The opening night for my 13th Note show is coming soon. Next Monday in fact. So if you'd like to join me for a wee tipple from 8.30pm on the 1st September, I'd be most joyous to see you. The Note is situated in King Street, Glasgow for those not in the know. I have a natty little Facebook event that you can invite yourselves to if you're not already there. It won't be a late one for me though as I'll be getting up at silly o'clock on Tuesday morning to get to the Prestwick airport because I'm off to the wilds of Catalonia.
My pals Sarah and Chris, who I met during my art adventure in Cyprus in 2006/7, have settled in a little valley near Riba Roja d'Ebre in Catalonia, Spain. Catalonia is fiercely proud of its heritage and has been campaigning, much like Scotland, for independence from the rest of Spain so it will be interesting to see if I get questions about our Referendum. However, I'm not going over there to talk politics, I'm going over to help out and take photos for their wee music and arts festival Riba Rocks happening 5-7th Sept. I missed their inaugural year last year so I was determined not to miss this one. There will be musicians and artists coming from the UK as well as local bands and DJs. I just hope I can do it justice, photographically speaking. Well, enough of this blethering, better go walk the dog. She's giving me the look. Hasta la vista baby!
0 Comments
I'm going to be hawking my wares on Sauchiehall Street tomorrow (Tuesday 29th July) at Art on Scotland's art stalls opposite the Tesco. I'm selling framed and mounted prints and greetings cards of my paintings and drawings so come and visit me between 10 am and 7pm. Bringing me coffee and cake is optional but highly appreciated.
It's official, all my pals will be bored of me saying this but, did you know I have an exhibition coming up from next week? Well why yes, yes I do indeed. Starting with the jolly little gathering of an opening on Wednesday 2nd July (7-9pm), my work will be exhibited at the Good Spirits Co. in Bath Street, Glasgow until the 9th August.
It will encompass basically most things I have to show from drawings from my "Drawing a Day" project I did for a whole year from February 2011 to January 2012 to my paintings of portraits, figures and my weird illustrative imagery. The show will be open to the public every day. I would highly recommend you have a good perusal around the Good Spirits Co. shop, they hold just about every spirit you can think of and they sure know a thing or two about it. I would like to give big thanks to Mark, Matt and Shane for giving me the opportunity to show my work in their premises. I'm really looking forward to the opening and hope you can join me for a chat and a wee look-see. There will even be a glass of wine in it for you. All originals will be available for purchase as well as mounted prints. If you can't make the opening, dinae fret, it'll be on for 6 weeks. You can check out the FB event here for more details. New exhibition for 2014 will be the next group show curated by Wolf Bones at Glasgow's Broadcast in Sauchiehall Street. Opening will be on Friday 31st January, so coming up really soon. I'll be showing a couple of drawings and a brand new painting, along with my fellow artists, some of whom were also in the previous Broadcast exhibition. The opening will be from about 7.30pm on Friday, hope to see you there. Other exciting things I've been up to lately is flexing my rock photography muscles again in the form of doing a little promo shoot for pals' band Chris Devotion & the Expectations. It was great fun and I think it went well. Got some shots on my facebook page, you can have a wee swatch of a few shots through this link. It's all for the cause of their brand new shiny album that will be coming out in a month or so, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for the fabulous tunes by the boys, the fabulous album artwork by the talented Mr Dave "Ninja" Turbitt using my fabulous photos. It's a marvellous team effort. Here's a single from their last album, give your ears a wee scorchin' on this..... I'd like to thank the brave souls who ventured out to Eczema House yesterday for our open day. That was some weather. Despite the crazy storm, we had great fun during our open day, the mulled wine was flowing and the mince pies were getting scoffed. Our spirits refused to be dampened even when Brian's attempt at making his batch of mulled wine turned a little beefy, with definite overtones of sweaty sock. We found out you shouldn't use a well used cast iron soup pot for making mulled wine. A great big thank you to our stall holders; Lynsey Cosham's Art Angel, Linzi Fergusson's Twa Burds Soaps, Cat and David at Glasgow Chilli Guy and Lindsay Watson's Tyrannosaurus Spandex. Also to Nick Watson for providing his delicious Latin Street food, keep an eye out for him BBQing near you soon, and to the Quaker Meeting House for lending us tables. Watch out for updates of future events, we're hoping to make this a regular thing but let's hope the weather will be kinder to us next time. Exhibition news for me is my last exhibition opening for the year will be Monday 16th Dec (and also my birthday!) night at the Winners Exhibition in Cocktail & Burger in Sauchiehall Street from 7.30. A couple of months ago there was a portrait competition curated by Michelle Cohen of Grey Wolf Art and I got 2nd prize! Part of the prize was a group exhibition with Stu Murphy (first prize) and Marianne Vosloo (third prize), so this is it. I've got about seven portraits in and they've got deal on for opening guests a cocktail and burger for £12, I'm going for it, hope you will too. Otherwise, whatever you do this time of year, I hope you have a marvellous time. See you in the new year. In the building where I have my studio there are a whole bunch of small independent businesses and we decided to have an open day on Saturday 14th Dec 12noon til 6pm for Xmas shoppers to invite and encourage you, the public, to come and see what we're up to. We're in the affectionately named Eczema House at 141/143 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 2SG. Come and visit Jeff and his new sidekick Archie in Rig Bike Shop where Brian and the guys will be providing bike expertise to everyone so you can consult with Santa about that all important new bicycle purchase for Christmas. You can also get your caffeine fill from Ingrid who will be manning the teas and coffees in the cafe. If 4 wheels are more your style then see Lindsay at 5th Blocker Skates who will furnish you with skating and Roller Derby knowledge and kit. On the day, Lindsay will also have her range of fashion on sale as Tyrannosaurus Spandex. Mark & Tony will have their super cool Devil's Own Apparel where you can buy skateboards, comic artwork, urban wear and more. I believe Jetpace Industries t-shirt workshop, t-shirt printers to the stars (well, local Glasgow bands), may have some exclusive shirts on the go. I, of course, will be having my studio open with original artwork and prints for sale. So many excellent and fabulous gift buying opportunities. What a selection of amazing goodies on show, I hear you say! Well, we are good to you but it doesn't even stop there. We're also going to have stalls from handmade soap purveyors Linzi & Ashley's Twa Burds Soaps, cards and jewellery from Lynsey's Art Angel, raging hot sauces from Matt the Glasgow Chilli Guy and Nick will be doing awesome things with brioche and chorizo! Not only that there will be free, yeah you heard it, free mulled wine and mince pies (subject to availability, get in quick before they run out!). There is also a probability that there will be entertainment happening in the form of African drumming and a possibility of performance poetry. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see performance poetry at Rig Bike Shop. Hold on to your hats people! A great night was had by all last Wednesday at the opening of "All the Small Things" group exhibition. 26 artists and over 80 works, it was some hanging the day before I can tell ya. Got there in the end and I do think the place looks great. So if you're in need of a special and unique Christmas present go into Bar Ten, Mitchell Lane (opposite the Lighthouse) and get yourself a bargain. I even sold some prints on the preview night so I'm well chuffed, my wee woodland critters seem to have gone down very well. Following on from that, amidst the frenzy currently rampaging through the shops, there will be extra opportunity to spend your hard earned bucks at "Ezcema House". The building where my studio is located and affectionately named after a skin disease is a quirky place by no means and that includes the lovely folk who work there. 141 & 143 West Regent Street in Glasgow hosts Rig Bike Shop, 5th Blocker Skates, Devil's Own Apparel, Jetpace Industries as well as my studio Lady K & Bones (that will be shortly having a name change due to a new studio mate). To advertise our whereabouts and what we do, we're having a wee open day on Sat 14th Dec, 12 - 6pm when you are invited to join us for a wee mulled wine and a mince pie while you peruse the interesting and unique items on offer. We do hope you can pop in and see us. On the Monday after that (the 16th), I believe there will be the opening night of the winners of Cocktail & Burger's Portrait Competition. Myself, Stu Murphy and Marianne Vosloo will be sharing wall space at Cocktail and Burger once again showcasing our work. It's going to be more portraits from me but I'm looking forward to seeing what the other guys put up. As it will be my birthday the same night I think it should be a good night. Let the festivities begin! Oh yes, it's coming up to that very special time of year when people all over the world celebrate the wondrous birth of a very special person. Yes, me! Another year older on the 16th but after that it'll be Xmas! Love it or loathe (I'm in the former camp) Xmas is coming with a vengeance: it's going to be December on Sunday! Cripes! I've been painting furiously in between doing all my other jobs and ukeing so I will actually have....count 'em...three exhibitions going on at the same time. The first one is already up (you can read about it below), the "Paint it Black" exhibition at Broadcast in Sauchiehall Street, the next one will be in Bar Ten in Mitchell Lane; a Xmas show entitled "All the Small Things" and then I will have another show at Cocktail & Burger also in Sauchiehall Street. "All the Small Things" will be setting its sights on Xmas shoppers. Small, affordable and unique gifts for that special loved one; original works that are no bigger than 18" x 18" and under £100. Prints will be available too. The image here is one of my tiny paintings that I have just completed. It's part of a set of seasonal woodland critters, four in all of course (5" x 7"). Come on down to see the others. The preview night will be on Wednesday 4th (next week!) from 7.30pm. There will also be extra shenanigans going on with live music. Should be a great night. On the 15th I've got a deadline for handing in my work at Cocktail & Burger for the winners of the "Heeds Up" portrait competition exhibition. Not sure when the preview night for this show is but I'm assuming a day or so after...watch this space for more details.... I'll be sharing the walls with artists Stu Murphy and Marianne Vosloo. You can read about the "Heeds Up" exhibition in a previous blog post. I'll be showing the work that got me second prize in the exhibition as well as some other portraits. Best of luck with the Xmas shopping and remember, getting something unique and hand crafted for your friends and family will not only make you the bestest person in the world but will also save a starving artist from the gutter. Yey! :-) Been pretty busy of late working (other work) so not getting in to the studio much of late however, I have two whole days ahead of me to do just that. Open day went great with lots of folk coming to see us. Really appreciated all the kind comments and even sold some prints and Karen sold a painting too. We're planning on making it a regular thing, maybe every 3 or 4 months, in conjunction with the other businesses at 143 West Regent so look out for more developments. With the summer approaching (?!) there's even been talk of BBQs out the back so make sure you come along for some tasty grub. Have managed to get some new painting done though. I'm trying a bit of a different style by turning some of my pencil illustrations in to paintings. Usually my illustrations are monochrome, with occasional digital colouring or watercolour but I thought I would give it a go in oils. My previous style in observational oil portraits is much more expressive and loose than many of my fantasy illustrations so I knew it was going to be a bit of challenge. However, I'm pleased to say things are going well and I've produced a couple of works I really like and most importantly enjoyed doing. See more as they get finished in the new "Fantasy" section in the "Painting" menu. A little while a go I joined Shop Scotland, an online showcase website dedicated to promoting Scottish and Scotland based creatives, designers, artists and makers. They've been working very hard at getting their site looking dandy and have a new fancy member badge that I've just put on the footer of my website. They've also just become one of the winners of the Edinburgh heat of the Local Business Accelerators. So check them out. Other exciting news is I've got a new studio! Well, will have next month. I have been sporadically working from home but have realised that I definitely need others about me to get me working proper and having a separate place to work in makes all the difference. The temptation of washingup/cupsoftea/tv/daydreaming/generallyfannyingabout is far too much of a distraction and as I don't have a lot of space in my flat, my sitting room is either a sitting room where I can sit or a studio with all my materials everywhere and no where to live. Currently, it is a sitting room which I much prefer. So from mid March I'm moving into a studio space in West Regent Street with my friend Karen Bonella. I haven't even seen it yet but I have good vibes about it. There are already a few businesses in the building; Rig Bike Shop, Jetpace Industries t-shirt printers and Devil's Own Apparel clothing shop who are just about to have their grand opening on Sunday 3rd March. Also judging by facebook pages, there are always dugs kicking about the place so that's an extra boon! Picture of cuteness of a chocolate lab pup called Elvis Presley here. So with lots going on and lots of creative types hanging about hopefully this will be the start of very exciting things to come. |
Archives
March 2024
|