Had a fantastic weekend last weekend in Northern Ireland. took a billion pictures of the giants causeway. wobbled across the famous rope bridge, was driven up the scenic Antrim coast. The differences & similarities with Scotland where fascinating, its great to go to a another country that still has a distinct culture of its own rather than some tesco led tele-glued hedgeomony.
All of which is secondary of course to the wonderful company i was in, but i'll stop before i make the casual blog reader feel ill. Next weekend i get my own back & drag my Irish companion around the north coast of scottieland, in the slightly less luxurious mode of camping & the miniscule mouse infested bou-mobile.

meanwhile, full time work continues a pace. I had to get our old cat put down as she was dying in a slow unpleasant manner. No art is getting done whatsoever...eeek.

Working flat out this week & a couple of late night shifts & a call out in the small hours too. Busiest week of the year summer visitor wise as its been the weekend of the Lochcarron Highland Games. ( photos of tossing the caber & pipers not included ). The games themselves are of course secondary to the beer tent & the friday night dance, both of which i avoid like the plague.
The Boys raised a lotta money with the Engine & a raffle, of course all basking in the attention of tourist ladys, everyone loves a fireman.

Tho on call, i was in civvies selling crafty arty stuff to the apathetic masses, which bored me greatly. i think i managed to offend a couple of people with the Wild West Wendy comic, but was pleased to sell most of the ones i had. I think i'll have to find another way of flogging the tat i'm compulsed to make as direct selling frys my brain. why do i live here again ?

meanwhile, lots of art to get on with but very little time...

The Kyle Fire brigade Annual Charity raft race, its murder ! We're the wee dark blob directly below the gap between the two islands & next to the long blue raft.
We came in forth overall but were the first all firefighter crew so got the fire brigade trophy, hurrah !
Thats the crew, me, dave, Ollie, Sandy.

And heres some of our trusty cheering on-shore support team;
cameron; hayley; Ishie; natasha; Claire; Flora; Anna. Alex; daves mum & shona.
All good fun, and hopefully some funds for local charitys. Thanks to Applecross for the borrow of their raft.

( This all means i Missed DR WHO final episode with is worth triple the sponsor money ! )

Heres us doing sea-trials on a new raft for the annual fire brigade charity raft race tomorrow. As per usual muggings is one of the crew on the raft, its bloody murder ! anyone laughing at my pink wellies is in big trouble.

and heres a lovely dragonfly that Ollie ( above ) ' s son found injured, sadly it didnt survive. sniff.

heres a text story that we all provided illustrations for;
http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/fiction/2006/roguetrooper/nuearthtearjerker.shtml

i hope its anonymous Author produces some more soon.

Started New Job with great group of kids whos lives would put perspective into all of ours. Turns out Art therapy also involves rough n tumble football games. It was great fun.
Ishies got two new pet rats called Ozzy & Hendrix.
Tali had a great weekend at RockNess festival with fat boy slim etc.
and I have to go & do some art to clear my 'artists' block, right now, I promised.

well heres a fairy that i painted in with Gouache paints. But in many ways i prefer the photoshoppy colours that Rich did.. which i can't find right now to post up here, bah ! i really MUST learn this colouring, scratchy brush strokes are all good & well in their place, but so's smooth gradiated blocks of colour. I'm itching to play with acrylics next but progress is terribly slow here as i'm a bit all over the place.

Tis the moments between moments that we capture on camera, when we participate, fully, we're can't pin down the moments in 2D. The most precious times in live lie behind the images, freeze frame in memory & senses only.
Heres the shore at 'Sands' Applecross peninsular, this weekend, haze & drizzel that went un-noticed. mountains hidden in mists. graffiti in the sands. mesolithic rock shelter & simple moments shared.
Heres what Ish thinks to it all.

Monday collage making down at the day care centre, it always takes a while to get going cos they've never done anything like it in their lives & just don't get it until they see a picture starting to take shape. we're working on a group mural next week.
Nothing to show from art class, my muse hasnt left me, its just not quite reaching the paintbrush.
And then the brownies came to the fire station for their fire saftey type badges, quite a lot of complex concepts to get across to hyper little uns, but theyre quite clued up, which shows that the whole big fire service modernisation thing of pushing fire prevention is filtering through.

Proud of daughter Ishie who demonstrated the breathing apperatus without complaint despite losing clumps of hair which happens to us girlies, why do you think firemen all have short hair ? yeah she didnt panic at all , i do ! i hate it, but then i generally associate it with pitch black, thick smoke, extreem heat exhaustion, confined spaces, carrying fecking heavy hoses and heavy dummies, or in the case of real live incidents, live electric cables & feck knows what else around the next pitch black 200degree sweat soaked corner. nah, it may be rock & roll, but it is scary.

Applecross Seafood & music festival weekend.
people come from far n wide for this event , so the least i could do was sell them some arty crafty stuff, been busy all week making costume jewellery & framing pictures etc.
so there we were 1000ft up the road, yes that famous road which always seems to be an adventure of some sorts, when my gear stick went all wobbly...

don't worry girls ! i can't control the car, its only this metal thing underneath has sheared away.. That was the gear linkage. luckily there was still a phone signal where we were, and i managed to freewheel the car & turn her into a passing place, and then we waited for rescue.

ever resourceful we set up for a days trading... not many punters around.
prehaps the midges ate them all ?
then James ( dudley ) & his wife came & stayed later, which was lovely. They've gone on a seal trip today, & its breezy so not so many midges.

GREAT NEWS !
remember i made a film proposal about a wee girl & wolf friendship ?
well i assumed it had been long since chucked on the slush pile, but got a letter today that its been accepted !! !
so i'll get trained & mentored & get to make a wee animation film which will be shown at the inverness film festival.. Maddness eh !
my how things turn unexpectedly.
whatever next ?!

fairy number two. afraid ive not been much a drawing this week.

well chums my apologies for not updating this here blog since bristol, ive not been sucked into a vacuum of couch potato nothingness, ive just replaced my manic job-list goal setting for a more mellow & mild just getting on with things approach. Which is weird.

Bristol Comic convention 2006. comic conventions generally seem to entail; good intentions which fall victim to brain fugue, moments of side splitting halarity at the most inane, twisted and/ or bizarre gibberish; moments of vacant exhaustion; lots of talking, inane, twisted and/or bizarre gibberish; hiding from scary freakoids; laughing at scary freakoids; realising that in fact we are all scary freakoids; etc



This con specifically involved; giggling about Eds new comic concept of "s**b**c*ing";
Dom Reardon and gnillips and everything around them being selloptaped down ( photo too blurry ); evaluating droids arses; tom jones magical hand; the hotel bar emptying en masse when DR Who came on; lots of gorgeous manga lady artists approaching Richmond with lovely art; failing to collect sketches or talk to Colin baker Dr who as i was too hungover; Bristol centre being full of pirates and fairies ?

great comics i'm looking forward to reading : of course WILD WEST WENDY; futureQuake6; something Wicked from FQ; Mangaquake2; omnavistascope by Paul scott; Solar wind the photo edition featuring us lot.( see previous post with me & moustash ); the End is Nigh; shido; & more

below; a pre Dr who slump in the bar.


and now we have the post con good intentions of great ideas which will rust away another year once reality takes precedence.
A Thanks to Tharg for looking over my folio. Big Thanks to all the lovely people who kept me company, especially my long term collaborator and his righteous disgust.

Ta da !

nearly there. i'll finish this in t'morning.

doing a Wendy painting just as an exercise.
bah, i thought I'd be a smarty pants & show how fast i paint n stuff, but it takes aons to get the camera to work. anyway off set that speed against lazy boned slug inertia & it evens out.

Gouache paints rock, theyre so versatile, ive been using watercolours for decades, why ? gouache can do the same effects as well as gloppy, or blendy or intense.
remember the Wild West Wendy comic is now available via mail order here

yes the book is now just about ready to roll out to the printers. We'll be selling it at Bristol Comics Exhibition next weekend. Its also available via mail order from here for £2 plus p&p.

also exiting news today, i went for a job interview on the Isle of Skye



and i got it ! Its an Art worker for a Charity that supports children who are carers, they do great work, its going to be challenging & exiting. couple of days a week starting next month. so i'll be seeing a lot more of those mountains on the 125mile commute.
and thats the view this evening back on the mainland looking across to skye.

We were working on a secret comics related project today. But the resultant photos are funny enough to break the secret secrecy & risk the wrath of a wrathful editor. All will be revealed at Bristol Comics exhibition.
Give those girls an oscar, and me, wilkinson sword.

Put up wee exhibition of my art classes work today , Its down at the local day care centre & theyre having a coffee morning tomorrow , hopefully rich olde ladies will buy all my wares. Really pleased with how good 'my students' work is looking all mounted & framed. shiney happy feel good.
Also proof that my doggies arent really evil.