Tuesday 28th Nov is last day of my solo show … that’s tomorrow!

The Gallery

Tomorrow will be the last full day of my show at the Edinburgh Ski Club. 

It has been fantastic to have quite a large body of my work on show in one place again 2 years since my last solo. I’m glad to say the comments and feedback have been very positive from people who already know my work and the many who have come in out of the cold from the street to have a first look.

Harvest, Blue and Super Moons

So if you are able to come along tomorrow or before 2pm on Wednesday 29th November when I’ll begin to take it down then please do come in. 

Here are a couple more pictures and a video to give an idea of how it looks …

Wall of East Neuk hand-painted etchings

(Please ignore the heavy breathing in the video!!)

 

Press release for my show at Edinburgh Ski Club – open today from 11am

Clive Ramage will be exhibiting more that 50 works of art in a solo ‘pop-up’ exhibition at Edinburgh Ski Club this November. 
 
Works From The Studio is the latest solo show of works by Dunfermline-based painter and printmaker, Clive Ramage. The show will include some of Clive’s atmospheric paintings of lighthouses, along with his popular Edinburgh and East Neuk scenes and a variety of hand-coloured etchings. This will be the biggest collection of Clive’s works to be shown in one place to date.
 
The self-taught artist originally from Arbroath said:
“I am very excited about the show having put the whole thing together myself. It has been quite a challenge! Not only painting and framing 50 pictures but planning and publicising the event to ensure it’s looks right and is a success. There’s still a lot of work to do with only a week to go, but I’ll get a helping hand with hanging it from my friend and fellow painter Celie. It will be great to see all the work I have created over the past year or so all together in the one space.”
 
Clive mainly works from his home-based studio in Dunfermline and is also a member of the Fife Dunfermline Printmakers Workshop. He frequently travels around Scotland in his camper van (or mobile studio) seeking inspiration in the country’s wild and remote corners and it’s often dramatic weather. Many of the paintings in this exhibition have been inspired by these trips along with Edinburgh and the villages of Fife’s coast. 
 
Describing his work, Clive says: 
“I usually start drawing from a reference sketch done on site, but as soon as I am happy with the general composition I paint purely from imagination. As I work my way through a painting, the colours and atmosphere become the focus for me. The final result is my own emotional response to a place and my attempt to capture it’s unique atmosphere.”
 
Clive exhibits regularly at the RSA, SSA, RGI and the RSW annual shows. He frequently sells his work with many galleries around Scotland with his prints and paintings hanging in private collections around the world. 
 
Works From The Studio will be open to the public from 11am-5pm daily between Thursday 23rd November – Tuesday 28th at Edinburgh Ski Club, 2 Howe Street EH3 6TD

 

Details for my solo show this November …

There will be a variety of recent watercolours, oil paintings and etchings on show. Proceeds from sales will go towards the costs of a 2 month residency at Castlemaine Press Print Workshop, Australia next year.

Please join me at the private view. I look forward to seeing you there!

 

Exhibition at Dancing Light Gallery

The Old Town (mixed media over etching) 65x50cm

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, but it’s not because I haven’t been busy painting and printmaking. In fact, it’s probably because I have been so busy doing that that time has flown by. But as I’ll be taking part in a mixed show at Dancing Light Gallery in Whitmuir over the next few weeks, I thought I’d better get my act together on the marketing front!

The gallery will be having a preview over this coming weekend and I have 10 pieces in the exhibition, including those above and below. If you’re in the area (it’s halfway between Edinburgh and Peebles) then the gallery is well worth a visit. As is the lovely restaurant and organic farm shop which are all together under the one roof. Here’s a link to the gallery for details of the exhibition and how to find it.

I’m also putting together the finishing touches to various pictures for a solo exhibition which is taking place in Edinburgh in 3 weeks time. I’ll post the details for that over the weekend, so watch this space …

Tobermory (Mixed media over etching) 65x26cm

Royal Scottish Academy Open 2017 etc

Dean Village, Edinburgh (Sunset)

I’m delighted that my latest Dean Village hand-painted etching (Sunset) has been accepted to be exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Open 2017.  It’s the 4th in a series of 10, each of which depicts the scene at a different time of day or season.

I’m especially pleased that this painting was accepted as I think it it’s the best piece of work I have done to date. It’s certainly the one I’m most satisfied with, insofar as it’s the closest I’ve gotten to achieving what I had in mind when I began the series last year. I’m also really pleased to have work in this particular RSA Open as it’s on during the Edinburgh Festival, so it’s going to be very busy.

I won’t make it to the opening of the exhibition unfortunately, but I’ll look forward to seeing the exhibition when I return from my summer holiday. I’m off to Belgium and Holland to get up close and personal with all my favourite paintings by artists like Bosch, Brueghel, Avercamp, Rembrandt and Vermeer. I’m especially looking forward to going back to the Rijksmuseum which was mostly closed for refurbishment the last time I visited, so I only saw a fraction of the artworks they normally have on show. 

I’m currently reading the weighty Van Gogh, The Life tome and so this is also going to be a bit of an artistic pilgrimage to the places where he lived, worked and painted in those 2 countries. I’m hoping to come back brimming with ideas and inspiration and, despite the huge amount of anticipation I have for going on this trip, I’m already looking forward to getting back to work when I return.

I’ll try and post a few pictures from my trip here and on my Instagram page, so watch this space.

Pittenweem Arts Festival

On another note, I just delivered a batch of etchings and paintings to The Coach House Gallery in Pittenweem, which will be on show there during the Pittenweem Art Festival.  So drop in for a look if you’re planning a visit (which runs between 5-12th August). And if you haven’t been to Pittenweem or the festival before then it’s well worth the trip. The village is stunning and the interiors of some of the houses perched on the hill above the harbour are well worth a visit in their own right. There’s over 100 artists showing, as well as music and other events so there’s plenty to see and do.

Happy Holidays!!

Exhibitions and Other News

Museum on The Mound, 65x25cm, mixed media over line etching

Here’s a quick update on a few things that have happened recently and will be happening over the next few weeks.

Grand Art

Grand Art Exhibition opens tomorrow at Strathearn Gallery, Crieff

I have a few pieces in this show at the lovely Strathearn Gallery including these 2 above and below. It’s on until 21st May, so do drop in tomorrow for the opening or before the show closes in a month.

Tobermory, 65x25cm, mixed media over line etching

Quay Gallery

I also have new work on show at The Quay Gallery, Aberdour, including this large oil of The Bass Rock (a favourite subject!).

The Bass Rock (Sunset) 80x80cm, oil on canvas
The Bass Rock (Sunset) 80x80cm, oil on canvas

Studio Move

The other news is that I have left Fire Station Creative and will no longer be taking part in exhibitions or open studios at there. I will, however, be opening my new studio doors (in Edinburgh) to the public at some point in the future, so keep an eye out for news on that front.

And Finally …

Many thanks to those who visited the recent show at Gallery at Fifty Five in Stonehaven. The feedback was fantastic and I look forward to exhibiting there again in 2018.

Until then, I’ll be working on new pieces including more versions of the 2 hand-painted etchings above and those I’ve done of Edinburgh and the East Neuk, along with more oils based on my recent travels to Yorkshire, Cornwall and Northumberland. There will no doubt be a few more lighthouse paintings and new etchings in the pipeline too.

There’s more to report as far as exhibitions coming up are concerned and an exciting piece of news (for me at east!) about my work featuring in a new glossy magazine … but I’ll leave that for next time.

You can always find more updates and pictures of my latest works in progress etc by following me on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cliveramageartist/?hl=en

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/clive.ramageart.9?ref=bookmarks

 

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Exhibition News

20 Hand-painted etchings of Edinburgh & the East Neuk of Fife
20 Hand-painted etchings of Edinburgh & the East Neuk of Fife

Here’s some news about some upcoming exhibitions.

I’m happy to say I have a number of exhibitions in the pipeline for this year and this lot of newly framed work will be heading off to a gallery near you in the coming week. I’ll have some of this work in the Gallery at Fifty Five Spring show opening in Stonehaven on 4th March.

There’s also arTay during Perth Festival of the Arts which takes place in May, and either side of that I’ll have work in the Pittenweem Arts & Galleries Weekend along with fellow Fire Station resident artists in April, and at the Fire Station Creative gallery which will be happening around Open Studios time in June. I’ll post the specifics for all of these nearer the times.

In the meantime, I’ll be working mainly on new oil paintings and etchings, including lots based on my recent Cornwall, Devon and East Lothian trips in the campervan.

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A Certain Symmetry at SSA Open 2016

 

A Certain Symmetry
A Certain Symmetry (the print with lines dusted out of each design by Steven)

A little bit of background on the project Steven Blench designed and I printed as an etching and which has been included at the SSA open exhibition this year. It was great to get the piece on the front cover of the exhibition catalogue and also hung up at the entrance to the show as a huge blow up on vinyl.

Steven and his wife Ffion design and make plasterworks including highly ornate cornices and ceiling roses, among other things. They were to exhibit some of their work in Edinburgh earlier this year and Steven asked me if I had any ideas as to how they could render what they do in a 2D format to hang in a frame alongside their other work.

I pictured an etching featuring several of Steven’s ceiling rose designs as a good way to show off the incredible detail at it’s best. Etching on copper gives a very precise line and Steven’s designs obviously required a huge amount of accuracy. So I prepared a large piece of copper plate onto which Steven enscribed his designs before I etched it and ran off a couple of prints.

We hoped to get something we could at least hang in that exhibition, but when the print was pulled it was probably much better than either of us had expected (see top picture). Steven and I agreed that this could be an interesting collaboration with more prints to come as a sideline to what we normally do. He took one of the prints home and, a couple of days later, came back with it having dusted down some lines and areas leaving the final design more prominent (bottom left).

close-up-of-design-2
Close up of middle left design in the top photo with chalked out lines

This process informs the next, which is to render the 2D design into a 3D plasterwork (top photo).

plasterwork
The final plasterwork of the middle right design in the top photo

The print was exactly what we had hoped for but then one of those happy accidents occured that added that something extra to the final piece. I’d been keen to show the prints to Steven asap, so they hadn’t been allowed to dry properly. I resoaked and dried them out on an old piece of plywood, not realising there was a residue of sepia watercolour on it. This soft tone bled out across the wet paper giving the prints a lovely ‘antique’ feel.

Prints are available from the RSA building on Princes Street until 24/11/16
£260 unframed (£350 framed)

See link for exhibition details: SSA 2016 Exhibition

See more of Steven and Ffion’s work at: Chalk Plaster Design: Our Story

New work to be exhibited at The Quay Gallery, Aberdour

4 Paintings for Quay Gallery
6 New Paintings for Quay Gallery

Just finished these 6 new paintings and will be taking to the framer in edinburgh later this week. They’re off to the Quay Gallery in Aberdour, Fife, in a week or 2 and each is a hand-coloured etching painted in a variety of ways.

The one on the right, The Old Town, Edinburgh, is 65x50cm and was only just finished this morning. It has a watercolour base for the sky and buildings and the hard work was done with my recently aquired Faber & Castell pastel pencils. These were bought on Ebay by accident as I thought I was getting watercolour pencils (I hit the bid button in a bit of a panic to win them). Anyway, I’m glad I did because they are fantastic!

The Old Town, Edinburgh (2)
The Old Town, Edinburgh (2)

The middle painting, the 4th in my Dean Village series, is maianly watercolour over etching with a little copper acrylic for some of the roofs. It’s roughly the same size as Old Town.

Dean Village, Dusk (copper roofs)
Dean Village, Dusk (copper roofs)

The other four paintings are done over 2 etchings of East Neuk scenes. Again, watercolour base with pastel and gouache for the buildings.

East Neuk Paintings
East Neuk Paintings

If you have the time do go to the Quay Gallery in Aberdour. It’s a beautiful gallery and just happens to be in one of the loveliest seaside towns in Scotland. But wait a week or two!!

 

Dean Village (No. 4) & the Macmillan Art Show 2016

Dean Village Dusk
Dean Village (Copper Roofs) 67x50cm – mixed media

Here’s my latest in the Dean Village hand-finished etching series. This one, the forth in the series, took by far the longest to complete, but I think there is more fine detail and a greater variety of colours in this than any of the other 3 completed so far. I used copper acrylic paint to give some of the rooftops more lustre and if you look very closely you might see some gold dust stars in the night sky.

I’m taking a break from this project now to work on a large-scale oil painting of the Bank of Scotland building, which sits atop The Mound in Edinburgh. This particular building has always been one of my favourites in the city and it helps to make that Old Town skyline one of the best in the world (to my mind anyway).

Here’s how it’s looking after the first wash of colours. A very long way to go as you can see.

Bank of Scotland, The Mound (WIP)
Bank of Scotland, The Mound (WIP)

Macmillan Art Show 2016

I’m delighted to have had an etching accepted for the 2016 Macmillan Art Show. This takes place at Bonhams between 25-28th August and further details can be found in Scottish Art Scene article below (click the link to view the pdf). My etching of Arthurs Seat & Calton Hill is featured in the article, along with a short blurb about how it was made. Some of the other artists who’s works are also going to be on show are also featured.

http://scottish-art-scene.com/2016.Edinburgh.Macmillan.Art.Show.pdf

© All material is copyright of Clive Ramage 2016

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