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.

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! :-)

New exhibition in Broadcast in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow went up last week with an opening night on Friday. A hectic week for all involved but a great looking show that will be on for 2 whole months. Thanks to the organising talents of Michelle Cohen and Karen Bones a.k.a. Wolf Bones there was live music and even a club night. Good times. The show opens up the darker edges of the artist mind producing an exhibition of 13 artists; from large scale paintings to smaller intricate ink drawings there is plenty to see. On for 2 months so get yourself down there and grab a tasty burger and beer and peruse what's on offer. All works for sale so do the right thing and make the happiest partner, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, grann......ok, you get the idea. 

I have put in 6 new paintings, two of which are acrylics, you can see them in the flesh in Broadcast of course but if you can't make it, there are images online on my Facebook page. I decided to switch from using oils and turps and try water-based acrylic paint so I wouldn't asphyxiate myself now I've sealed up the studio due the onslaught of the coming winter and my determination that I will be able to feel my fingers while I paint. It was a bit tricky at first being used to the long drying times of oils but I've got a handle on it pretty quickly. I seem to naturally work faster due the faster drying time but got slightly frustrated sometimes also because of this. I've read up a bit about the properties and uses of both media and have come to the conclusion that using both (which may be controversial to some) may be a way to go; though only when I can open the window again. It is said, by those who know, that oils can only go over acrylics but never the reverse as you will end up with a whole fireball of mess. The plasticy overcoating of the acrylics will dry quicker and shrink and so I'm assuming it won't take the oil colour with it and there will be some sort of separation. However, this could be an interesting experiment if you want to mess around with textures but then maybe it would eventually fall off as it wouldn't adhere to the base coat. Oh, I'm getting kind of technical about stuff that I don't really know the ins and outs of. Think it's a trial and error thing that probably would take years to see actual results as acrylics have only been around commercially since the 1950s they still don't really know about longevity. Anyway, it's going fine at the moment so onward ho!

Woohoo! I got second prize at the Heeds Up Portrait Competition at Cocktail & Burger tonight. Am so chuffed. Thanks so much to Michelle Cohen for organising, curating and hosting the show.

"Hireath" did it for me. Had such a lovely evening. Good times.

Just need to work out who to take to dinner with my prize of a free meal at C&B. Applications welcome here with a 100 word essay on why you would be the best dinner companion!