Last week of my show at Inverness Creative Academy – Artist talk Fri 14th July

This is the final week of my solo show Paintings & Prints From Scotland To The Moon at Inverness Creative Academy.

I’ll be on site from 2-3.30pm this Friday 14th July to give visitors a guided walk around the 40 pictures.  I’ll discuss the many techniques I use to create the works as well as the inspirations and ideas behind them. I’ll also be more than happy to answer any questions about my practice and experience of working as a full-time artist.

It’s free entry so just show up at the cafe at 2pm and say hello. I’ll look forward to meeting you then!

Paintings & Prints From Scotland To The Moon is on until Saturday 15th July at 4pm.

Open daily until then 10-5pm.

Solo Show at Inverness Creative Academy (10 June – 15 July)

Saturday 10th June marks the opening of my first ever solo show in Inverness.

With this body of work I hope to showcase both my varied interests and inspirations as a landscape artist, as well as the many techniques I use and often combine in their creation.

The Bell Rock (Twilight)

In conjunction with Wasps Artist Studios, I will present around 30 pieces in total. These will include dramatic new oil paintings of Neist Point and Isle Ornsay in Skye, alongside several mixed-media cityscapes of Edinburgh and surroundings.

Neist Point, Skye
Isle Ornsay (detail from wip)
Towards Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh
Fidra Lighthouse

Also on show will be a selection of atmospheric etchings featuring, among other things, several Scottish lighthouses, castles and mountains.

Dunnottar Castle
Victoria Street, Edinburgh
North Face, Ben Nevis

There will also be 3 different coloured versions of my recent series of Glitter Moon limited-edition handmade prints, framed with non-reflective glass and available to buy for only the second time.

Glitter Moons – Yellow, Blue & Red, etching and screenprint, 47x57cm (individual image size)

So, all in all, there will be plenty to see across the two floors my show will occupy.

I will be at Inverness Creative Academy between 12-4pm for the opening on Saturday 10 June, so please come along if you are in the area. It would be great to see you there!

Opening Night of my Solo Show – Frames Gallery, Perth – 3 March 2023

Minutes before the doors opened

After almost a year of hard work and preparations, last Friday night saw the opening of my solo show at Frames Gallery in Perth. And what a fantastic night it turned out to be, with almost a quarter of the pictures sold within 2 hours!

But I have to admit that I am always a little anxious when it comes to opening nights, and especially when it’s just my work that’s on show.

There’s a lot of pressure to get everything finished, framed and on the walls on time and I feel that heavily on my shoulders for weeks in advance.

A quick spin around the show!

And there’s quite a lot of variety in my work too, so I’m also always wondering how all of those pictures will look when they’re hanging together in one room.

Glitter Moons, watercolours and etchings
Etchings and oils with a sea theme in the main

Of course, I’m also hoping there’s going to be a good turnout for the opening, as a great atmosphere always helps to get any show off to the best start.

But in spite of my growing nerves as 6pm approached on the big day, I should really have known that I needn’t have worried! Hugh and his team at the gallery had done a brilliant job of hanging the show and I couldn’t have been happier with how all 45 pictures were presented!

The first picture to sold was one of the largest, Muckle Flugga, oil on canvas

And to add to my great feeling of relief and excitement I was delighted to see that there were already some red dots accompanying pictures before the doors officially opened!

It’s always lovely to chat to the people who have been to my previous shows and have bought my work in the past, and I love to meet those who’ve come along to see it for the first time.

Two more of my lighthouse oil paintings sold on opening night!

It’s really the one chance I get to hear what people think of my newest work and that feedback is always very helpful when it comes to starting new pictures.

All in all it was a lovely night, with lots of interest and by closing time at 8pm 10 pictures were sold, ranging in price from £250 for a framed etching of Victoria Street in Edinburgh to £3450 for my large oil painting of Muckle Flugga.

I want to say a huge !!THANK YOU!! to Hugh, Julie and Jenny at the gallery for making it such a wonderful event and also to Lucy who so beautifully framed many of the pictures there! Massive thanks also to Kevin at Framing Point in Aberdeen for his incredible service and help over the past couple of years! I can’t recommend both highly enough!

And, finally, thank you so much to everyone who came along on the night, with some of you traveling a fair distance to get there! When you buy my pictures, or any artist’s, you really are helping to ensure that we can keep making more and the world would be a much duller place without art!

Here are some photos from the night. If you couldn’t make it along but still want to see the show, then you still have 2 weeks to go. And if you do go, please let me know what you think.

 

Frames Gallery Solo Show – Invitation to the Private View (3 March 2023 6-8pm)

I am delighted to announce that my first solo show with Frames Gallery in Perth opens in less than a week and will run until 25th March! I have been exhibiting regularly with the gallery since the very earliest days of my artistic adventures, and working with Hugh and his team has always been a great pleasure.

I hope this diverse collection of over 40 paintings and original prints will not only demonstrate my development as a painter and printmaker over the past 15 years, but will also be something of a visual feast. However, that’ll be for you to decide!

Come along and enjoy a glass of wine at the private view this Friday 3rd March 6-8pm at Frames Gallery. It would be great to see you there!

Here is just a little taster of what will be on show …

Neist Point, Skye, oil on canvas

 

Muckle Flugga, oil on canvas

 

The Bell Rock, photopolymer etching

 

Glitter Moons – Yellow, Blue & Red, etching and screensprint

 

The North Face, Ben Nevis, etching and aquatint

 

The Old Town, Edinburgh (Twilight), mixed media over etching

 

Towards Arthur’s Seat & South Queensferry, mixed media over etching

 

Bothy paintings, mixed media on paper

Click here for the whole exhibition and picture details!

Black Friday Sale – 25% Discount off all my prints online!!

It’s that time of year when everyone’s looking for a good deal. So I’ve decided to offer a HUGE 25% Black Friday DISCOUNT on all my giclée prints and etchings for a very limited time only. (Ends Sun 27th Nov at 11.55pm)

Dean Village (Sunset) – 65x50cm (usual price £150 – now £112.50)

So if you’re looking for an extra special and very personal Christmas present for yourself or a loved one then look no further!

The Old Town, Edinburgh – 65x50cm (usual price £150 – now £112.50)

Select anything from my Big Cartel shop using discount code BLACKFRIDAY and you’ll not only get this great saving but you’ll also receive it carefully wrapped and packaged well before Christmas.

Towards Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh – 45x33cm (usual price £95 – now £71.25)

And that includes one of my very rare and highly saught after Blue Moon etchings! There’s just a couple of these available right now, so you’ll have to be quick off the mark to get one at this price – and with almost £150 off the usual price!

[PLEASE NOTE: my Blue Moon numbered edition has now SOLD OUT! See most recent post for details on how to reserve a a very rare Artist Proof Blue Moon!]

Blue Moon A/P – etching 57x47cm image size (usual price £595 – now £446.25)

These are just a few of the pictures available so click here to see them all and remember to use discount code BLACKFRIDAY

My BLACKFRIDAY discount ends Sunday 27 November at 11.55pm!

Pittenweem Arts Festival

St Monans, Fife

Tomorrow marks the start of the Pittenweem Arts Festival (6-13th August) and I’m very happy to be taking part alongside fellow members of Fife Dunfermline Printmakers Workshop. I’m looking forward to seeing all the work we have on show at the preview this evening.

All are welcome to come along tonight for an early viewing  between 6.30-9pm at Lesser Church Hall, James St, Pittenweem.

Dunnottar Castle

Above are 2 of the large framed prints I have in the show, St Monans and Dunnottar Castle. Both etchings were produced in July especially for this event.

I’ll also be showing my Blue Moon etching (below). There are only a few left from this very limited edition of 20 numbered prints, so if you want to own one you best hurry to bag yours!

Blue Moon

I have a few other mounted prints available from the venue including the following, all of which are fairly local to the area:

A Hot Summer’s Day, Elie

The Old Wooden Pier, Culross

Edinburgh Castle

The Old Iron Pier, Aberdour

If you can get to Pittenweem during the festival you will find art filling the streets and almost every home above the beautiful harbour and beyond. It’s a fantastic event and well worth the trip for a great day out!

More details about the festival and invited guest artists can be found here!

 

The Printmakers 2022 at Frames Gallery, Perth

 

A Hot Summer’s Day, Elie 🔴

I currently have several of my etchings in a fantastic new printmaking show at Frames Gallery in Perth.

I was very happy to see some red dots below some of my pieces at the private view, including the ones below, and also to be showing alongside some of my favourite Scottish printmakers.

The North Face, Ben Nevis 🔴

It really is an excellent and varied exhibition, showcasing some of the best in contemporary printmaking techinques and styles and I’m delighted to be taking part. Click here to see the works on show and do drop by if you are in Perth.

Spanish Hornet (ii) 🔴

As these are editioned prints there are several of each still available, so get in touch with Frames Gallery if you are interested in anything you see here (or there!).

Here are a few more of the framed etchings I have on show at the gallery, and click here if you’d like to see the whole show online.

Edinburgh Castle

The Old Wooden Pier, Culross

Blue Moon

Dean Village, Edinburgh

The Old Iron Pier, Aberdour

Heriot Gallery Show – Last Few Days

The Urban, Land and Sea show at Heriot Gallery in Dundas Street, Edinburgh, closes this Saturday. I have several pieces in it inlucing these two large and colourful scenes of Dean Village, Edinburgh and North Berwick.

If you are in town the whole show is well worth a visit!

Dean Village (Sunset)

Click here for details and to see what’s in the show.

The Beggar’s Mantle Fringed With Gold

A recently finished commission: East Neuk (Waxing Moon and Stars)

Until recently, I’d never heard of “The Beggar’s Mantle Fringed With Gold”. It was King James VI of Scotland who coined that description of Fife’s coast; the ragged shoreline being the frayed cloak from which the begging hand of Fife is held out in hope that the sea will provide sustenance. The gold lining perfectly captures the beautiful fishing villages that fringe the East Neuk, especially when the phosphorescent orange street lamps are aglow and the houses are lit up and cosy on a cold winter’s night.

I came to hear of it one Saturday morning a few weeks ago when my phone pinged to inform me that another painting had sold from my Big Cartel shop. As always, I got in touch with the buyer right away and, after discussing postage and various other details, asked where he’d come across my work.

Back to the beginning

The reply was so very unexpected and it not only made my day but also gave me the biggest confidence boost an artist could wish for.

The answer had its roots way back when I first started exhibiting in 2008. In fact, it was at the first exhibition I ever entered (the annual open at Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery) that Jim had spotted my work. It was an oil painting of a row of typically-colourful cottages all huddled together along the shore, looking almost fearful of the next incoming tide. I’d given it the title Awaiting The Turn of The Tide with that thought in mind.

East Neuk (Starry Night)

A few days after the opening I returned to see the whole show and was thrilled to find my first ever red dot. The painting really seemed to glow and stand out quite nicely in that large space. I walked out with my feet in the air and feeling this idea of being an artist I’d had for a while might just work!

But you never really think about all the other people who might stop and have a look at your efforts in a gallery. So it came as a big surprise to hear that it was way back then that my new buyer informed me he had first seen my work. He had gone in on a mission to find inspiration for a song he was trying to write for a performance he’d soon be giving at that year’s Stanza Poetry Festival in St Andrews. The song had to capture that ‘beggar’s mantle fringed with gold’ feeling. He told me that it was my painting of glowing cottages tumbling down into the sea that had helped him to visualise an idea of what he wanted to capture in words. He went off and wrote the lyrics below for Dances With Angels, performed it at Stanza and that, as they say, was that. 

East Neuk (Crescent Moon)

But now, 12 years later and living in Kent, he told me he’d always remembered that painting (someone else had bought it) and was now in a position to buy one of my East Neuk pictures for himself. In fact, he’d had a hard job choosing between the two I had for sale on my website and a couple of days later he ended up buying the other one as well. (The two paintings directly above.)

That he’d remembered my work all that time was incredibly uplifting for me. But that it had also helped him to write his lovely song was just wonderful to discover all these years later.

And so One thing leads to another

Jim has since gifted me a cd of his work, much of which has been covered by internationally renowned folk singer June Tabor. It’s a wonderful, highly evocative album and I’d recommend it to anyone who loves great music and the romance of the sea – and the East Neuk of Fife in particular. It’s called Diamonds In The Night by Andy Shanks and Jim Russell and is available to download at Amazon or from Greentrax Records. Dances With Angels isn’t on this album, but here’s a link to a Youtube video of Andy and Jim performing it live in Orkney back in 2000.

I think it’s great when work made in one art form inspires and informs that made in another. And to have had a wee part in that myself is a lovely thing! 

I’ll be listening to Diamonds in The Night a lot this winter while I work, and I’m sure it will in turn inspire many more pictures that are still to be conjured up and painted into existence.

Dances With Angels, words by Jim Russell

The whole town is tumbling down to the sea,

Footsteps we left in the sand

Are gone when the moon pulls up the tide

Changing the paths we had planned.

Where is my comfort? There’s no angels here,

Unless they’re all hiding their wings,

Or dancing in small towns with strangers like me,

Hoping tomorrow brings.

Dances with angels

Dances with angels

They say angels dance by the steeple clock moon

With lighthouses flashing like stars,

Casting shadows and shapes and turning in time

To the staggering songs from the bars.

Now we travel with care and the tracks of our lives

Are a cage, but if you break free,

Go tumbling and turning then soaring like gulls,

Crow stepping down to the sea!

But where is my comfort? There’s no angels here,

Unless their all hiding their wings,

Or dancing in small towns with strangers like me,

Hoping tomorrow brings.

Dances with Angels

Dances with Angels

The streets are all dancing

The children are dancing

The songs from the bars spin around with the stars.

The ghosts are all dancing

The ministers dancing

The waves are all dancing

Tonight the whole town is dancing.

arTay 2020 is online now … and you can see and buy 2 of my paintings there!

Here’s a quick note to tellk you about two paintings I have available to buy at arTay 2020. It’s an online only show, of course, but still runs for just 4 days (ending on Sunday 31st May). So you best get in quick if you want to buy one of these two or something else from one of the 80 artists also showing.

And here’s a link to what’s available and more details.

Dubh Artach Lighthouse (Nocturne), acrylic on wood panel 67x68cm in frame
St Monans, acrylic on wood panel 108x70cm in frame