Here are a selection of some of the paintings currently on show at Fire Station Creative. All are for sale.
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As well as having the solo paintings show on at Fire Station Creative, Dunfermline, right now, I will also have some of my Edinburgh etchings on show and available for sale at Edinburgh Art Fair this weekend.
Please click the links for more info! I’ll be demonstrating printmaking techniques there tomorrow, so stop by and say hello and have a go yourself if you can make it!
Hope to see you there!
Clive
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Only 2 weeks to go until my solo exhibition at Fire Station Creative. Here are some words and pictures to help shed some light on what will be hanging on the walls there. The preview will be held between 7.30-10pm on Friday 6th November and the show runs until Sunday 22 November. I hope to see there.
I grew up in Arbroath, so have always been drawn to the sea. Each night, like clockwork, the Bell Rock, the Isle of May and the Fife Ness lights would intermittently flash their beams out across the cold, dark sea miles and I would watch – mesmerised at my bedroom window. I’d follow the fishing boats as they puttered out into the firth from the harbour, eventually becoming little more than red and green dots that slowly edged beyond the moonlit horizon. The twinkling orange lamps of St Andrews and Kingsbarns would beckon to me from far away across the Firth of Tay and illuminate my dreams. Those mysterious, exotic lights across the sea have continued to tantalise and inspire me and I have always wanted to capture something of that magic and atmosphere in pictorial form. So my campervan travels around Scotland’s coast this year have provided me with a wealth of inspiration for new paintings and etchings; I feel I have barely begun to scratch the surface with the work for this exhibition.
I quickly discovered that it wasn’t so much the lights themselves that were interesting me pictorially, but their situations within the surrounding landscape and the wild spaces between them. Lighthouses proved to be a wonderful general theme for the trip and also a great focal point for some of the paintings, but the ‘interesting’ Scottish weather and the colours and atmosphere of each location probably became the more important feature of the work.
I was very fortunate to be awarded a grant by Fife Contemporary Arts and Crafts to help fund my travels, which took me from The Mull of Galloway at the south western tip of Scotland to Stromness in Orkney. I have yet to reach Muckle Flugga, Scotland’s most northernly lighthouse, but I will get there one of these days!
It’s been a very busy few months! I’ve settled into my great new studio at Fire Station Creative and have been working hard on preperations for my first big solo show there in November. More to come on that later!
My priority this past week has been to finish and frame some new works for the upcoming exhibition at the beautiful Frames Gallery, Perth. It opens this Friday 12th September and I cordially invite you to come along to the preview if you are able to (6-8pm). I handed my 4 pictures in yesterday and the place was full to brimming with amazing looking work. It’s all very affordable too, everything being under £500.
But now that’s done, I can look forward to the preview on Friday evening and then I’ll be getting back on with my lighthouses project (which will also include non-lighthouse paintings of coastal scenes!).
Anyway, here’s what I’ve included in the Frames show:
Just a reminder that Aberdeen’s Gallery Heinzel Summer Show is on until 15th August. Delighted to have my etching of Dean Village used for the Art Work advert. I have 6 pieces in the show, so if you’re in the area stop by. It’s a great place and always has lots of lovely work on show!
The Fire Station Creative arts hub opens next Saturday the 11th July in Dunfermline, with the brilliant John Byrne cutting the ribbon. Here’s an article in the Fife Reporter featuring yours truly on the same page is one of my favourite artists. I can only hope that some of his magic rubs off the page onto me! And there’s also a couple of shots of my most recent works-in-progress.
Do come along on the day if you’re in the neighbourhood. The place is fantastic and it’ll be well worth a look around the studios too!
PS. This was last week. Both paintings almost finished now …
After a few years of waiting and hoping that the Firestation Creative project in Dunfermline would become more than just a great idea, it has finally opened its studio doors to artists. I was first to get in and start working last Tuesday and it was well worth the wait! It’s a fantastic looking place and when the cafe and gallery are fully open to the public, which should be in the next couple of weeks, it will be a truly wonderful artistic hub for the town.
So here’s what’s currently on the go in my new studio. Two large oil paintings, one of Jeffery Street with Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and another of my Awaiting The Turn of The Tide series, based on my travels around the Scottish coast.
Just a quick note to say I have a few paintings and prints on show at the Gallery Heinzel Summer Show, which opens next Saturday (20th June) in Aberdeen. Come along between 12-3pm for a browse and some fizz. If you can’t make it then it’s on until 15th August.
I also have a little solo show of paintings and etchings on at the wonderful Stage Door Bistro, which has recently opened in Dunfermline (next to the Alhambra Theatre). It’s run by the lovely Deborah and Michael who are extremely welcoming and the food is truly fantastic!
It’s not the No 1 resturant on Tripadvisor in Dunfermline for nothing! (Stage Door reviews)
Yes, I received a message from a production manager at the BBC on Friday, asking my permission to use some footage they took back in March (that’s TV for you – shoot first, ask questions later!). It includes shots of my Edinburgh Castle etching below. It’s all very hush hush, so all I can say is that it’s for one of the most-watched programmes in the UK and it came about as a result of a recent exhibition I was invlolved in. I’ll be very excited to see my work up there on the not-so-big screen (along with millions of other viewers!).
Watch this space!!
