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!
0 Comments
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! :-) 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! Going to be in the month-long portrait exhibition at Cocktail & Burger, curated and hosted by the delectable Michelle Cohen of Grey Wolf Art. Opening night is tomorrow (Sunday) from 7.30pm and looking forward to it, should be a good night. I've put in a couple of older ones "Hireath" and "Alex" but have a new one of the lovely "Steph", so come on down to see them and a whole bunch of other amazing portraits. There will be live music and DJs so bring your pals and make a night of it. Remember it'll be on for a month so you can come back again and a delicious burger from the rather lovely menu. Look forward to seeing you there! 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. Hoorah, I've sold a painting at the Art Exposure Gallery Xmas exhibition! Apparently to the people that bought the other one I sold there so I officially have a collector. What larks. Now time to get those brushes out again. Day 353 - Lady centaur I know we're in to January a fair bit now but I still say Happy New Year to you anyway. It's going to be the end of my drawing year challenge come the 31st January. Unfortunately, this year's 28 Drawings Later: February Drawing Challenge will not be happening this year but to be honest I think I'll be glad of the rest. Think I'll still do a weekly drawing post but it has been quite a trek putting up something for each and every day. I am considering doing a public vote on Facebook of the most popular 30 (or something) of my 366 drawings (it's a lot, I know) and make a book available to purchase at all good venues (most likely craft fairs and the like). Let me know what you think.... If you like my pictures and would like to have a print or the original of your very own, do me a favour and don't just nick 'em off the interweb; purchase at a very reasonable price from the on and offline outlets. Namely Redbubble, or a fair I'm at or contact me if your favourite pic isn't up yet. Keeps me in pencils, see and means I can continue to entertain you with my wondrous imaginings and witty(?) banter. Many thanks to all who continue to support the arts. |
Archives
March 2024
|