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Just in case you're wondering where all the blog posts have gone, I've been over on my Facebook page with photos and updates.

Take a look here to see what I've been up to!

Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place

There's a great article on the BBC website about the major new Joan Eardley show that's just opened at the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place

 The Wave, 1961 © Estate of Joan Eardley

I was at the private view of the show last Thursday (as well as the wonderful celebratory dinner), and it promises to be an important and memorable exhibition - although it was hard to see what was on the walls for the sheer number of folk there!  The show puts a lot of important new material such as letters, maps and preparatory sketches on display in order to contextualise and compliment the work. 

The rooms are arranged so that each takes a theme - Glasgow children, Catterline etc, which helps to focus and clarify the work.  You can visualise and understand exactly where Eardley stood in Catterline order to paint the works. 

Anything which sheds new light on an artists work and brings it to life is a worthwhile exhibition, and anything which helps to cement the reputation of Joan Eardley, one of Scotland's finest ever artists, is to be commended.

Paul Nash at the Tate

The wonderful Paul Nash exhibition at the Tate Britain in London is currently on at the moment, and is a great introduction to the work of this very English and rather mystical artist.

This is an exhibition which takes you through the lyrical, Georgic drawings of his early years (during which his home life involved his mother dying in a mental institution in 1910), and his repetative, comfort drawings of a family group of trees.  

Paul Nash fought in the First World War, later acting as a War Artist.  Here he is in uniform in 1918.

          Paul Nash by Bassano Ltd whole-plate glass negative, 29 April 1918 (c) National Portrait Gallery

However, whilst he was invalided out after a fall in the trenches, his entire battalion of the Artists Rifles were killed. Not surprisingly, this affected him very much mentally (causing a breakdown in 1921).  His huge, stunning canvas The Menin Road, is in the exhibition, and its stark, barren vision is immensely striking.

Paul Nash, The Menin Road (Oil on canvas, 1919)

After the war, in 1921, the year of his mental breakdown, he became fixated with the geometry of the landscape.  He painted nature by means of Cezanne's  cylinder, sphere and cone,the cube which he saw naturally appearing in the landscape in the form of giant anti-tank blocks of concrete or man-made groynes.  

Paul Nash, The Shore at Dymchurch (Oil on canvas, 1923)

His most famous work is perhaps a Second World War picture,  Totes Meer, an eerie painting which looks like an abstract  sea of metal waves in the landscape.   

(There's a great little film about Totes Meer here.  )

In fact, as this film and a series of photographs that he took show, Nash was merely painting what he saw, namely a dump of wrecked second world war enemy aircraft near Cowley in Oxfordshire.  

This is perhaps the key to Nash's work - his paintings often look surreal, but in fact they are super-real, they are super-observed.  His chalky, strange, very English landscapes remind me of work by Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Eric Gill.  They are ordered and ancient and pastoral, and yet there is something tortured writhing beneath the surface.

 Paul Nash, Totes Meer (Oil on canvas, 1941)

The last room sadly doesn't have The Battle of Britain, which I'd hoped to see

but it does have a strange sense of floating and flying in the paintings very much like the final room of the recent Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition at the Tate Modern, where she painted abstract scenes of clouds observed from above.  It's almost like a precursor of death.  

In this room are some of Nash's last series of sunflower paintings (a flower symbolic of life and death), which return to his love of William Blake, being based on his 1794 poem Ah! Sun-flower.

Paul Nash, The Eclipse of the Sunflower (Oil on canvas 1945)

Nash died of heart failure in 1946, and is buried with this stone carving of a hawk on his grave, which he has painted 10 years earlier.

Paul Nash, Landscape from a Dream (Oil on canvas 1936)

Now, as much as I loved the show, there is an annoying thing with moderncurators.  The exhibition is often about curating and the curators more than it is about the artists.  

So here, the agenda is not to introduce Nash to an audience who haven't seen his work, or to showcase him as a war artist, but to present Nash as an 'international modernist painter'.  Which means they dispense with any sort of introduction to the man, as if the paintings spontaneously appear on their own, and that the life of an artist doesn't reflect in and inform the work.  

So, no need to give us a picture of the man, or tell about when he was born, or how he was brought up, or his family, or his mother's illness, or his own mental breakdown, or his lack of personal relationships.  Nope. 'Paul Nash was a key figure in debates about British art's relationship to international modernism' we are told.  What a load of alientating elitist nonsense.  

Which begs the question, just who is this show aimed at?  

People who never been to an art show before? 

People with an interest in art who just want to see something interesting and a bit challenging for an afternoon?

People who have never seen the work of Paul Nash?  

People who perhaps know one aspect of his work, but want to learn more about him?

Experts who are so up on Paul Nash that they would be insulted if you even hinted at any biographical insights?  

Other curators?  

I suspect it's the latter.

So do go to the show - but to get the best out of it, read up on Paul Nash's life and times beforehand. 

Colour Catalogues Ready to Go...

Here are the catalogues for 'Colour' at the Lime Tree Gallery Bristol.  

The show opens on Saturday 5th November, and is a feast of vibrant, uplifting exuberant work from 4 Scottish artists - myself, Alison McWhirter, Pam Carter and Peter King.

That's my lovely big painting 'Sunlight on Red Fields, Argyll' on the front cover there.

The preview starts at 10am, and as well as the paintings, there will be refreshments served throughout the day.  Do come along if you're in the area!  All welcome.

If you'd like as copy of the catalogue, just get in touch and let me know.

..Gone Tomorrow

My hare went for £25. £25!!

Probably £20 of that was for the random eagle that was with it...

McTears Auction Page

Little Paintings of North Berwick

Here's another collection of little unframed canvasses.  This time, they're all Scottish coastal scenes, of the east coast around North Berwick, and the west coast near Morar.

These are both from the beach at Tyninghame.

Don't they look great in a group?

They're all off to the Cambridge Art Fair with the Lime Tree Gallery.  You can see what else is going to the fair HERE.

Hare Today...

...and gone tomorrow. Literally.

Remarkably, another of my paintings has turned up for auction at McTears.  This time it's a watercolour called Leaping Hare, from 25 years ago.  I hope it's had a happy life for the last quarter century with its owner.  I sold the painting back in October 1991, and it certainly doesn't look faded at all. 

It's going under the hammer in the Interiors sale tomorrow (Friday 23rd) at 10.30am.  I guess it will go for pretty much nothing.

Back in 1991, I worked as a typist in the mornings, and one of the ways that I got practise painting was to go round to various places in Glasgow in the afternoon.  I had my big folder full of paper and a camping stool to sit on, and a rucksack full of watercolours, pens and pastels.

My favourite places were the Botanic Gardens in the west end, where I painted the orchids and sketched the marble statues in the Kibble Palace, and Kelvingrove. There, I got a sketching permit and went from department to department, painting the stuffed animals and items from the ethnography department, as well as copying paintings and sketching statues.  I also got permission to draw items from the basement, such as animal skeletons and other taxidermy items.  I painted and drew everything I could find. 

This leaping hare was one of the taxidermy items.  I also did a smaller, sleeker version. 

Well, hullo again hare, and goodbye!

Meet the Artist

Lemond Gallery, Saturday 17th September, 1-4pm.

See you there, folks!

Spoilt for Choice...

Not only do I have my solo show opening this weekend at the Lemond Gallery in Bearsden, but it's also come to my attention that three of my paintings are coming up for sale at McTears Auctions in Glasgow this weekend.

They are appearing in the Scottish Contemporary Art Auction on Sunday 18th September at 1pm.  Here they are - click on the lot numbers for links to the auction house website.

This is Lot 71, Calm Sea, St Ives (oil on linen, 24 x 26).  It's a scene of dawn over the harbour.

This is Lot 80, Orange and Pink Moorland (oil on linen, 24 x 26)

This is Lot 91, Blue Sky, Bass Rock (Oil on linen, 20 x 20)

Thank you...

...to everyone who came and saw my paintings at the Affordable Art Fair at Bristol!  Thank you all for your kind comments.  

Next art fair is Cambridge at the Guildhall, Market Square, on 30 September - 2 October.  I'll be showing with the Lime Tree Gallery on Stand E3.  

Contact the gallery for a free ticket to the fair at info@limetreegallery.com

On Stand at the Affordable Art Fair, Bristol

Here's my paintings in all their glory on the Lime Tree Gallery E9 Stand at the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol, which opens to the public tomorrow.

At the top at the back we have Sunlight on Red Fields, Argyll, Burn in Spate, Argyll and Glen Lochy - all oil on linen, 32" x 40", and in some rather splendid minimalist frames.  I think you'll agree that they make quite a splash on the stand!

Here's another view of the stand.  Looking fabulous up at the top is Narcissi in Bluebell Woods, Dalkeith, along with a selection of little paintings of North Berwick and Northern Ireland 

.

The fair is open from 11am until 8pm tomorrow (Friday), and 11am - 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

More information on the fair HERE.  

And if you can't make it to the fair, you can view all the paintings and see how they're selling HERE!

Burn in Spate, Argyll...

...has been specially selected as one of the Director's Picks at the Affordable Art Fair at Bristol!  Exciting stuff.  Let's hope it catches the eyes of lots more people at the fair.!

Take a look at the link here.

Burn in Spate, Argyll (Oil on linen, 32 x 40)

Another Cutie

Here's another little Gower canvas that's off to the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol.

They're selling like hot cakes, and the fair's not even started yet!!

Purple Flowers, Bracelet Bay (Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8)

See what else is on the Lime Tree Gallery stand here.

Art on the Radio

Back in 2008, I exhibited in a lovely two-person exhibition at Thompson's gallery in Aldeburgh with the Scottish botanical artist Jenny Matthews.

Yesterday, she featured in an interview with Jenni Murray on Woman's Hour on Radio 4, talking about her latest floral work which features i an exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival.

You can listen to the show here.

Always good to publicise the success of Scottish artists!

Also on Radio 4 (which I listen to whilst I'm working in the studio), is a programme today at 11.30am about Courbet's scandalous (or is it?) painting The Origin of the World.  It's a truly wonderful painting, on show in the Musee d'Orday in Paris - but let's just say it's an image made for radio.

You can hear the programme here.

New Paintings Arrive in Bristol

A brand new consignment of my paintings has arrived today in Bristol, ready for the Affordable Art Fair there which opens on September 9th.  It's a lovely relaxed fair, held each year in Brunel's Old Station, so it's great fair to visit, with plenty of local galleries.  All the art is reasonably priced as well.

In addition to my rather sweet set of little Gower canvasses (which you can read about here and here), I have, at the other end of the scale, some big and beautiful, vibrant and textural oils.  

Sharp-eyed regular viewers of my work will spot that I've given them a bit of a makeover, framing them in a new way without glass - yes, no glass!! - and a minimal, modern frame,  which hopefully shows off all that lovely impasto.

There's a set of 8 Welsh canvasses, and 4 large oils which are of Scottish landscapes.

Burn in Spate, Argyll (32 x 40, Oil on linen)

Glen Lochy (32 x 40, Oil on linen)

Narcissi in Bluebell woods, Dalkeith (32 x 40, Oil on linen)

Sunlight on Red Fields, Argyll (32 x 40, Oil on linen)

And here's the new framing.

As you can see (hopefully), it's a narrow silver tray frame, with gessoed inner and outer edges in a nice neutral Farrow and Ball grey, so it should suit all colour schemes.

And no glass!!

Here's a close up of the moulding, which is about an inch or so wide.  (Sorry it's still got the protective shrink wrap from the framers on it.)

Here you can see how the canvas is recessed into the tray frame to allow for the depth of the impasto - otherwise the paint would stick out beyond the front edge of the frame. Obviously, that would be a problem in an unglazed painting when dealing with the amount and depth of paint that I use!!

Have a look at all the work on the Lime Tree Gallery's E9 stand here.  

For a link to the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol, which ends on Sunday 11th September, please click here.

If you go along to the fair - let me know what you think!

A Walk in Central Park