journey to Russia

(photo Edinburgh Airport before 1st flight )

Sheremetyevo airport 3 am Moscow time.
tired groggy and a bit confused. Don’t know which terminal we are in, we just parked ourselves somewhere with other humans sleeping on the uncomfortable seats. No free wi fi as I’d hoped. A long day, started  at 6am, Rich took me to achnasheen to meet Lynn & family, who then drove us to the bus station in town, bus...it all seems aeons ago, but it was some thousand miles....chatted bus journey passed fast, art families, college, the symposium theme, life. Cameron toll ?then the airport shuttle bus, Edinburgh airport grey dramatic clouds. Cup of tea, we’d done on-line check in which hadn’t really been necessary, had hours to use the self check in machines, still queued at check in anyway. Quick hop plane to Amsterdam, north east England patchy fields the bass rock, up up and then down into grey rain. Shinpol airport is HUGE we taxied for ages, arrived at one gate,  people heading off our plane for connecting flights all ver the world. We headed for the gate we’d been told & that was marked on the boarding card, seeming miles of corridor, gate had been changed, miles of corridor back again, found our gate, now we were queued with Russian faces and voices, it starts to hit, flutters of nerves and excitement. We were flying KLM so the flight attendants were Dutch with very good English of course, most of teh passengers seemed to speak good English but it was delicious to start hearing spoken Russian after so long it being abstract symbols on the computer screen of phrase books. The atmosphere on the plane was friendly, are we just used to the miserable economy short flights? was it the Dutch or the Russians? We thought we were in for a 5 hour flght it turned out that it was only 2.40, the long hours taking their toll as we tried to work out time zones and roubles. Amsterdam one time zone, Moscow 2 more, tomorrow another one. We hit some turbulence through some thunderstorms just west of Moscow, a bit scary but then I had been watching the last of LOST the night before. Wewere unsure about how to fill in teh immigration forms, scary... a chat next to Lyn started asking questions were we wre egoing etc, oh oh we both thought, touting for business? Something dogdgy? No, we was warning us that at this time of night you have to be careful wth the taxi’s as they will charge too much for tourists- which I’d already read in the phrase book. Another lady told us how to pronounce Yelabuga... I knew it didn’t sound right ! we were saying yellubuga, its YeLL-Ah-buga. When the pilot landed the plane people applauded, is this normal on longer flights ?

Official ladies at airpot, scary, though immigration no problems though, surpirised  my bags with all the tightly packed paints got through. Russian young women are stunningly beautiful, in a different way to UK pretty, but very haughty looking,  I guess they know they look good & don’t need to smile ? first impressions are everyone else seems friendly...allthough sleepy as its now 3.30am their time, 1.30 ours.

So I’ve made a nest of baggage on the polished floors to sleep and sit in, its really muggy hot, the pilot said 27C, it smells strongly of peat smoke. The tannoy lady speaks in Russian and English. Whats with the cellophane wrapping on bags?

Art ideas? Reading a little of my ‘women of the Celts ‘ book, love the underwater princesses storys but the books gone all post Freudian on me, Macha was made to race horses pregnant with twins not because men fear wombs and pregnancy represents their own death, but because it proves just how tough she was surely? And her curse explains the later weakness and affliction upon Ulster men. I hope we get internet connections as I want to look up more cross refs on wiki. I’m thinking crannogs, my crannog, and stories of women trapped on islands / underwater/ submerged towns, towns with underwater bells, tales of morality. Also about migration, journey , travels, the stories and folk lore travelled, the peoples migrated invaded conquered became evolutionary routes turned into misty tales of forgotten races and distant gods, boats, this with my own journey, back the way the celts and the Scythians, me heading back instinctive on some illogic path. Talking earlier about not needing words or religious concepts to explain, it just is, art our journey, the images we make the path we take, to explain it in terms of destiny, magic, or fate spoils it for me, it just is. How will this translate into art? Now will I get any sleep “ bing bong bing ladies and gentlemen “ ...not much i guess.

 ( photo Moscow sunrise 6am after a night trying to sleep at this terminal )

11^th august 2010,

Was woken up off my nest on the floor by a security man, who very friendliliy expl,ained that I cannot sleep on the floor, it sis okay to sleep on the chairs but not the floor. He spoke in Russian 1^st then sort of looked at me explained in English. Are we so obviously British ? I guess so. I later asked our hosts and they laughed, I take that as a yes then. This kept happening, I’d say excuse me ‘where is...’ in my best pigeon Russian accent, they’d reply in English. Meanwhile back to terminal...whereever we spent the night, no sleep at all very surreal & hard seats uncomfortable, culture shock, unsure of the social rules. By 6 am their time, still 3 ours? We started the next mission- lesson number 17 ask ask and ask again. We we told it was termainal D for our avianova flight, so off we headed, the red sun raising over a smoggy Moscow dawn, strange and alien skies greeting us. It wasn’t terminal D, but B, which would require a bus, taxi touts pounced on us “ oh at least an hour long way we take you no problem “ “nyet!”. It was about 20 minutes away & cost around 50p on the bus.

Leaving the main terminal of the modern buildings we saw camps of itinerant builders working on the airport horrible conditions, pipelines, everywhere scorched brown, old cars and lorries,m unfamiliar makes, a completely strange looking country, like what I imagined North Africa would look, not Russia. Terminal  B was a small old building for internal flights, we we ethe only tourists there. People kind of stare at us. The beautiful glamourous women put their noses up, officials are really scary and inyimidating, ques are strange us being polite soon realised we were always being shoved to the back, in one queue I was literally having a baggage trolley shoved into my legs..but then again wen I let one woman in front of me she was very pleased, smiling nodding and chatting away in Russian, so hey a bit of courtesy I’ll stick with. So another flight, anoter round of security passport checks and baggage scans. Sometime yesterday I was looking forward to my 1^st Russian voice, now thats all there was. So much to take in.

Slept on the flight. Again the applause when we landed, we’ve been told now it’s a European fashion. And there we were Begivishimo airport, plane door opened, and it was like walking into an oven. Hot,  clammy, clammy, still air, 35+ C in the shade...what shade?! The flat landscape scorched yellows and browns. Didn’t take many photos of the journey as I didn’t want to be too much of a tourist, we get enough strange looks as it is!

( Alex who invited us to the symposium and has fixed all our problems for us )

( Olga our translator )

We were met by Alex , Olga  ( our translator ) & a driver, drive to Elabuga, over the river Hama, past remains of a wild fire, past hitchers, ladas, ancient looking lorries, beautiful forests,  swathes of allotments with summer houses ‘dakars?’, then into Elebuga. Old town incredible! Wooden buildings every shape and size with carving around windows , main historical centre which is all part of the state preservation area of which the symposium is part of...photos another day. Its stunning. Lunch, fantastic fresh and strange foods, their tea is the best ever! Friendly people, trying out our pigeon Russian, different social rules, back to hotel – a whole apartment each !- organisational stuff, being very well looked after by Olga & Alex, then a sleep and cold bath ( believe me I need it Its as hot as the Fire house here ), dinner, met some more artists all smiles & language barriers so far, walk around town, wi fi card buying, shopping , fruit market ( no tescos monopoly here ) bottled water, blocks of flats in new town . canna get the air con to work, its probably a gaffa tape job tomorrow...things are very different here. Head reeling!  We are 3 hours ahead of home. Early start tomorrow setting up studio spaces...eeek!

Last day before 'Epic' adventure

Last day at home before starting the journey to Russia. After heavy showers the sun has now come out, I think we've only had a couple of dry afternoons in 6 weeks, it was spring , then rain now the berries and darkening nights tell us Autumn is coming. No matter, I'm off to the heat & the sun to paint in Russia for 12 days. If you've seen the news you will be well aware that there has been a heat-wave over there and wildfires a causing devastation, this last week the smoke has caused airport closures- at the moment the two airports we need are open so fingers crossed it stays that way.

I thought a picture of my unkempt garden & house would be a suitable photo to launch us on our journey of exotic lands. Myself & fellow traveler Lynn hope to keep up blogs of our adventure depending on the internet availability, Lynn's is here.

my bag is crammed with my brushes & paints, the 'studio' is tidied, laptop loaded with my favorite Celtic art reference pictures. Just time to try & learn some Russian phrases, or finish some of the work hanging over me or....possibly RELAX a little? since the last 2 months have been exhausting and flat out with work. There I've done it, said the 'R' word.

next blog We'll be on our way & I'll write some about the symposium theme 'Breath of the Epic'.

Housing Expo.

All this month there is 'Scotlands Housing Expo' on at Milton, just south of Inverness. 

Its well worth a visit, a fascinating project. Its basically a whole estate of eco showhouses, all completely different styles, designs, ideas. there are huge luxury houses, apartments, social housing, all are going to be incredibly cheap to run, many use 'passive' heating systems, that is the structure & design of the building utilizing space light and building materials to collect and retain heat. there is a community green, a play area, narrow cobbled alleys and normal streets. Some houses aren't finished yet, the whole project had fallen behind. I think we have all become rather cynical about any big project like this in the highlands as it all involves lots of tax payers money and only the usual 'jobs for the boys'- however I was very surprised to enjoy my two days at the expo, the atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed, was this the training of the staff/ ambassadors in each of the houses or the design of the site?

There were a few houses we fell in love with, gorgeous light and space, clever layouts, huge windows, doors opening into gardens, balconies, multi levels, mezzanines. Many felt like they didn't belong next to other houses & should have been in a forest or by the beach. Particularly at the bottom of the site. I felt the top end worked much better as a town community, they had walls for privacy, yet opened out to friendly social spaces, looking like they fitted together. There are no prices on the houses yet, as valuers are finding the unusual situation & designs impossible to value. some will be for low rent, others to buy, some are social housing. It will be fascinating to see what the community will be like in a few years time, it will work for sociable friendly people and families, not grumpy rich old couples who complain about children or anyone in a different economic group to them.

Some buildings had a lack of storage space, parking space? why the bathroom next to the front doors? why the large hallway waste of space? Others lovely! office space, studio space, workshop space. Also very annoying were the Albyn housing showhouses, all very modern & energy efficient, no mention of rotting floors, walls, 35 year old heating systems that don't work etc etc that they are happy to leave us with....

I was there working of course; doing 'RAGS to RICHES'

In the highland Councils recycling house, Doing recycled craft workshops. I had a steady stream of participants mostly making rag dream-catchers, which all came out brilliantly. Lovely to see grown ups joining in too, often it was grannies helping out and patiently showing the youngsters how to do things which was lovely. Talking to the children its obvious to me how important the eco schools projects are in raising their awareness of 'Green' issues. Their craft skills and manual skills experience varies wildly depending on their individual teachers or parents, how to tie basic knots is not a standard.

Now to unload the remaining Rags & Willows from the van and get on preparing for Russia!  van - did I mention we slept over in the van? small van, won't be doing that again! workshops are best done after some hours of sleep.

Ross Shire Journal

Fridays 'Ross shire Journal' had a couple of mentions about our Russian trip.

heres the on-line version here...

'Rags to Riches' clutter

So the Russian trip preparation ticks onwards, but the pile of work I need finished by September sits albatross like upon me, exhaustion. Next two days I'm off to Scotlands Housing Expo, to run workshops for the Highland Council in Recycled crafts, " Rags to Riches " we shall be cutting weaving, knotting and such like, my van is full of willow wands, sticks and rags. I shall also be spending the night in the van so had better move the sticks first.

meanwhile my 'studio' is a complete tip ( and yes I paint canvases upside down & sideways, whatever works ), the rest of the house isn't much better as books of celtic mythology, canvases, half packed bags, paper, fabric, looms, glass shards & mosaics all threaten to collide. Dinnae worry by tuesday morning all will be calm & organised & then I can discuss thoughts about myths, epics, archetypes and art.

news round up

• Russia trip features on Hi-Arts website.
• starting in October I will be tutoring a painting course in lochcarron on behalf of the Skye & Wester Ross College ( subject to numbers ) details here
• the Lochcarron Tuesday Art group is taking a break during August while everyone is busy.
• Mosaic panel 2 is finished;
  
• Been gathering Willow for dreamcatcher/ recycled textile workshops Friday & Saturday at the Housing Expo . Doubled up this task with helping out at the Smithy heritage centre where the grounds have been sadly neglected over the last 5 years. The new committee have plans to get the project all back up and running again, so Rich, the dog and I went to help out by wrestling the overgrown willow dome back into shape. I now have a giant pile of willow to strip, no jokes about 'strip the willow' please.

• Also nearly finished the first big canvas painting a couple of tweaks & starting the next one.
• this time next week on our way to Russia! you should see the list of work I have to finish before then !

Country Day

Final week or so to prepare for Russia trip and finish a month or so of work, its just not happening...mild panic setting in. Meanwhile Friday 30th was the Kirkton woodland & heritage group's country day- I'd got my months all muddled up & thought I would be away when it was on so hadn't prepared any crafty demonstrations to do, which I much prefer to being sat behind a table selling wares.

This day makes a change from the rain cancelled lochcarron games as there is a strong conservation, environment, rural skills element to it. Sadly of course it was still raining, heavily, the field was a bog. there were some great sights, many which I failed to catch on camera. Brain the ferret had come along with keeper Chris to play Ferret bingo.













  Jim of Asgard Crafts was doing metal casting with a brilliant bellows and small stone oven he'd made. Henry Fosbrook was over from the east coast with his woodland instruments, I knew Henry from the highlands alternative/ green scene 20 years ago, always good to catch up.

 Margaret Beaton spinning, always a hit with visitors. The usual range of homebaking from all the domestic goddesses in the area. Tom and Leslie Kilbride with their yurt doing natural dying. Les Bates as Gandaft looking like a community woodlands shaman and lots of worthy conservation organisations. The organisers did a great job, and the staff lunches were deeelicious as ever.

I sold very little, which is typical of this season, there simply isn't the number of visitors around, and those that are -aren't spending much, many local businesses are expressing that its a very poor season this year. All of which makes me panicy about what to do to earn enough to live off, but it boils down to not really having choices up here. The only paid employment is very part time seasonal cleaning/ waitressing, which would earn less than my freelance art or minimum wage manual labour with boys who talk about drink & cars. I am too old to tolerate either. So we'll see where Russia takes my art & I'll go on another hunt for decent PAID illustration work when I get back, I'm also doing some art teaching with the Skye college- details to follow. but with all the cuts & businesses going under its tough times ahead in the UK for many.

comics workshop

Monday- did another comics workshop at Drumnadrochit, yes thats the village next to Loch Ness ( which I flew over the other week! ) surprisingly the children didn't all draw Nessie stories, they were full of stories about the silly things that tourists say or think regarding the monster, but at the same time the children seemed to have no doubts about the beasties existence. I wonder if its like Santa, and stops appearing when they're old enough to get cynical ?  The monster is a great tourist attraction, yet folks are too embarrassed about it to use it as some sort of highland branding. Luckily at Hi-Ex the highland Comic Expo, we have no such qualms.
Meanwhile, comic workshop ? normally participants coming to a comic workshop would be interested in drawing comics, or often they are teenage girls who want to draw manga style, not necessarily draw stories. the summer holidays are different of course, I can get an awkward mixture of local children who have been delivered by parents desperate for a break, and tourist children who can be of the type academic, competitive, not getting dirty type. It was a new challenge to me however to have to entertain for 5 hours a child who thinks comics are babyish, doesn't like stories, humans, characters, drawing or in fact anything -this at a 'How to draw comics' workshop- we survived, not sure if my pens did especially the ones he put up his nose. The others were lovely though & this flip chart drawing of the polar express was a masterpiece, the lad who did it was rightly very proud of himself.

art buying scam

I do a lot of my business through e-mail and website, I will get requests from complete strangers for paintings and commissions, These paintings are often for wedding gifts, anniversary or birthdays, the client can often not know much about art or be sure how it works or what they want. There is of course a deal of trust on both sides, but common sense is also required to protect myself. Usually I build up some rapport with art buyers & will get to know then afterwards. Art is not just another commodity, people like the context, the story behind the painting & the creative process, it means something to them and to me the artist.

So when Matthew Joe e-mailed me asking about a painting for a wedding anniversary gift for his parents, there was nothing unusual in this, his grammar indicated that english was not the first language, while he had an english sounding name. Suspicion was aroused by him asking for my web address, so why would he want my art if he hadn't already seen it ? where has he got my e-mail from if not the website ? I gave him the details of artwork available & to hand, but he chose two water themed paintings off the website- a simple misunderstanding as these are only available as prints I explained. However this sentence, which he repeated twice was not right-

"Meanwhile, I don't want you to bother your self concerning the shipment i have a shipping company come for the pickup  in your gallery also they will be the one to make the packing, just get  back to me with the price of the art work so that we can make some progress."


which shipping company ?  only a select few shipping companies operate on the west here, why didn't he mention their name? if he was a big business man why not have company details on his e-mails ? why use a yahoo AND gmail e-mail address ?


He then chose another 6 paintings from the available list, 6 paintings? for a wedding anniversary gift ? what eclectic taste his parents have, waterfalls, technical firefighting image, fairy story whimsy and abstract landscape? I had by this time googled his e-mail address's;


matthew.joe1@yahoo.com
matthew.joe212@gmail.com

and found 'him' on a list of scammers;

I couldn't work out what the catch was, If I waited for a cheque to clear? didn't give account details etc. So it turns out it works like this, they order something to buy, using a third party for shipping or such, send a cashier cheque, which the banks may well cash, but later you will be liable when it turns out to be a fake.. but its not the artwork they're after, they send 'extra' payment in the cheque to cover the shipping, you have to sent the balance via western union, which of course is you out of pocket, as there is no shipping company. It seems he is targeting all the members of the Highland Open Studios Directory.

more information about fraud etc here

I am furious! at no point did I believe I was going to sell hundreds of ££'s worth of art, I am not one to count chickens. But to try & rip off an artist ? according to the Scottish Artists Union the average wage of a Scottish artist is £5K per annum, I earn a lot less from mine. We are not exactly the decadent capitalists of the western world. Also artists, being poor, artistic natured & optimists might well be easy prey, also the internet is a wonderful useful tool, but criminals like this leave a whole generation afraid of computers, left out in the cold because they've seen on crime watch about ID theft, scammers, viruses all those urban myths and scare stories. It's almost designed to stop people using the potential of the internet, people who are afraid are easier to control, people who are afraid are more likely to turn on each other. Most humans are good, most humans are trustworthy and genuine, scams like this disgust me because they prey upon hope and trust.

I'm blogging as it seems about all I can do to vent my anger, although I intend stringing Matthew along a bit more to waste some of his time, I wish there was an e-mail version of a football whistle blown down the phone. I guess the internet is a bit like the wild west, a whole new frontier with carpet baggers, freak shows, houses of ill repute, gambling, snake oil peddlers, criminal gangs, cons, thugs, but mostly good people just trying to make a living.

ladies faces

finally got all the comic pages that I had to colour done yesterday ( although more arrived today ), so now onto the paintings I need to do, but first a wee warm up, dying to paint things which will feed into the Russian art symposium theme, 'Breath of the epic'- so heres some painted ladies sketches . Now I'm painting the first of the two big canvases....

Space Hop

Every Summer the libraries run a reading scheme to encourage youngsters to keep reading throughout the holidays, this year's was Space Hop. Yasmeen the librarian organised for me to do Space Hop junk art workshop today at the Gairloch library. We had the full compliment of children, both local and visitors who all  got stuck in and made some brilliant imaginative space ships, planets, flying saucers and aliens out of old containers and packaging. They came in shyly, but went out zapping each other with space zappers and debating the size of the universe, Saturn's rings and what happens to fire in the vacuum of space.

Free press, mosaic & more colours

More publicity for the Russia trip with this piece in the West Highland Free Press this week. Our Visas arrived today, big sighs of relief for Lynn & I !

The Smithy Mosaic progresses, using yacht varnish so each layer taking ages to dry. Next panel will have crofting history images & 3rd panel modern scenes.

also chugging along with the Slaughtermans creed colouring. The sample above features a flashback scene, Which we're going for in sepia tones over Stephen Downey's lovely pencils, Stephen has recently got work drawing for the Torchwood magazine,  and deservedly so! 

meanwhile the theme of the Russian Symposium is cooking away in the background, I'm reading lots of folklore, listening to folksie ballads and traditional music, things are desperate to come out- but I have to dig in & get all this other work done before I can play !

certificate & colouring

Heres the photo from the award ceremony last week.

meanwhile as well as plodding on varnishing the heritage Mosaic, prepping for the Russia trip with Lynn Bennett-MacKenzie and so on, I've mostly been glued to the digital drawing board getting seized to my chair working on comic colouring for Slaughtermans Creed sample page above. Its written by Cy Dethan who has done a lovely write up about my recent work on his blog here.

Commitment to Excellence awards

In the Fire service it often feels like an uphill struggle, the retained service personnel give a huge commitment as does their families. We struggle to stay within the station area and find enough other work in remote villages, we struggle with old equipment, only 2.5 hours a week to maintain and test equipment, to train, to stay up to date, to stay fit and the computer work, the paperwork. the memo's, targets, quotas, contradicting rules, all rain from on high, It presents no career path, with the retainer fee at £2.5 K per annum, we're certainly not in it for the money. This is why I am a Union rep to try and make sure the issues at station level get heard higher up and to look after my crew. In this climate then, I was rather surprised to receive notification that I had been shortlisted for a commitment to excellence award in the community and Youth Engagement category. So myself and Rich headed to the awards ceremony last night, slightly cynically and awkwardly in my ill fitting uniform.

The Inverness Town house venue was also intimidating, with a host of Councillors, the Fire chief , lord lieutenant and lord provost to meet us. There were some amazing artifacts and paintings there including a lovely bronze Roman horse head. We were however immediately made welcome with the speakers and Chief mingling and chatting. Talking to them it became apparent that they understood the pressures that we are under and were well aware of the issues we face, the impact our job has on everyday life and our loved ones. The people there were not the upper managers whom I expected to see but many retained Firefighters, men and women, from the far corners of the Highlands and Islands. All the speeches reflected admiration and appreciation for our work.

During the evening the 20 year service medals of good conduct were given out, one was to my Watch manager. these guys definitely deserve a medal, the average term of retained service is 7 years. 20 is quite an achievement.

Then the awards, the nominations were read out for each person and why they'd been nominated, every single one was much deserved and we heard stories of great bravery, tenacity and efforts beyond the call of duty. I am very proud to have met these men & women and more so to have been nominated too. I had been nominated for the work I did over the last couple of years creating a partnership between the Fire service and a Young Carer support charity, It was of course a team effort with other people still working on it now. We raised awareness, taught the fire service how to help young carers and their families, taught the children Fire safety, produced resources, power-points, information cards, and eventually a children's Fire Safety book which I illustrated and has been distributed to all highland schools.

It was for me, simply a matter of putting my different jobs together and it worked brilliantly. It was wonderful to hear about the other projects that had been going on and see them justly awarded. I was quite happy not to 'win' the category but still didn't escape escape the embarrassment of having to take to the stage for presentation and photographs however.

Everyone I spoke to felt the same as me, while we were proud to have our achievements recognised we were all also rather embarrassed and wished that all the other Firefighters and support staff could have been there to have experienced the appreciation and gratitude for the work that EVERY firefighter does.

If I get any official photos I'll post them up. All in all a great night was had, It was lovely to get a chance to meet & talk to so many great people. Then of course there was the after party... but thats another story!

Russia trip approaches

The BBC have done an article today about Lynn Bennett-MacKenzie and my trip to the International Art symposium in Elabuga, Russia. excitement mounts.The story looks like its been picked up by some papers too, we'll keep you posted.

Going to the symposium and the inspiration of Lynn's work is giving me a confidence boost to follow my own artistic path and not get swayed by everyone else's expectations. Especially in the current economic climate, I've made very few sales locally this summer from tourism, there are no easy markets, so nothing to loose by ploughing on & doing what I want art wise. Its taken a while to get here.

meanwhile I am desperately trying to update my neglected website, bare with me, in the meantime the blog is the best place for the latest news and work.

should work time directive apply to artists ?

working flat out at Colours for 'Slaughtermans Creed' a book by Cy Dethan, pencils ( and some inks & colours ) by Stephen Downey, inks by Andy  Brown, design & letters by Nic Wilkinson ( too tired to look up links for everyone...next time ! ), book being published by Markosia..soon. Not for children or Veggies ( except me as I'm a tough childish Veggie ).

I haven't any fluffy kittens to offset Cy's dark imaginings, but instead and to unseize my desk bound bones I'm also working on this historical mosaic.The whole thing will be over 3.5 metres long eventually & will go on the outside wall of the Lochcarron Smithy Heritage Centre. panel 1 is ancient and natural history. It's made of scrap glass kindly provided by Muirne of Arrina's 'Shards' go visit her lovely stained glass workshop if you are ever up North Applecross.

I'll blog about the rest of Junes adventure, and Russia Soon !  oh and I've been short-listed for a Fire service 'commitment to excellence' award, community and youth engagement. I presume to do with the Fire Safety book I illustrated, ceremony on Friday more news later.

Dreamed I was flying high above the trees, over the hills

life balance ?

art is balancing input and output, feeding the subconsious then creating. recently life has speeded up, rushing past me in a break neck adventure, no time to rest or breathe, no time to be, to doodle & art-play. sky, sea and stories filling by brain, coming out in dreams if not pictures. 

the dials are all spinning, juggling plates.

work life balance, this summer isn't seeing much money coming in, the projects who's deadlines hang over me are all long term strategy's. But big adventures still have bills to pay. Jet-set hobo ( thanks to David Baillie for that expression ), rock and rolling, gathering no moss. all work and no play, well plenty of play just no rest, can feel exhaustion kicking in. art is my rest and play.

Rich bought me a flying lesson voucher for my birthday back in March. I'd been savoring it for calm, peaceful times, but we've realised there aren't any - so shoehorned it into the schedule today. It was incredible ! lovely it! Highland Aviation, highly recommended and well worth the money !

ART?
will re jog the website as soon as there is time, tweak the layout, add paypal buttons to sell prints.
will blog up the remaining section of Junes adventures.
am working flat out to colour Slaughtermans Creed as the inked pages come in.
am working flat out on interpretive panel historical glass mosaic.
am prepping for Russia trip ? have I not blogged about that YET ? later!
am working flat out on large canvases of figurative work for exhibition at the airport in September.
delivered 4 paintings to strathpeffers 'Around' gallery today, theme of 'Fire'.
HIE doing consultation about businesses in our community, about to let loose the rants, but its not just our community its the UK has a rotten attitude to art, comics, illustration, crafts...but thats another one for another day.

more soon..gotta dash

Children paddling

Finally made a start on one of the big canvases today, I need a marathon push to get everything done on time this month, and of course real life human events conspire to slow my progress. However fingers crossed this will work. bulking the main areas in emulsion & paint oddments, frustrating waiting for layers to dry, will have to get in discipline of working on comic colouring between layers.  Oy! cat don't drink the paint water !
 meanwhile I'll be dropping some firefighting paintings off to the Around Gallery in Strathpeffer this week for their July exhibition on the theme Fire.

the giant of lochcarron

Heres another wee film.  There was an animation project in the village, a couple of animation graduates came to combine printmaking and film, I dragged my art class into the project. while they all worked on stop motion cut out projects, I didn't have time to join in, so worked this film up at home over a couple of nights.
The Giant is our local mountain, its name is Fuar Tholl ( cold hole ) , but its known locally as ' wellingtons nose' . I prefer to think of it as Fionn, the Irish giant, as there is a stone at its base in Corrie Fionn arach, where Fionn was reputed to tie up his hunting hounds. the chain marks are on the stone.

again, I wish there was more time and more computer power to do these things better.

'Who's Afraid ?' short film

This is the short film I made in 2006. There was a competition to pitch a film idea which I got a place on. I got a loan of software, a laptop & wacom tablet & 8 weeks to teach myself from scratch how to draw & animate digitally. It was a painful process!  The music was thrown in at the last minutes, I have no idea how to edit sound files, very very luckily the lovely band Fribo lent me their music & it worked brilliantly. This was showcased at the 2006 Inverness Film festival.

The story about the little girl & wolf was inspired by a reacurring dream I'd had in the 90's. I wanted to explore themes around friendship, trust & zenophobia. I storyboarded out a full length version which was a lot more in depth, however in 3 minutes this was as far as I could go. The girl and wolf have since popped up in many paintings of mine and are not ready to be put away yet, maybe one day i'll get to make the full version...and better animated!