The Riverside Museum, Glasgow

Attended a preview of the new Riverside Museum in

Glasgow last night. Great evening. 700 people there

but you wouldn't have known. The Museum opens on

June 21st. It is FABULOUS.

Designed by Zaha Hadid. Just terrific to have one of her

large buildings in the UK...and right here in Glasgow.

Glasgow Degree Shows

Fascinating small print on concrete by Anna Rhodes.

Anna has a film installation called 'Strines'.

Glasgow Degree Shows

This is Laura Mairs in front of one of her paintings.

The colours all go so well. Fabulous.

Glasgow Degree Shows

Nice big paintings by Rhiannon Simpson. Well worth a look. A natural

at painting landscapes.

www.rhiannoninmansimpson.com

Glasgow Degree Shows

One of my favourites this year is Mary Stephenson. She

produces very personal portraits of people surrounded by

objects that relate to them. What's really nice is that Mary

has made replicas of the objects. Look at the pasta and

all the packaging. The finished photographs are high

quality and there is a freshness to the work. What will she

do next I wonder. She will surely find a market in greeting

cards whilst hopefully approaching photographers galleries

in London. Then there's stage design....or commissions...

Let's hope some doors open for her. If you want to

commission work then email Mary:

marystephenson@hotmail.co.uk

Glasgow Degree Shows

Chinese student Liu Lei has some interesting work. Very well painted. I took the photos with my iphone so they are not all that good...but you get the idea. There is a complexity in these relatively small paintings that demands some attention. The paintings of rain are scanned from his postcard.

www.liuleistudio.com

Brooklyn

Wakehurst

Whilst in East Sussex at the weekend we visited Wakehurst,

the National Trust property with a huge garden. In amongst

the American trees are a series of totem poles. Here are

two of them. Wonderfully carved, each totem pole tells a story.

This weekend

It's quite a weekend. Exhibiting at Le Sm' ART in

Aix en Provence. (That's the invitation) and also

at the Lemond Gallery in Bearsden, Glasgow.

Could do with a couple of sales in this market

so fingers crossed. It's a great time to buy

paintings so get in touch if you are interested.

New York signage

In the garden

Lovely old Oliver 80 tractor which came along to the tractor

and vintage vehicle rally in the village. This one is a star.

Oliver the man was born in Scotland and moved to the USA

where he set up his company in Indiana. Hart and Parr made

the engines and Oliver made the bodies and implements.

They were manufactured from the late thirties to the

late forties.

Good textures in a close in Argyle Street in Glasgow.

Lovely old lettering in Beith's main street. Sadly the

firm no longer exists and I suspect the lettering will

disappear pretty soon.

Art Pistol

There is a new internet gallery based in Glasgow that

will be launching soon. I've sent them three images

including this one. Watch out for Art Pistol.

A windy walk in Largs was a brief moment of relative calm between grey skies and rain.

Tea and cake at Nardini's made up for the wind.

Something appeals in the shapes, colours and textures.

Sometimes the ordinary is fascinating.

Ken Loach

Just been working on the new Ken Loach film playing

a lawyer. This is Ken directing and pointing at Nick

Hughes and myself. Nick had his cell phone so thanks

for the photo Nick.

SSAA Exhibition

Also in the SSAA exhibition is this painting of a lighthouse in Maine.

SSAA exhibition

This year I'm guest artist at the Scottish Society of Architect

Artists Annual Exhibition which is being held in the Maclaurin

Galleries in Rozelle Park, Ayr. The painting is one of the five I

have in the show and is of houses by Hout Bay outside Cape Town.

The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs for three weeks.

Fascinated by the colour and texture of this door.

Cloud sculpture at the Architectural Biennale in Venice. The venue is in the Arsenale.

The Lemond Gallery

The Lemond Gallery in Thorn Road, Bearsden is gearing

up for its Annual Summer Exhibition. This painting of

Monchique in the Algarve is one I'll have in there.

Delivering today.

On the beach at Culzean. Lovely weather.

Provence Art Fair

This is one of five paintings which are currently winging their

way south to the Provence Art Fair in Aix en Provence.

Exhibiting with a gallery from Montpelier. If you are in

Aix in mid May then drop in and have a look.

The Garden

A few moments in the garden in this lovely weather

The garden last weekend.

Had a busy week. Some of it spent working on Ken Loach's new film

The Angel's Share playing a defence lawyer in Glasgow Sheriff Court.

The photo is of the cafe at the Architectural Biennale in Venice in

the autumn.

This is a golden pheasant. Wonderful colours.

New painting

This is one of ten very big paintings based on walls that I'm doing for

an exhibition in London in the autumn.

Hampshire Art Fair

This is one of the paintings heading down to The Hampshire Art Fair in May.

Over at Jim's farm it's time to take a look at the Bees.

The day after marking the Queen with red paint and clipping her wings,

the hive needs to be checked to make sure that she hasn't been rejected.

All is fine and the Queen is busy.

Sunny weekend in the garden. Good to see everything bursting into life.

Kirkoswald

The wee graveyard in Kirkoswald is host to many of the friends

and family of Robert Burns. This grave is Ann Gillespie's.

Wife of one John Davidson better known as 'Souter Johnnie'.

Images taken in the French Pavilion at the Architectural Biennale in Venice.

David Donaldson exhibition

The Lord Provost and the Donaldson family at the opening of the

David Donaldson exhibition at the Maclaurin Art Gallery, Rozelle Park,

Ayr. This is the first exhibition of DD's work since his death just over

ten years ago. This is a fabulous exhibition of some forty paintings and

runs for a month. Go and see it if you can. There are paintings here

that are in the family collection and rarely seen. Some I'd never seen before.