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| Ladybank station, Kirsty's studio & Off the Rails Arthouse |
Burntisland to Ladybank by train to visit artist Kirsty Lorenz's studio
I'm taking on the disused platform building at Burntisland station, turning it into my studio and a now-and-again space for workshops and for welcoming visitors. To help decide how to lay out the space out I'm visiting other station studios, of which Fife has quite a lot. This post is a trip to Ladybank to visit Kirsty Lorenz's studio.
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| train sketches |
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| train sketches |
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| hoverflies on ivy at Burntisland station. Ivy is one of the very best of winter food sources for insects - don't cut yours down! |
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| Inchkeith island, Arthur's Seat, Salisbury Crags. From train Burntisland to Kinghorn |
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Kirkcaldy
If the connection at Kirkcaldy works, Burntisland to Ladybank takes less than 40 minutes. If it doesn't you can spend the spare time visiting
Kirkcaldy Galleries, which I've blogged about previously
here. It didn't, I did. Kirkcaldy Galleries is only a two minute walk from the station. LINK.. At the moment
Kate Downie's Forth Bridges drawings and paintings and monoprints are on display, part of a family-friendly exhibition exploring the first, second and third Forth Bridges. Kate has been artist in residence during the Forth Replacement Crossing and here shows a whole room of her works, large and small.
SPAN - A Tale of Three Bridges runs until 26th February 2017. Check opening times on
Kirkcaldy Galleries website.
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| Kirkcaldy Galleries photographed from Kirkcaldy station |
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Ladybank
From Kirkcaldy it's a ten minute train journey to Ladybank. If you're coming from Edinburgh you won't need to change at Kirkcaldy, your train goes directly to Ladybank. Kirsty's studio is seen as soon as you get off the train on platform 2. Three bold floral paintings brighten three original sash and case windows.
We had coffee while we chatted art, funding, selling work, opening studios to visitors, trips to Orkney. Kirsty has recently returned from the far north where she was photographing and filming native Scottish wild flowers as part of her ongoing 'Votive Offerings' series. The work is intricate and intriguing. A
piece from the project is included in the Scottish Society of Artists (SSA)
Exquisite Corpse exhibition, at
St Andrews Museum until November 19th 2016.
You can visit Kirsty's studio, and other venues along the Fife railway line, during
The Artline's Open Doors weekend. My studio probably won't be ready for the 2017 Open Doors but hopefully
will be in time for the 2018 one!
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| Kirsty Lorenz, Votive Offering No.52, oil on linen, 70x50cm |
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Intermission - Bollywood in Edinburgh
I had no time to properly explore Ladybank as was due in Edinburgh mid-afternoon for Bollywood dancing. Not me dancing but Jennifer and friends performing at Fettes College to entertain walkers starting out on
Maggie's Centre's Culture Crawl in aid of cancer care.
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| spot Jennifer |
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Ladybank again
I did manage a twenty minute circle of the streets before leaving.
House martins swirled around the railway buildings, surely any day now departing for Africa.
Off the Rails Arthouse is behind and above Kirsty's studio and is a venue for regular art classes and tutoring. On the other side of the station a wide border of wildflowers was glowing all along the station car park, covered in bees, hoverflies, wasps.
Various woodland walks and country road cycles are accessible from the village so I hope to go back for a proper explore.
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| wild flower meadow all along Ladybank station car park. Packed with bees, butterflies, hoverflies |
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| Ladybank station |
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| Off the Rails Arthouse |
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| outside the station |
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| Ladybank, Auchtermuchty, Falkland circle cycle |
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| field and forest, Ladybank |
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How to get there
Trains to Ladybank take 50 minutes from Edinburgh Waverley, and run at least hourly on weekdays, sometimes half hourly.
From Dundee it takes half an hour and weekday trains are hourly.
Timetables and Buy Tickets option on ScotRail website.
Many thanks to ScotRail for enabling my Scotland by Rail work.
