Two Months on Gigha

The Way to the Sea 

Oil 24x20"

Sun and Clouds, Gigha

Oil 28x24"

Island Studies

6x8"

This June I stayed with 3 other painters on the island of Gigha for 5 days.

It wasn't the best weather for painting outside but the island was full of accessible painting places and the colours were a delight of blues and pale greens. And wild flowers everywhere.

When we were there we were offered an exhibition in the Gigha Gallery in 2016 and since then we've learned that the exhibition can be for 2 months, August and September, the holiday months when the islands busy with tourists.
http://gighagallery.com/

Its very exciting and I've been sorting out works that may be suitable, mostly from sketches done during  our stay though I'm hoping to return in May to do more studies.

Now I need to store these away in the meantime.

Modern Scottish Women | Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965 Modern Two Edinburgh

This is a friend's record of a recent day we had in Edinburgh - a Gallery Day, on of the best kind of days. Up by car and down by train and it rained and rained. Loved it!

"We made our way for lunch down a splashy Princes Street - artistic inspiration for wet reflections, though!

We weren’t tempted by this neon spider-tower - Wheeeee!

Pink and Blue Umbrellas scurrying into Jamie Oliver’s Italian, sited in the refurbished ground floor of the historic Georgian Assembly Rooms  

(built in 1787)  - Rose Street entrance. (I was under the pink umbrella )

Yummy sundried tomato antipasti with olives, before our main meal 

- food/service was  excellent and well priced - will def revisit!

We admired our refined, frescoed Georgian surroundings - an unexpected backdrop to a bustling and chic modern restaurant!

Edinburgh City Council defended its controversial plan to introduce a retail and restaurant element on the ground floor as necessary to "largely finance" the refurbishments of the Assembly Rooms’ main events rooms - the Ballroom, Music Hall, Crush Hall and the East and West Drawing Rooms…….. the project has seen the ground floor of the building returned to its "original use".

"Shops were there until as recently as 1950, and the Supper Room will go back to its original dining use (the clue being in its name!), creating a new entrance on Rose Street," 

We spent the remainder of afternoon,until closing time, viewing the stunning current RSW watercolour exhibition 

- 277 works by contemporary Scottish artists

The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour

135th OPEN ANNUAL WINTER EXHIBITION Upper Galleries, RSA Building, The Mound. Edinburgh EH2 2EL 27 November – 12 December 2015 Daily 10am – 5pm Sundays 12 – 5pm

Rain had stopped  - yey!  we headed for Waverley Station past the Princes Street Fairground & Christmas Market in Full Swing

Sleet and snow forecast for later - gritters out and a 6-dog sled team was being exercised…."

This is a friend's record of a recent day we had in Edinburgh - a Gallery Day, on of the best kind of days. Up by car and down by train and it rained and rained. Loved it!

A Month of Yellows

  

Woodland Study Culzean 2

10x12" Oil on board

Woodland Study Culzean 1

24x20"Oil

November Woods

Acrylic  8x6"

Everywhere I've walked this last few weeks it's been like walking through a land of yellow and because, until recently, the air has been relatively still the leaves have remained in all their glory.

I'm lucky to live a short drive away from Culzean Park where I regularly go, not only to walk, but also to work sometimes in the Charity Bookshop which raises funds for The National Trust. 

Its a treat to be there amongst a few thousand secondhand books and at the same time to enjoy the wonderful parklands.

An Exhibition in the Lillie Gallery

   

The Heather Hills

Oil on canvas   2015

30x30"

I'm an elected member of 

The Glasgow Society of Women Artists 

and feel really privileged to be able to take part in the groups exhibitions in various venues around Scotland.

This Autumn it's being held in The Lillie Art Gallery in Milngavie, Glasgow.

The Gallery has a collection of Scottish Art from 1850 to the present and includes works by Elizabeth Blackadder , Francis Cadell, Samuel Peploe and Joan Eardley.

An Arran landscape

Sold

Oil on canvas  2014

10x12"

Five days on Gigha

Sun and Clouds on Gigha
20x24'
Oil on board

Butterbur in a Landscape
30x26"
Oil on Canvas

A Gigha Landscape
30x26"
Oil on Canvas


I've a love of the Scottish Islands and this year spent 5 days with 4 fellow painters on the island of Gigha.
It might be the ferry crossings to get there and the hope of spotting sea otters and seals and maybe, just maybe, a whale, though I've never been lucky enough to see one yet. I think you really need to book a seat on a whale watching tour to have a chance.
Many years ago we did see a huge basking shark swimming up the west coast and that was amazing.

Gigha was beautiful, with the typical white sands and the rich turquoise sea, which you'd never imagine you'd find in the Scottish landscape.

These three works are from sketches and smaller paintings made outdoors on the island.
I'll post more of the Gigha series as I finish them.

Glasgow Art Fair

Landscape with Walls and a Windfarm

Ochre Hills

Autumn Trees

A Winter Sun

All the paintings are oil on board.

Getting ready for the Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair.

I'm not sure if these will be included but 

at least I've some ready and not rushing at the last minute.

Thankyou to The Ailsa Gallery who've asked me to be one of their 6 exhibiting artists at the Art Fair.

Trying a Box Canvas

A Vase of Spring

Oil on Canvas 8x8"

February has brought longer hours of daylight and that means more time to paint in natual light.

In the garden the signs of Spring are already showing - the snowdrops through and other bulbs beginning to grow.

And it's impossible to resist buying bunches of daffodils from the local gift shop.

And it's impossible not to try painting them.

This time though I've been using box canvases and trying out ways to paint the edges, trying black at first but settling on using the background colour.

I'm not sure whether this type of support is for me. I think I prefer a canvas with a frame.

An Ochre Study with Windfarm

Oil on Board 24x20"

The weather is just as you would expect in Scotland in January though the rain seems a bit wetter and the winds that bit stronger.

The worst part of this time of year, if you paint, is the shorter daytime light. By 4 o'clock it's already getting dark and I don't find daylight bulbs all that sucessful. In proper daylight the colours always seem too fierce hough I know many artists seem to like them.

Working away on the series of paintings with a predominantly ochre palette of the hills in this part of Scotland though I've started adding a bit of a windfarm or two

which can now be seen in the landscape. 

In a cream frame

A New Year, New Medium

Tamzin with the Cowboy Hat

Pastel on Brown Paper

At the beginning of December I went on a pastel portrait course with Tom McKendrick in
 A House for an art Lover, Glasgow.
It was a beautiful venue for an art course and the teaching was inspiring.
This was the first time I've used dry pastels and the first time I've actually completed a colour portrait as my attempts in the past have ended up in the bin.
The resource was a photo I'd taken a few years ago.

My girls, with a hint or two from me, have given me money for pastels as my Christmas present and I'm so looking forward to going to Glasgow to spend it in a new art shop there.


Here's a photo of Tom McKendrick with his wonderful portraits of soldiers.