Lochcarron Winter Sunrise

This is a commission for a Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Just got it back from My lovely Framers over at Kishorn this morning & away in the post, not before a quick photie in front of the view..mountains in back obscured by Snow. Acrylics on thick paper. Stained Ash frame. Fashion design by winter-scruff.com , hey at  least I'd brushed my hair!

Steam Punk

Heres the sketch for something I'm working on at the moment. I realised I had a problem with steam punk, & that is I can think Victoriana without thinking pollution, poverty, social injustice, the excesses of imperialism, yes even in my fantastical imaginings have a social agenda, At what cost would gleaming crystal palaces, zepplins, robots & steam machines come at ?.. so Here's the waifs, but we couldn't leave them there in the stinking workhouse, thank goodness for the philanthropists!

Birthday Girl

Heres a wee painting I've done of Ish for her Birthday today. 17. First time I've used water colours in ages!

Bruno goes to art class.

Took big fat hairy Bruno-dog to art class yesterday to model for us. Much entertainment & dog biscuit bribes. The student/participants came up with some great fluid sketches of the fidgeting beast despite initial panic. heres some of mine, I mostly had the back of his head as I sat next to him to try & keep him calm. He is a most photogenic pooch & I love him.

Hi Ex stand in 2

Heres the second stand-in painted, ouch we've all got sore backs now!  This is 'Good Dog, Bad Dog' By Dave Shelton.  Just some varnish & then the stands to make.

Stand ins

I thought it would be a good idea to have some stuff to decorate Eden Court with at Hi Ex, So I put out a plea to some of our artist Guests for characters. Heres The first one we've painted up. A Character called Lady Tsuji from a Story written by our very own Richmond Clements and illustrated by the lovely Inko.

Next Its the Good Dog, Bad Dog ( as seen in the Guardian ) by the talented Dave Shelton...watch this space for the finished items!

'After the Snow'

Well I loved the snow... but at times we only seemed days away from the whole country grinding to a halt. But people in Scandinavia, Mongolia, Siberia, Canada etc deal with minus freezing temperatures all the time. So when the climate changes happens, when the gulf stream switches off, I figures a few years, decades or centuries on, you'd need a mixture tribal and salvaged tech to survive. It will be quite cosy underground in those buried sky scrapers. I've got my head torch and snow boots so I'm getting prepared. I guess I should have put a top of a tall building poking out of the snow, but I thought it too 'planet of the apes' obvious. sketches based on Mongolian archer women, scanned & painted in Photoshop. Did you know, a Mongolian composite bow, make of layers of wood bone & sinew, from Genghis Khans time, was more powerful in aim & range than bows of modern materials.

ink version of Biker Jane

not happy with drawing, hardly any time for art- stressing me out. Need those jobs, yet pitching for them leaves me struggling to be something I'm not & not giving myself time to be/ do what I am good at- whatever that is. When I ran my pottery I never felt like a 'proper' potter, but of course I was, now it frustrates me that all those pottery skills lie dormant and unused. I feel everything is clumsy and amateur, even my garish crochet projects.  What I did realise tho' that I surround myself with illustrators and comic artists, who all draw from imagination?  I feel so inadequate at this, but then remembered that from an early age was taught that drawing from imagination was bad, drawing from observation was the only valid method. Blimey it even took me years to get past the idea that photo reference was woeful cheating. so many rules, of course to let go of them all would result in completely self indulgent splodge of cat fur and plaster- its art darling. If I don't get some time to do any soon I shall implode- which would in itself, be art of course.

Biker Jane

Work in progress- and it has been for many years. We all have a graphic Novel inside of us, or think we do, My problem is I can't write and my drawn layouts/ anatomy/ action need a lot of work, so I've been sitting on this project until I get good enough to give it a go. This is Jane the Biker, my idea of a comic female character - I hesitate to use the word heroine . You do not want to meet Jane on a dark night. Its sort of a dark road movie set in the highlands. Strangely the world is changing so fast, aspects of the story are already looking olde worldy, smoking in public, no CCTV, people not using mobile phones as standard, different drugs being used... I'll have to hurry up & do it before we're all using hover jets. ( or set it deliberately in the past ). Figured I'd work up some versions of this sketch for colouring folio practice in different styles. Heres the start of the 1st one.

Art Class - life drawing.

Art Class- had some models today, low turn out due to snow, but good fun. Ish sat for 30/40 minutes, I made her look ancient & proportions are out.

Lukáš sat for 25 minutes, tricky light- excuses excuses. Really should practice drawing people more often.

Snow Crows.

you follow my 'pic of the day' photo blog, you may recognise these Crows which were sheltering from the blowy snow in the trees in our garden last week. mixed media on paper.29cm x 21cm

Moon Bow

31cm x 38cm, mixed media on card. Been messing about with this since last week, just trying to get last weeks night sky from memory, was it blue? green, gold, silver, pink, copper? enjoying the silky feel of paint slippy on this card.

Midwinter trees in moonlight.

A quick acrylic on card. 25cm x20 cm. ( and yes these things are always for sale )

Midwinter Birch painting

The snowy light is fascinating me,. daylight is so brief, but this last week has had a bright moon at night which helps combat the darkness, and in the snow makes everything amazing eerie colours, shapes distort, shadows shift. I like just going out in the freezing temperatures & looking at the sky trying to breathe in any light available. I hate Midwinter.

I've also been getting sick of 'painting by numbers' representational landscapes, which people like, and buy. But am currently allowing myself just to go mad with the paint, paint from memory and just splodge around to see what happens. Its pretty mentally exhausting but feels good. I also haven't had space/ house to myself in a couple of months, so am having to shift my working methods to try & work around this. Luckily the snow colours are inspiring enough to help combat the midwinter blues.

Stags & Snow

After a very long, very slippy, very snowy, very beautiful drive to Inverness today, I painted 8 of these staggy pictures.

Hi Ex, e-card

Our e-card for Hi Ex. www.hi-ex.co.uk

December

I haven't been blogging much, but thats not to say I haven't been busy!  There has been a couple of craft fairs, This is Lochcarron Hall at the producers day, where I sell my prints and crafty bits - Or  'little drawings ' as someone described my work this week.

I''ve done a recycled crafts demonstration, hopefully there will be some funding for some recycled craft workshops in the new year.  The community art class I run continues to be well attended.
Here is a picture of young people painting the pool table cover at a Youth Cafe workshop I ran on the east coat recently- The theme was about leaving home & homelessness in young people. Great fun & hopefully some important messages sank in.

Apart from that I've been pitching for some comic colouring work, can't show you samples yet I'm afraid!
I've also been press ganged into joining the Highlands Open Studios Committee, to help specifically with PR & marketing, should be fun!  In my case it should of course be called Highlands Open Spare room of chaos.

Lochcarron Commission

Heres a Christmas commission painting of Lochcarron including village hall.

quick sunset

Heres a quicky, commissioned by some kids at the door... I am a big softie & shall charge them some crisps or something.

mail me art submission

Finally finished this doodle, had meant to submit one a month to this but lost 3 months somewhere. I feel the need to delve back into squiggly lines and weird beasties, getting bogged down with 'representational' work .

The logic goes like this, I want art to be inclusive not elitist, that is so that anyone can appreciate it. So I'm trying to court the average person on the street as well as the arts establishment - to feed both my ideals and the chip on shoulder that art college left. So I make paintings that look like real things that people recognise "ooo its just like a photograph", but these aren't abstract or expressive enough for galleries, which also always used to sneer at my  squiggly stuff. However they do establish a degree of technical skill, which seems to annoy other local artists. But the average person ? is that the fake tan wanna be Katie Prices'? the x-factor watching masses? or the tweedy old ladies that pick up my art at craft fairs and say " ooo I don't like this modern art, but I like your landscapes "- modern art? why o why o why do I care what any of them think? why? well because art is a dialogue, communication, pointless in a vacuum. I just wish I could slough off this trying to be everything to all. stuff them, I want to squiggle- just forgotten how.

Odin ROCKS!

Heres my finished ' re-imagined ' Odin picture, for my friends at Asgard Crafts, who make really cool Viking/ Celtic/ Pictish pewter/ silver/ bone stuff.

loch Sgamhain road

ON the road from lochcarron to..anywhere are some amazing empty sweeps of road, there are of course still 20 miles of blind bend single track pot holed road as well. This is the straight stretch near Loch Sgamhain ( pronounced 'skavain' ). the story behind that name is another story.
This is a small painting acrylic, pencil & pastel.

Fire & Water

One of the gallery's Christmas/Winter Exhibition includes art in CD cases, that is 12cm by 12cm. I figured trying to do whole landscapes or figures this small would be messy, so went instead for this flame & splash of water. Enjoyable, getting the richness of colour for the flame was tricky, I need to invest in some expensive paint for some core colours. I'm really in the mood for running water scenes, with my proper new camera I should be able to have some fun with this- if I ever get time to read the manual & get outside photographing on decent days.

 

Highland Festival - 1995

Some History for you. Back in 1995 there was a Highland Arts festival. One of the projects was an art exhibition of art created within a set 24 hour period, as part of this there was an 'Art train' artists and musicians on the train journey from Kyle to Inverness, interpreting that journey then handing in the work at the end. The journey was great fun, a lovely atmosphere on the train. I had my three children with me, then aged 9, 7 and 2.

I did a sequential interpretation of the journey, watercolour & pens on 3 sheets of A1 paper, the landscape reading like a story as it unfolded. These later sold to a swiss couple.

 My son struggled but eventually wrote this poem;

I am moaning on this train because I cannot draw,

Living in the Highlands is lonely

Living in the Highlands is Cold

On the art train a nice train driver showed me the cabin and I got to beep the horn.

The festival train what a beautiful name

Engines roar as rails click

Beautiful scenery passes all the way

So go and buy a ticket.

My eldest daughter Tal painted colourful landscapes.

Our work all got framed up and exhibited. As a result of this came a book, "People in a Landscape", which contained some of the artists and their portraits, from the angle of " the New Highlanders " The author noting that many of these artists were not indigenous highlanders. Myself included as I arrived in 1976, what about my children? they were born & bred here? does it matter ? There was an article in I think-The Times, which caused much anger as it used the expression 'white settler'.

meanwhile, my daughter Tal was chosen for inclusion in the book. portraits were taken by the very talented Craig MacKay.

There was a book launch, lots of people in suits doing speeches, I put on my best handmedown homemade patched up frock & attended with my gaggle of children. I hated it, stood in a corner like uninvited guests ignored, I'd always felt such and outsider in the arts scene. A woman with a very English accent swathed in tartan courted the press. We slunk away embarrassed & miserable, the chip on my shoulder had got bigger, I think I took the children for a treat like chips or toyshop, something lowbrow & real. Its taken me some decades to get past this outsider feeling, and its nothing to do with ability, just who you know & how you present yourself. Of course being a single mom tucked away in a remote glen with no support network didn't exactly aid inclusion for me or my children.

It all seems a million miles away now.

Halloween Witches

Seeing so many great Halloween art work around I thought I'd better make the effort. I have to confess I very rarely doodle, sketch or draw things just for the fun of it. The list of commissions, gallery pieces, commercial work and organisey work is just too long. Ironically when I do just 'play' its not only more fun, I learn more, and people like it as much as the more formal work.
Sadly I've been rather poorly for the last week or so, all normal work is off the agenda and I haven't been able to do much beyond housework and climbing the walls. This shows rather in the 1st drawing !
I wanted to draw a more practical, modern, feminist, real sized witch - not particularly a self portrait! However this drawing didn't work anyway as I'm rubbish at anatomy without a model or references, bloggers I follow & artists I network with all make it look so easy- depressing.

But I liked this 2nd one enough to colour. I think she's also fed up all those poseur willowy Goths & Emos going on about vampires and rubbish, when theres spells and being scary to get done.

Which reminds me, I have a tonne of leaves to rake up in the garden when I'm well enough...groan !

Two lochs Radio- Sunday Brunch

Today was my Radio Debut. Mike and Graham from Gairlochs' Two lochs Radio station were kind enough to invite me onto their 'Sunday Brunch' programme to talk about being a community Fire fighter. Apparently this is the UK's smallest radio station, the tiny building stands overlooking the scenic Loch Gairloch. Inside I was pretty impressed with the technical gadgetry, all the more surreal watching a hawk feet away outside the window during the programme.

I was a wee bit intimidated by the Microphones at first, especially as the show was live. However a few firefighting questions and a couple of shameless plugs for my website later and I was quite at home.

The really indulgent bit was that I'd been asked to select my 4 favorite songs to play, it was a real kick to hear those playing out !  The programme was available live over the internet as well as on traditional radio.

Its in no way a definitive list, but I'd selected a representational radio appropriate cross section. These were;

Pearl Jam - Alive  which is an emotional one for me, more so after seeing them live at the o2 this summer.
Audioslave-Cochise Chris's vocals & Tom's guitar? wow! the lyrics are also important to me.
Tom Petty - Saving Grace, what an evocative poignant song- a real road song.
Steve Earle- City of Immigrants, particularily topical this week after the Question Time debacle, We saw Steve Earle at Belfast in September, a powerful political & moving performance.

So check out Two Lochs Radio, and Thanks to Mike & Graham for asking me on.

Two lochs Radio TODAY

I'd forgotten to post this until today ! I'm on two lochs radio later this morning 11.pm. playing my 4 'favorite' songs and having a chat about firefighting, art comics, life whatever comes up. I think their website has a web cam etc. they will also be taking callers, which could be interesting !
 http://www.2lr.co.uk/

Applecross Dancers

This is another small painting. 14cm x 21cm. Its based on a photo of two little girls from Applecross doing Highland Dancing at the annual games in 2008. It makes me smile as Applecross children are great.  They are unselfconscious, exuberant, and just a little bit wild, in a great grubby kneed sort of way like all children should be. I love doing art projects with them as its always a relaxed creative time, whereas with most children's groups nowadays one is always treading on eggshells.

Glenariff Waterfall Painting

I love painting flowing water at the moment! I've been doing a disciplin thing of only using paint for everything in a painting, as going in with pastels or water colour pencils seems - not cheating, there is no such thing as cheating- but too much a technique based solution. I want to know I can do it with a brush first.A bit of chalk would have made the spray & texture on rocks a whole lot easier here, I might ease up a little & go mixed media with some of the next paintings.  This ones 17cm x 22cm.

3 boats.

still working on small pictures, working my way back to the big stuff, I hope to do a lot from photos I took at the sailing club this summer. this ones 14cm x 18cm

Glasgow Herald

Sunday magazine 17th October 2009. Whilst its nice to get these interviews, its also very embarrassing. The photos were done in the lobby of a Glasgow hotel while I was on an FBU course. My fellow students were watching a moving documentary about Martin Luther King and the rise of the civil rights movement- while I posed. Surreal.

Spinning lesson

another small one, 23cm x 19cm acrylic on paper. This is from a photo of Margaret Beaton from Applecross teaching a visitor lady spinning at Applecross games 2009. In a way I kind of like the early stages, I'm hoping that by working hard doing one after the other that I'll get looser and distill it right down, somewhere between an abstract wash & crisp reality.