Rolf Harris Retrospective Opens

A retrospective show of the work of Rolf Harris has just opened in Liverpool at the Walker Gallery.

News article and video here.

Now, you might not think of Rolf Harris as one of the world's great painters - although his work sells for fantastic sums - but you've got to give the guy credit for having talent.

For those of you not as ancient as I am, Rolf used to have a popular show on television on Saturday nights.  Lots of entertainers did in the 60s and 70s - Cilla Black, Cliff Richard, Lulu - and there was a bit of singing, a guest or two, and invariably some way-out groovy dancing by the Young Generation.

Rolf had a show where he not only sang and so on, but painted.  Now, you just never saw anyone actually painting in real life.  Being an artist was such an unheard of, hidden thing that it was well-nigh impossible to relate to.  

But here was someone with a sheet of paper the size of the wall of your lounge, some buckets of paint, and some huge brushes, who actually just started painting, no fuss.  You could see him making the marks, and the marks would suddenly go from looking like a random mess into a beautiful painting.  He normalised the whole process, made it seem as if anyone with a big bit of paper and some household paint could just have a go.  It wasn't pretentious, it was just fun.

But the even more amazing thing was what he painted.  It was all gum trees and water pumps and the outback.  Stuff like this...

Rolf Harris, Ghost City in the Gums

..and this...

 Rolf Harris, Blue Gums

I was born in Australia, and although I came to Scotland at a very young age, these images were all the sort of things I could remember, stuff that was so very very different from grey old 1960s Glasgow.  Here was a guy who not only knew what was in my head, but was painting it big and bold on prime-time Saturday television, watched by millions.  It was like being given a voice.

So thank you, Rolf.  Keep on painting.

Visit Morar for yourself....

There's not many of my Morar paintings left now at the Affordable Art Fair at Bristol, but here's one that's still for sale...

Cow Parsley by the Bay, Camusdarach (Oil on linen, 12 x 12)

It's of the umbrella-shaped cow parsley growing at the side of the road which curves round the bays of white and pink sand at Morar.  The old single-track road travels right by the water's edge, so at every turn there's something new and exciting to see.  

Here's a link to Google maps so you can take a look round the bay where it was painted and see it for yourself - CLICK HERE.

Have a look for the painting on Stand A10 if you're at the fair today!

All Fair at the Fair....

The weather's fine in Bristol, so it's good news for going to the art fair at Bristol Temple Meads this weekend!

Here's another painting that's on show there, on Stand A10.

Rosebay Willowherb by Wet Sand, Morar (Oil on linen, 20 x 20)

It's of the silver sands at Morar, looking out over the sea to the islands of Rhum and Eigg in the distance.  And to think I was only just there again last weekend!

So if you're at the fair, see if you can spot it.

Friday Fun - Star Wars Wedding

Just as a bit of Friday fun, I thought I'd share a photo with you.

These are my friends Andrew and Vaila, who got married a couple of weeks ago.

Doesn't get much more traditional than that, does it?

Huge congratulations - and may the force be with them!

Affordable Art Fair, Bristol

If you're anywhere near Bristol over the weekend, then I've got paintings there at the Affordable Art Fair at Bristol Temple Meads - AFFORDABLE ART FAIR.

This is one of them...

Cranes by the Waterfront, Bristol (Oil on linen, 24 x 26)

It's a well-known group of 4 cranes on the waterfront at Bristol, along from where Brunel's SS Great Britain is berthed (and very near the Lime Tree Gallery!).  

It's great to paint something which is a little grittier and more industrial, and to find colour in something urban.  It's also good to try and depict man-made, non-organic things, after all that landscape, and to give them a certain life and vigour.  

To do that, I have to remember to keep everything quite loose and relaxed, and not get too caught up in depicting every last strut and line.  It's about an impression of the cranes, the feeling of them standing there, rather than an exact architectural rendering.  So the complicated structure of the metalwork of the cranes is sillhouetted and contrasted against the fluffy, organic clouds, the grey of the metal against the bright blue of the sky.

If you want something exact, then you can refer to a photograph, but it's the job of an artist to go beyond that, and tell you what it was like to be there.  Hopefully that comes across.

The Fair is open all weekend.  You can see my work with the Lime Tree Gallery (Stand A10) and the Wren Gallery (Stand D9).

For a half price ticket to the Fair, go to the Wren Gallery website here, click on the Affordable Art Fair picture on the right hand side of the page, then click on the pink Affordable Art Fair icon on the right of the page to print your ticket.

George Wylie - Scottish Scul?tor

It's been announced today that sculptor and artist of the people, George Wylie, has died aged 90.

If you were in Glasgow in 1987, you'll remember his Straw Locomotive hanging from the Finnieston Crane, a tribute to Springburn's railway heritage.  The 40ft long train was then burned as a symbol of the decline of Scottish industry, leaving a blackened wire skeleton.

Or you might recall his Paper Boat, launched on the Clyde as a comment on the state of the shipbuilding industry.  

It travelled to New York in 1990, berthing at the World Financial Centre in New York, where it made the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

He wrote an award-winning play about world banking, A Day Down a Goldmine.  He was a musician, wrote poetry, and was friends with the German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys.  This from a man who didn't attend art school, but was a sailor in the Royal Navy (during which time he made a life-changing visit to the charred remains of Hiroshima) and later worked in the customs service.  

However, in 1965 he decided it was 'time for art', and went to welding classes in Greenock, where he began to recycle materials into sculpture.  In 1979, at the age of 58, he left the customs service to become an artist.  With his puckish nature, he described himself as a 'scul?tor', emphasising the importance of asking questions of the world by putting the question mark at the heart of his art.

Yesterday I talked about the Orbit tower in London.  It's a massive, capitalist jumble of a thing. To me, it's not playful, or beautiful.  What does such a huge thing say?  Does it say anything? 

George Wylie, unfettered by an art school training, but stood in good stead by a social conscience and a sense of humour, made massive statement pieces that weren't in-your-face (as well as much smaller ones).  It felt like he was like an ordinary guy who was making things on your behalf, which asked the sort of questions you wanted to ask.

So, if you were asked to make a large monument, what would it be of? 

A massive piece of sculpture placed in the public space of people's lives demands a big subject.  Not something egotistical, but a subject which people can identify with, something beautiful.  So if you're from Glasgow, you might just choose to build a train or a boat.  After all, Clyde-built trains and boats were world-famous, big and strong, they crossed empires; but now they're gone.  So you might just think of making your train or boat sculpture out of something as fragile and fleeting as straw or paper.

And now George has gone.  It seemed like he would last forever as well.  

Just remember to keep asking the questions...

The Orbit Tower

This is the newly unveiled Orbit Tower, built in London for the 2012 Olympics.

It's a 115 metre high scultpure designed by Anish Kappor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond.  Visitors will be able to ascend in an elevator to the top to stand on an observation deck.  

I'm not sure what your initial reaction is.  It somehow reminds me of something scientific, but without the beautiful pattern - like a diagram of a double helix gone wrong, or blood capillaries spurting.  It has a certain roadkill feel about it - something's got run over, and it's all a bit of a mess.

However, it does seem to look better at night...

This is Turner-prizewinner Kapoor's Marsyas, which was exhibited in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Gallery in London.

You can see that he enjoys making big, audacious, colourful pieces.  However, whilst Marsyas would appear to have a certain elegance (although unfortunately it's one of the Unilever series that I didn't see), I'm afraid I can't say the same for the Orbit.  Obviously I'm not standing underneath it to see it, but it strikes me that it's not exactly...

 

Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International (Tatlin's Tower)

Or maybe I'm missing something.  

What do you think...?