay the sale until

May. I reckon that with snow this early in the winter we could be in for

a long cold one.

The house is ready...there are paintings everywhere. I've sold six in the

last five days so I've made a little money. No complaints from me then.

There are two young artists coming today to help with the sale and if

no-one turns up we have plenty of wine and lots of food so we'll have

a good time. I suspect a few villagers will appear, hang up their coats,

head for the wine and settle in.

Studio Sale

Things are quickening here. Four sold already and three people coming today. The sale isn't until tomorrow but this is a great start.

Studio Sale

All sorts of paintings available in the Studio Sale. A few people have
come by already and four paintings have been sold. Saturday is the
big day...mind you there are warnings of snow which would scupper
the whole thing.
Watch this space.

Fish market

Taken at the Fish Market in Kalky near the Cape of Good Hope.

For all of you that know me and even those that don't....I'm
having a studio sale this coming Saturday. 10-4 at the house.

The Aspect Prize

With something like seven weeks to go before the Finalists exhibition
at The Fleming Collection in London, work is really coming together
for the finalists. This is Force 9 by Rowena Comrie.
Really admire the free flow of the paint and the energy that comes
out of this painting. Lovely colour.

James Watt

This is 'Ardbeg' by Jimmie Watt. It's a huge painting. If only I
had a wall big enough and a bank balance to go with it.
Jimmie is nearly eighty years old now but still painting
regularly and coming up with some fabulous canvasses.
He too is exhibiting at Kelvingrove until the end of January.

Rachael Rebus

This is a small painting by Rachael Rebus called 'Central'. Part of a series on railway tracks including a couple from Altenburg near Berlin.

John Kingsley

One of the great painters working in Glasgow at the moment is John
Kingsley. Well known for his French landscapes, John also does some
very exciting abstracted work. This one is called 'Govan' and is
currently hanging in Kelvingrove.
It's a good price so do buy it. I'm sorely tempted.

A wee reminder of Venice......mmmmmmmm.

Edinburgh Art Fair

This week sees the Edinburgh Art Fair opening. There are lots
of galleries taking part and I'm with Tracey McNee Fine Art.
It is happening in Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Newmarket Road
and runs from the 17th to the 21st.
Painting is 'Yellow Boat, Castara, Tobago'

The River Runs Through It

What a week. getting the exhibition on the wall was a heck of a job.

I have to hand it to the team at Kelvingrove...they know what they

are doing and they do it really well.

All sorts of hitches in the last couple of days meant that I was run

ragged and by the time it got to the opening I just wanted to fall

into bed BUT I rallied, did my speech and spent the evening

doing the social bit.

Some details to fix in the day to day running of the show but it's

looking good.

Above is Ben Crawshaw's Mirror I, II & III.

The River Runs Through It Exhibition

This is John Kingsley's 'Clydeside' which is now firmly attached to the wall in the main gallery.
Hanging started in earnest yesterday and I have to say that the hanging team at Kelvingrove are the best I have ever worked with and the nicest bunch of guys.

Lots still to do. It's going to be another long day.

The River Runs Through It Exhibition

This is 'The Source' by Adrian Wiszniewski. Gouache on paper,
it is some six feet tall. A wonderful painting which I am really
looking forward to seeing when we start hanging the show.

The River Runs Through It Exhibition

Here's the poster. Very happy they used one of my paintings.
Catalogue gone to the printer. It's all go.
Guest speaker next week is Carol Smillie. She is on the board
of Trustees for the Riverside Museum Appeal.

Colin Brown

The extraordinary collage artist Colin Brown has done five beautiful works for the exhibition in Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum that opens next Friday. This is 'Glenlee' based on the tall ship on the Clyde which will soon become one of the main exhibits in the new Riverside Museum which opens next year.

Ben Crawshaw

Mirror II is one of three paintings that Ben Crawshaw will have in The River Runs Through it Exhibition at Kelvingrove which opens on November 12th.

Lachlan Goudie

This is Lachlan Goudie's 'From the other side of the Clyde' which will be in our The River Runs Through It exhibition in Kelvingrove.

The River Runs Through It Exhibition

This is one of a pair of large prints based on the construction site at the new Riverside Museum.
We start hanging at the end of next week and Preview is Nov 11th. Open to the public from Nov 13th at Kelvingrove Art Galleries in Glasgow.

Paul Kennedy

This is Paul Kennedy's Inner Circles....one of the paintings for the
'River Runs Through It' exhibition.
There's something of the Paul Nash in there.

A River runs through it

Over the past few months I've been helping organize an exhibition in Kelvingrove Art Galleries in aid of the new Riverside Museum which opens in Glasgow in the Spring of 2011. Designed by Zaha Hadid the Riverside is Glasgow's new transport museum.
We have 27 artists who have had access to the site and who have been asked to come up with work which in some way ties in with the whole idea of the museum, transport, the river, Glasgow
or the workmen building the museum...whatever makes a link. The images have been flooding in over the past two weeks and this looks like it will be an extraordinary exhibition. We have great names such as Peter Howson, Adrian Wiszniewski, Glen Scouller, John Kingsley and Sue Biazotti.
The painting above is 'Clydeport' by Katie Pope.

The exhibition runs from 13th November until the end of January.

Venice again.

Isn't this fabulous. It is on the Grand Canal.

Venice

A traghetto crossing the grand canal. It's one Euro to cross the canal. If you want to get a gondola and go up and down....it'll be at least 100 Euros. We paid one Euro, went out for a meal and still had change....

Tobago

Found this image of a wee sketch I did in Tobago a few years ago.

Anyway....just back from a few days in Venice hence the lack of entries on the blog this last week. When I download some of the photos I'll pop a few on. Hadn't been in Venice for over 40 years. Doesn't seem to have changed much except for the dreadful advertising hoardings covering areas of St Mark's Square.
Apart from that the city is quite wonderful if a little on the expensive side. I'm now mulling over images which no doubt will emerge as paintings at some point.

Damian Callan

Currently exhibiting in the Gallery at The Mussel Inn in Hope Street in Glasgow is Damian Callan. This exhibition runs for the best part of a month. We attended the opening and enjoyed the paintings as well as rather a good meal.
Damian teaches part time at Leith School of Art which is somewhere I have a lot of time for.
They still teach the skills you need to draw,paint, print and sculpt.

My toy aeroplane

Here we have a work in progress. Badly photographed but hey...you get the idea. It's a big painting.

Ciao Roma

Had a fabulous meal in Ciao Roma in Perth. Lovely ice cream to end it all off. Yum

Belfast, Maine

One chilly morning with the mist still clinging to the water and shoreline I came across this
slightly battered truck parked in a boatyard in Belfast in Maine. Couldn't resist doing a wee painting. People complain that it isn't my usual palette of vivid colours and I say no but it was a misty morning...these are the colours I saw. These are the colours that make the moment.
I like it and I'm putting it in my November Studio Sale.

Belfast in Maine is a great wee town. Fabulous restaurants. Good boat builders....wooden sailing boats, sleek and gorgeous.

As for my outburst on blogs and Facebook...well I had responses from the south of England to Glasgow to San Francisco.
How wonderful to think that the old blog travels so far. I usually get some comments from someone in China but they are in Chinese and I've no idea what they say.
They are either very complimentary or terribly rude.

To all you readers out there...the blog has been taken over by Google so if you have a Google account you can leave a comment on the blog. All you need to do is write your comment and put in your Google password.
Previously you had to register with Blogspot which was unlikely.

Lake Trasimeno

This is one of Lake Trasimeno in Italy. If you have never been to this part of Umbria then you should go. It's very beautiful and the lake, which is quite shallow, is unlike any lake I've seen.
The colours and feel of the place are unique. I'm putting this one up because it has the feel I want from a painting I'm planning on a wee fishing village in South Africa. And there the similarity ends. Umbria and the outskirts of Cape Town are very different places.

Does anyone read this? I'm convinced that the entire world is on Facebook and no-one looks at blogs any more. Perhaps I should start writing more on the blog...if no-one reads it then I could witter on for ages. Let's see....well I'm fed up with our pre-occupation with politics. Fed up with
ever tightening laws and restrictions on life. I'd better stop now. Put the kettle on, that's the answer.

More tomorrow