Open Studio, September 2017

Thank you everyone who attended Central Fife Open Studios this weekend. Thanks for helping eat my home-baking and for lots of lovely chats. Here's a selection of what was on the walls. Let me know if you'd like to view front-on, no-reflection images of anything.

How many places do you recognise?  :)

Leo

Edinburgh Festival exhibition at Scottish Arts Club, August 2017

Visit my exhibition at the Scottish Arts Club throughout the 2017 Edinburgh Festival.

24 Rutland Square

Edinburgh

EH1 2BW

Until 2nd September

Exhibitions are visitable Tues - Sat, 11 - 5. When you get to the front door you normally have to ring for entry - don't be scared! It's open to all and is free.

Entering the Club my exhibition is down the stairs on your right, in the Geddes Gallery. It's a small space so I'm displaying a collection of unframed artworks from my nature & wildlife explorations around the country. Almost all were painted/sketched from life, out in the landscape. Most are previously unexhibited. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access down these stairs.

Different exhibitions are on each floor of the Club so please take time to have a full nosey. There are Frances Macdonald's richly textured coastal oils, Canadian landscapes from Alfred G. Villeneuve, a cabinet of curiosities by Fiona Dean and from 11th Aug also the wooden sculptures of Teresa Hunyadi. The Club is a Festival Fringe Venue, to see what else is happening click here.


My exhibition & how to purchase
For those who aren't able to get to Edinburgh this post shows the artworks and price list.

If you wish to make a purchase please call the Club on 0131 229 8157 or email office@scottishartsclub.co.uk to make sure it hasn't already sold and to arrange payment.

If you wish to see higher res images of any artworks please let me know which via my website or my Facebook Artist Page.

About the Club
The Scottish Arts Club is a very special retreat in the centre of Edinburgh. A relaxing place to be with a very friendly membership. Exhibitions are held every month as well as talks, recitals, concerts, lots of art workshops and more. There's an excellent restaurant for lunches and evening meals.

If you're interested in becoming a Member of the Club please ask a member of staff or contact them using the methods above. Under-35s receive special membership rates. More info here.

Scotland by Rail - Ayr - Maclaurin Art Gallery, Tam O' Shanter, Laura Marling

An afternoon trip to Ayr, departing Burntisland 10.44am, arriving Ayr 1.53pm. Glasgow in the evening for Laura Marling.

The journey from Glasgow Central to Ayr is interesting (they all are) for its initial view over the River Clyde as your train exits Central Station, its views of old industry, of rolling farmland, of the wildfowl havens around RSPB Lochwinnoch (swans, goldeneye, mallard, tufted duck...), then coastal Irvine, Troon, Prestwick, Ailsa Craig far off, Holy Isle and Arran even further beyond that.

on-train sketches, pen in sketchbook

on-train sketches, pen in sketchbook

Reaching Ayr we refilled flask at the on-platform coffee booth then explored to the shore, knowing the right general direction but not using any map. A great sweep of sand runs off to the south ending in cliffy Heads of Ayr and the Carrick Hills above. The tower ruin of Greenan Castle is tempting me back.

The Ayrshire Coastal Path is here, running south to Glenapp and north to Largs. We followed only one of its eighty or more miles, a substantial path through remnants of scrubby dune. My first singing stonechat of the year was there in the gorse. A female was close by, closely watching her potential mate.

looking to Greenan Castle

Greenan Castle, pen in sketchbook

there's a stonechat somewhere in there

A stream crosses your path just after a lovely area of boggy grassland on your left. Go upriver here with stream on your right, new houses on your left. Birds were singing loud, telling that spring had sprung. Greenfinch, goldfinch, chaffinch, sparrow, thrush, robin. The little path emerges onto a busy A road - A719. Cross over and straight into the woodland of Belleisle Estate and golf course.

Coming soon to the currently fenced grand house pass behind it to an obvious signposted path leading over the golf course to another busy road, B7024. Cross the road and enter the next wooded estate - Rozelle. In here is Rozelle House and Maclaurin Art Gallery and tea rooms. The gallery was the reason we'd come to Ayr, to see Alexander Gaudie's seriously impressive series of 54 large-scale paintings depicting Robert Burns' Tam o' Shanter. You can see the whole collection in a very nicely presented book published by Birlinn.

Upstairs was a smaller exhibition of Alexander's son Lachlan Goudie's work, a small selection of local history exhibits and a small Henry Moore bronze.

Rozelle

Rozelle House

After the exhibition we explored Rozelle Park woods then back across the golf course and to the station, this time meandering along residential streets, enjoying discussing hedges and hedge choices and lamenting the spots where they've been replaced by fence, slab, gravel.

While we're at it, planting a hedge is a really valuable and satisfying thing to do for nature, have a go, ideas here. Why not Take the Hedge Pledge each March to August. Encourage friends and neighbours to do the same.

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Glasgow - Laura Marling

In the evening we were at the O2 ABC in Glasgow seeing Laura Marling touring her new album Semper Femina.

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How to get there

Trains to Ayr take about an hour from Glasgow Central and run half-hourly. For full details check 'Ayrshire, Inverclyde & Stranraer Timetable' and 'Buy Tickets' options on ScotRail website.



Many thanks ScotRail for enabling my Scotland by Rail work.

New greetings cards available.

Four designs - mix and match, choose your favourites

- 14x14cm, 330gsm card, includes white envelope small enough for Royal Mail Letter.
- blank inside for any occasion. Short artwork description on reverse of each card.

4 cards = £6
8 cards = £12
12 cards = £15
20 cards = £25

+ UK postage & packaging £2 per order

Pay by cash, cheque, online transfer, PayPal. We aim to post cards within two weeks of your order.

** Click here to let us know how many of each card you wish to order **

Crossing the Atlantic on honeymoon we watched whales and dolphins almost every day. 

I was with my watercolours in the lookout when this humpback appeared, rising gently 

three or four times before flicking its tail to the vertical and diving from sight. 

- July 2016, Queen Mary 2, New York to Southampton.

Guillemots are found nesting on narrow ledges in colonies all around Scotland's coasts. 

They, along with their relatives the puffin and the razorbill, are one of many seabird 

families threatened by dwindling fish stocks and increased coastal storms.

On the beach below my mum's caravan crows search for shellfish. 

They grab a shell, flap upwards with it then drop it onto rocks, trying to get at the treasure within. 

It usually takes several attempts before the shell cracks.

At this spot on the Aberdeenshire coast I see peregrines almost every time I visit. 

This adult lay in the shade of a cliff overhang as I sketched. A peregrine falcon performing 

its vertical hunting dive or 'stoop' can reach speeds of over 200 miles per hour!

** Click here to let us know how many of each card you wish to order **

Flanders Moss NNR - outdoor art exhibition June 2017

Emperor moth at Flanders Moss, watercolour, pencil, ink, 29x40.5cm

Flanders Moss is one of the biggest and best lowland raised bogs in Scotland. It lies a little west of Stirling, saved for nature thanks to the Scottish Wildlife Trust in 1973 and now under the management of Scottish Natural Heritage as a National Nature Reserve. More about the history of conserving the Moss - here.

I've read about Flanders Moss in Jim Crumley's books but first visited a month ago when I was treated along with chauffeurs Blaise and Nick to a tour with Reserve Manager David Pickett. I first met DP when he was Reserve Manager on the Isle of May and was always really interested and supportive of the art we produced there.

Earlier this year I was invited me to create two works for an outdoor exhibition on the Moss as part of Forth Valley Art Beat, 10-18 June 2017. When I lived in Linlithgow this was my local open studio event so it's really nice to have my work back in Forth Valley this year. (Now I'm in Burntisland I take part in Central Fife Open Studios instead - 2nd & 3rd Sepember 2017. )

Flanders Moss whinchat, ink, 29x40.5cm

The Moss

Within half an hour of stepping onto the reserve we were looking down at my first ever adder, wound through the grasses.

We didn't see Green Hairstreak butterflies but we stood where they probably would have been had the weather been better. We saw osprey, whinchat, stonechat, cuckoo...

In the moth traps were Fox Moth, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Peppered Moth, Light Knot Grass, Scalloped Hazel, Hebrew Character, Pale Prominent, Emperor... Identified, logged, released.

As we walked the kilometer circle of boardwalk at the end of our trip lots of Common lizards were basking on the boards. Some scampered as we approached, some didn't move at all.


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Open Studio event, 10th - 18th June 2017

Visit Flanders Moss 10th - 18th June inclusive to see the artworks as part of Forth Valley Art Beat. Full details here. Both weekends of the event Wardens will be on-site in the afternoons to tell you more about the Moss.

And keep your eyes open for those lizards!

- www.nnr-scotland.org.uk/events/event-details/?id=3538

Adder!

whinchat

Fox moth

Pale Prominent moth

Lesser Swallow Prominent moth

 

Emperor moth underside

Emperor moth

Common lizard

Common lizard

View from the tower

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The artists