In Studio's inaugural exhibition exceeded our expectation in every way. Despite forecast worries, the weather was fantastic which meant that the garden was a very welcome rest area with tea/coffee and home-baking (and a glass of something else). It also acted as a conduit between exhibition spaces. The main exhibition area in the studio worked really well and it was so gratifying to hear all the positive comments as visitors arrived. The overflow area in the summer shed also acted as a social hub while displaying extra wares. We had a healthy footfall, fantastic sales, lots of laughter and positive vibes. Three happy visitors won our giveaways in the draw. Looking forward to the next event. 

A new exciting venture, the start of In Studio collaborative exhibitions starting with 'Nature's Call' the weekend of 11th and 12th May. With friends and fellow artists/makers Spiral Tide Pottery and Hidden Town Glass we are inviting people into our own work places to connect with us and our work at grass roots level. This has given a new focus to work and helped me to reconnect with what I like doing best and what gives the best source of inspiration. Nature is at the root of all our work and since my art college days I have been interested in the nature versus culture conflict. I have been working on a small series where nature reinstates herself in the weathered and battered 'culture' of buildings and edifices.

The most recent workshop held in my studio was based on Autumnal Colours. Or at least the majority of those attending drew on the richness of those colours in order to create their artist's book. One decided her focus was going to be on purple and blue. This was because one of my exemplars was based on those colours and it appealed to her. This is what it is all about though, finding the key to allow others to free up and be happy. 
It certainly pays to have lots of examples to hand as it makes for a very interesting session when the attendees pick something different to do. The three hours, an increase from two, still passed by all too quickly. It was a very sociable and supportive session with all chatting away, learning from each other - sharing ideas and offering a helping hand.
What was especially lovely was that they went away with artworks in hand feeling inspired. Supportive and complimentary comments were left on evaluation sheets and follow up messages informed me as to what happened to their artworks on getting home and what future creations they would like to do. Doesn't get any better than that!

There is nothing like an exhibition to focus attention! Work is being framed, cards are ready but I am still in the studio trying to get new work out and ready for display.
This is all for a really good cause. The 3 Harbours Arts Festival has been going for well over ten years now. It brings community together and showcases not just art and craft but poetry and music and even from time to time food. I used to be part of the main Festival which runs over ten days in the three harbour towns of East Lothian - Port Seton, Cockenzie and Preston Pans, but when I was part of the CIC MADE in East Lothian time pressures mean that I had to give it up. Luckily now that I am pursuing different goals, the fundraisers are held in Haddington and so I can at least be part of that aspect of the Festival. 
This event is being held at Rooart Gallery and there are to be twelve contributing artists. 
​The theme I decided on was winter, hence the Round of Robins and the Sentinel trees. Two of these are development pieces so they will be mounted and put into the browser. This time I have had cards printed off and I used photographs I have taken of East Lothian in winter. Some are very recognisable locations in Haddington but there are abstract images as well. 

Many years ago, when I first left a paid job to pursue art, I met with Sir William Gillies in the City Art Centre in Edinburgh. By 'met with' I mean met with one of his paintings for the very first time. Thereafter I engaged on a voyage of discovery; one which has vastly informed my approach to making art.

I used this painting 'Temple, Dusk' in a Critical Appreciation Essay as part of the Foundation Course at Leith School of Art. This is what I wrote:

The painting initially reads as a tranquil, sleepy village street.  The light is failing, the doors are firmly shut to the world and the milky, creamy moon ascends over the rooftops to gently illuminate the scene. The deserted road leads you from the left hand side of the painting, sweeping past the rows of houses and bare trees to the end of the village and beyond. There is no movement in this picture, the trees are static and there is no chimney smoke.  There are no people, indeed no evidence of people beyond the doors and windows so tightly closed. There is no indication that this is a special place at all, no name on the shop fronts, no road signs to give clues to the village’s identity or to its location.  By far the biggest visual effect is that of space.  The broad line of the road, narrowing off into the distance, the buildings compact, kept to the sidelines, the road is given central stage.
Compositionally it is not just the curve of the road that encourages you to leave the village but the constant, rhythmic, seamless line that is the buildings sitting cheek by cheek, the corbie-step approach to the chimneys and the simple white line of the guttering that delineates the compressed buildings on the right-hand side of the painting. The bare branches of the trees also point up and out away from the street. The white road markings on either side of the road are also tools by which Gillies draws you back to the direction of the road and out of the village. 
Gillies employs a limited tonal range in this painting, muted browns and greys offset by blocks of bright red and yellow in window frames, post boxes and signs on the walls. The road is a smooth mid-grey, the pavements a lighter grey and the sky darker yet, the point at which it meets the road a uniform grey to give the impression that the road and sky are on the same journey, travelling indefinitely. The stones of the houses are singled out for more structure and depth, the palette knife marks evident on the canvas. The shop window alone is allocated greater detail, though remaining vague, just hints of form and colour. The roundness of the moon is mirrored by two further circles, one blue the other concentric yellow and orange in the deeper recesses of the shop.   These the only soft images in a landscape dominated by line.
The moonlight serves to highlight the colours, no shadow is cast.  The colours and texture of the painting are relatively flat and loose.  Tonal blocks of colour serve to formalise the scene and impose another form of rhythm.
The windows, the ‘eyes’ of the buildings are blank.  There is no hint of what lies within with the exception of the shop window. The white paint of the window surrounds and the white walls of some of the buildings reflect the moonlight but the small, square window panes remain dark, aloof and unassailable.  Some windows are merely rough outlines on the fabric of the buildings.  The doors, splashes of colour, yellow and green do not even reach the pavement as though suspended from contact with the outside world.  These windows and doors do not face the artist, face the viewer but turn away or are tucked behind other walls.  There is one exception, one small window peeking around an evergreen tree, peeking around the wall of a house, but sufficiently out of view to be an enigmatic possibility of engagement with the human element of this deserted village.
The painting is un-mounted yet there is the illusion of a painting within a painting by the inclusion of two vertical parallel white lines equidistant from each other.  They are lines that have been roughly sketched yet convey a distance between the artist and the subject matter. These simple lines denote the very window from which Gillies has been painting.
By treating his subject matter in a very cold, analytical way, Gillies has distanced himself from any emotional attachment.  He depicts this village, his home, as a forlorn place bereft of warmth and involvement, a route to somewhere else.  The implication is that he too was  to pass through, following the grey road out and beyond.  The fact that he ended his days in this same village hints at unrealised ambitions and a life spent forever on the inside looking out."

On further research, I found a connection with Gillies, in that he was born and lived in the town I have called home for the past 19 years. The tobacconist shop his father, then sister used to run has in my time had a few changes of use and is now where you go to have pancakes.

On his death, Gillies left all of his works to the Royal Scottish Academy. I visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art one afternoon and got to see a small section of his prolific work. This was enough to tell me that an artist need not be defined by one medium or style. 

Last night I attended a talk on Gillies, given by Guy Peploe - grandson of THE Peploe and Director of the Scottish Gallery. The comments I made on the basis of seeing 'Dusk, Temple' on Gillies, though not all accurate at all did show some understanding of the type of man he was. Gillies, according to Guy Peploe was a private man who lived quietly in Temple with his mother and two sisters. When Gillies served in the First World War, he saw those two years as wasted years and never referred to them. He chose not to travel outside Scotland and once he was given the post at Edinburgh College of Art he did not seek any other. His view of the world though narrow geographically and culturally was rich and all embracing artistically and I continue to be inspired by his huge legacy as a Scottish artist.

The Hopeton Monument sits upon Byre Hill, part of the Garleton Hills in East Lothian. It serves as a visual cue to me on returning home that I have not far to go. The winding roads that lead to it from all around accentuate this rather modest hill and make it almost lofty.
From way back when, I have loved driving towards the Hill and its monument. This chimney type edifice was built to honour the Honourable John Hope, the 4th Earl of Hopetoun - he later became Lord Niddry. The monument is all of 95 feet or 30 metres tall and 132 steps take you to the top from where you can enjoy magnificent views. 
Over the years I have spent a lot of time studying, sketching and photographing Byres Hill and the Monument. It has become an obsession. As to why I really cannot say. Perhaps it is something to do with being a personal landmark. Perhaps it is to do with the landscape in which it sits. Autumn and winter lay bare the fields so the plough lines are on display. The contours of these lines mirror those of the hedgerows and the road that travels on upwards towards the monument.
Today I finished an artwork based on all the material I have collated over the years. Intent on working solely in acrylic, I stuck to my guns until right at the end when I could not resist a signature collaged tree. Hopefully the whole painting - which is not large conveys the wonders of the East Lothian landscape; its rich autumnal colouring and its patterns.

This week heralded the return to the PACC in Haddington as a self-employed tutor. This is the fourth year as tutor in Mixed Media and the first in Painting Techniques in Oil and Acrylic. 
I have six students in the Mixed Media class, 3 new and 3 returners. Their creative energy was particularly high and everyone enjoyed the first activity which was basically mark making using a mixture of media on brown packing paper. After five minutes or so of working on one area, the students rotated so they were then responding to someone else's input. This is a good exercise - blowing away both creative cobwebs and inhibition. Next week we will review the results; use them to encourage reflection and analysis and consider next steps. 
The second exercise will be continued next week. This was mark making using stamps and other tools on tissue paper. This material will  be used in collage in self-led projects. 
There are four students in the Painting class. The humble leaf, autumnal in colour, donated forcibly by the trees by Storm Ali was the focal point for teaching. Each leaf was unique in terms of colour, pattern and structure, hence proved a good basis on which to discuss the ability of acrylics to emulate watercolours, choice of base colours, layering and techniques involving brushes, palette knives and sponges.

I have not taken a table at a fair for too many years to mention. Another life - another interest. However I have two fairs coming up too quickly and I need to ensure I have sufficient artwork - new and fun. The lovely garden variety robin hits the spot in terms of creative inspiration. Hopefully there will be a series of mixed media artworks depicting the robin in different poses, which in turn will give me festive cards to offer in packs. I simply love collage so I am in my element right now having lots of fun. Similarly with the titles - looking to give each artwork a music or dance based title so the brain is whirring away on many levels just now. 

It is a common dilemma amongst all creative people - when to stop working on a set piece. At what point is the end reached... no more to be done. I remember four significant lesson points from my days as an art student, one of which arose out of frustration as to whether to continue changing a painting or leave as was. My tutor at the time said 'different does not necessarily mean better'. So I stopped with a real sense of relief. Wise words I now pass on to my students.
This posting arose from the workings of a small mixed media/collage I did as part of a working demonstration for my students who were keen to see my studio practice. At the time it was a good focus on process and as with all successful lessons, the more that did not work well proved great teaching discussion points. 
Over the past few weeks I have looked at this artwork from time to time. It seemed to ask for resolution so that is what I have got round to do. The process started with paper weaving to produce a square 'cloth'. The colours determined the next steps. The background was a surface already painted. That part of the background that was behind the table never really worked so the most significant transition was in using a metallic acrylic over the top. The sheen matched the disc on the wall, and the red was still visible so tying in with the other colours. The other major difference was losing the stitch on the original vase. As a textured background behind the blue it worked much better than the fussy stitching. The fruit also did not read well, so replacing the objects with flatter discs helped keep the artwork uniform. A suggestion in this case works better than too much detail.
Now is the time to accept that different would not necessarily mean better and the artwork will now be elevated from the status of teaching tool to mounted artwork awaiting an outing to the exhibitions and fairs I have lined up later in the year.