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

Lake Myvatn

This wee sketch was done at lake Myvatn in Iceland.
The lake has the biggest most ferocious midges
you have ever seen.....

Yesterday was one of those beautiful sunny autumn days. More please.

Florence

This is a tiny wee oil sketch of the Duomo in Florence.

Wee Thai sketch

A friend just bought an old sketch of mine in auction and sent me this image of it.
Done in Thailand on paper bought in Tiwari's Pilgrim Bookshop
in Kathmandu in Nepal the week before.
This lady was cooking in a market.

Spain

Posters on a wall in Spain

Even more Greece

Here's a really old one. Must be twelve years or more....but I still like it. It has some dynamics. Maybe I should revisit that way of painting.

Even more Greece

Can't recall which island I was on when I came across these boats tucked up in a wee harbour.

Greece

I'm still banging on about Greece. That's 3 days now...mind you the real reason is a little wander down memory lane. It's been a while since I painted these and I'm revisiting. This lady is on her way home from market. It's just after midday and blisteringly hot.

Paintings of Greece

As we seem to be looking at paintings of Greece...how about this one? This is in Volissos in Chios. All those lovely shadows. Everything simplified. And that wonderful brick chimney right where it should be. I like this one.

Old Shed, Evvia

This is a painting I did years ago. Don't have a proper image of it but found this old 35mm slide and scanned it but lost a lot of detail on the way. On the other hand...I quite like the effect and will try scanning other 35mm slides to see what happens.

Best Coffee in Town

This is a big painting. Currently on show at John Davies Fine Art in Moreton in Marsh in the Cotswolds.

This is the local shop in a township in South Africa.
Check out the lettering on the Coca Cola sign.
It's wonderful.

Californian tractor

My old pal Robert 'Shady' Oakes sent me this picture taken at the Gravenstien Fair in California.
Obviously Shady, like myself, has a thing about tractors.
I was always amazed at the way many American tractors have their two front wheels so close together.
This one's in cracking condition.

Toy plane against the sky....looks fab

Milngavie Book and Arts Festival

Coming soon is the Milngavie Book and Arts Festival. September 7th - 12th. This painting of vineyards near Moiré in Beaujolais will be there.

The archipod

Without doubt the star of last weekend's Homes&Interiors exhibition was Chris Sneesby's archipod. Everyone was talking about it. I kept going back for a look and eventually asked Chris if he would send me some photos for my blog.
This is a beautiful thing. The interior actually feels larger than you think it's going to be. The finish is really good and there is a feeling of calmness once inside. This is not only the perfect office in the garden but could be a meditation area, a studio or anything you like. There are two sizes and it's fully insulated. All you need is somewhere to place it and a power supply for lighting. Mind you, there's plenty of light inside because of the circular window areas.
Chris says that the outside can have different finishes as well as the cedar finish.

I'd love one.

www.archipod.co.uk

Mike Marlin

Yesrterday I did a photo shoot for Mike Marlin when he was playing Kilkerran. This is one of my favourite pics from the shoot.
Mike is playing Edinburgh tonight and King Tuts in Glasgow on Wednesday evening.

Homes&Interiors Exhibition

Over the weekend The Aspect Prize finalists were on show at the Homes&Interiors exhibition at the SECC in Glasgow. There was a lot of interest in the prize and the artists. Long may that continue.

Rhonda Smith

Here are two of Rhonda's wonderful seascapes. 'Blue Squall' and 'Scottish Shore'.
Go and see this exhibition at The House for an Art Lover in Glasgow.

Rhonda Smith

Last night I went to the opening of an exhibition by Rhonda Smith at
the House for an Art Lover in Glasgow.
I've been to many exhibitions there but this is the finest I have seen so far. If you are in Glasgow then do make the effort. It's a great place for lunch, coffee and a snack or just a look around. Rhonda's paintings are really really good. Hopefully I can get some images to show you
in a day or two.

www.rhondasmithscottishartist.co.uk

PAI exhibition in Bristol

Coming soon is an exhibition of paintings by artists awarded Paisley Art Institute's Diploma.
It is being held by The Lime Tree Gallery in Bristol. Paintings went south the other day and the exhibition opens on Sept 16th.