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!

And the dog came too !

My home with the Open Studios Banner and a visitor at the door.

It's been a week since our Open Studios event and I think I'm still recovering from all the painting and tidying and welcoming and talking.

It was extremely busy and I think most people had a successful time .

Here are a few photos of inside my house though they don't feature the studio which is up a few stairs and was also open for browsing thfough. 

Most works are oil paintings though there are a few gouache too.

I didn't have greeting cards ready nor prints as I ran out of time and realise this was 

something I should have organised.

Ah well, note to self for next year.

Same shell, three sketches

Sometimes it's a treat to lay the bigger brushes aside and do some careful observation with a bit of watercolour and a small brush.

Ayrshire Open Studios

My small hallway so far

I'm taking part in a new venture called OPEN STUDIOS AYRSHIRE on 22, 23 and 24 March.

This is our first go although Open Studios is now a very successful part of the UK art scene.

 For this first time we've 36 artist working in pottery, prints and painting and a brochure with a map is being popped into libraries, shops and anywhere else willing to take a bundle. This photo shows my small hallway so far, although I think I'd best get the black frame changed to a cream one. Also I need to get greeting cards, postcards and business cards printed so searching for reliable printing companies.

The idea is that visitors come to your studio and browse and maybe buy some art, though I have to say I have a very small house. and the trouble is we've no idea how well the event will be attended.

I thought if I served coffees, teas and maybe had some wine at the ready, as well as my friends wonderful home made scones, it might encourage a bit of rash spending!

And if very few come, well, my scone maker and I can always drink the wine ourselves.

Trying something new!

The Swing

Print  7x5"

I've stepped outside the comfort zone of using a paint and brush and been attempting to print from watercolour paintings. This is from a 10x12" work though I printed it onto card first and intensified the colour with paint and pencil. Then it was reprinted in a size to fit the square frame I'd bought in a bargain basement.

Gone Fishing  6x6"

The Swing

6x6" 

Sold

I'm feeling very clever, having actually managed to produce something that looks OK and it's set my mind to thinking about producing greeting cards from some images. 

But choice of support is important, floppy cards would be no good,  and, as I'm not the tidiest person and known for covering everything in paint, I'm wondering about employing a professional printer.

Then, if I want to do this properly, there's the problem of marketing, though there are small gift shops in the local area I could approach. Be a bit brazen.

So lots to ponder before I even think about this new venture!

Just Fishing!

Watercolour  8x6"

Bridget Hunter 2012

Sorting through old artwork, binning some and wondering if others could be salvaged and found this washed out watercolour of my youngest when she was 5 and fishing in the burn. I'm thinking maybe I can redo this in watercolour achieving a better effect, or even try it in oil.

A painting subject - or not?

Poppies in the sketchbook

Beautiful sunny days here a few weeks ago brought out the large patch of poppies I usually have a go at painting. But the timing was wrong this year and I came back to a patch of weird but wonderful wilting poppy heads. Irresistible  !! I've tried to capture them in a sketchbook and wonder if a white jug of drooping poppies would make a good painting subject. Something to think about .

Sketching in a train

View from a Train

Gouache on paper  2011

I travelled by train to London in September and spent some of the journey trying to sketch landscapes seen through the window. It was a bit frantic I suppose - trying to remember what I'd just seen and getting it down as quickly as possible in either pencil or watercolour. Luckily I was beside an empty seat!

I've now been working with the sketches as a resource, using gouache on paper, to see if one of them might work as an oil painting.

November sketch.

November Trees

Bridget Hunter 2011

The sun is shining, the first light frosts are here and the Autumn colours are glorious. So packed my sketching kit, met Dorothy (http://www.dorothyhfisher.com/) and went to Rozelle pond. This is an attempt to capture a small part of the scene in watercolour.

Sketching in France.

Have just returned from a painting trip with friends at the Chateau Dumas in south west France. The weather was glorious, the food amazing, the Chateau beautiful, the company wonderful. Here are some pages from my sketchbook done in and around the Chateau.

The Chateau

Hopefully some may end up as painting subjects.

Smudge, the reluctant model.

Pen, watercolour HP paper

Pen, cartridge paper

2B/4B pencil, cartridge paper

watercolour, gouache, cartridge paper

I've finally managed to form a working relationship with Smudge the Cat. He no longer moves away whenever I get close with the sketching kit. So here are more studies - not paintings yet - though I hope to develop some into oil or gouache works.

Never work with Animals?

Smudge the kitten, 2010

Watercolour, sketchbook

Smudge the cat, 2011

2B pencil

I'd brought paints to Wales in the hope of working. But its rained - practically the whole time. So I've been trying to sketch the house cat here. But he's not co-operating and languidly changes position each time I try to capture his image. How did Gwen John ever do her wonderful cat studies? Here are my attempts so far.

Maybe next time!

The unfinished watercolour

View of Ailsa Craig at Culzean

watercolour/pencil sketch

My attempt at practising a gouache painting turned out to be a bit of a non-event. I've gone painting before without water, without thinners, without coffee but never before without paints - well, the gouache paint anyway. 

So it became a watercolour practice instead. I've absolutely no confidence in using watercolour apart from in a sketchbook. I'm still too impatient to wait the time for washes to dry and past attempts have ended in dull, overworked disasters.

However this watercolour, though unfinished, is my best attempt to date. Maybe using gouache that watery way is a good place to start. 

Sketching in Skye

The sketching kit

Village of Aird

Aird Church is now a gallery

Shore cattle

Holiday house

Shoreline- Ardvasar