Cyril Gerber

Sad news to hear that Cyril Gerber has died.

A major figure on the Scottish art scene, he founded the New Charing Cross Gallery in Glasgow in 1963 with Bet Low and John Taylor.  Just to put that in context, Glasgow wasn't exactly known for its artistic side in the 1960s - it was all grey fog, shipyards, razor gangs and murders (in fact, our next door neighbour was leading the Bible John investigation). 

In 1969 the Compass Gallery was opened, which was a starting point for the careers of young Scottish artists in a city which had very few outlets for their work.  

Cyril Gerber Fine Art was opened in 1983, showing British art and sculpture such as the Glasgow School, the Scottish Colourists,  the St Ives School such as Peter Lanyon, and Modern British artists, including William McCance, Anne Redpath, Matthew Smith and Keith Vaughan.  

Going down to the small, intimate space of the gallery in West Regent Street and browsing around was really special, as you could see a Ferguson, or pick out a Henri Gaudier Brzeska drawing, or handle a Joan Eardley pastel from a pile on the floor.  

Magical.

More Damien Hirst Spinning

Back in the news again, it's Damien Hirst and his spin paintings.   They've sold for more than £1m and have helped make him one of the world's most celebrated and wealthy artists.

 

"I never thought it was real art," he says of spin painting. "I remember thinking, 'That's fun, whereas art is something more serious'.  Ah, you echo our thoughts.

Now a piece by the BBC claims that Hirst was actually inspired by the legendary John Noakes on Blue Peter, who showed plucky 70s youngsters how to construct their own motorised spinning art machines.

Read the BBC article here.

The piece contains a short video not only of John Noakes in action, but also interviews Damien Hirst.  

Despite the headline of "Damien Hirst Reveals Blue Peter Inspiration", what Hirst actually says is the rather less enthusiastic, "Yeah, I did used to watch Blue Peter when I was a lot younger, and you just showed me a clip there of making a spin in 1975.  So I must have seen that."

Never mind.  It was enough to base a career on.  Thanks, John!

Harebells Galore!

The sun came out and the harebells were in bloom at the side of the road between Cushendun and Torr Head.

I think this is going to be a really big painting.....

August on the Causeway Coast

I'm just back from my annual trip to the Causeway Coast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland (weather - variable) where I'm pleased to report that I did in fact visit the new visitor's centre at the Giant's Causeway.

As parking can be an issue, I took the opportunity to book my timed ticket online at the National Trust website, where it costs £7.50 instead of the usual £8.50 (gone are the days of it costing £5 per car, no matter how many people were in the car - and we thought THAT was extortionate!!).

However, there were a few problems.  Firstly, once I'd successfully completed the transaction online, I waited for my ticket to be emailed.  Nothing happened.  I printed off the final screen with the barcode and reference number, and good thing I did.  When the e-ticket still hadn't arrived the next day, I contacted the National Trust only to be told that they 'couldn't resend the ticket'.....

Anyway, I rolled up on Friday at the appointed time, but the ticket doesn't guarantee a parking place.  So if you pay for a ticket and there's no spaces left, then you have to go back to Bushmills, park the car there (if there's space) and get back to the Causeway on a park and ride shuttle bus.  By which time you may have missed your ticket time-slot.

However, there I was bright and early in a near-empty visitor's centre, which I have to say was a very pleasant surprise.  With its grassy roof, it isn't nearly as intrusive as you'd think.

Inside, there's a big open-plan cafe, gift shop, 'experience' space with some quite nice displays, especially the one which is a model of the coastline.

The ticket price includes a rather loud hand-held audio guide, which everyone then wanders about with, so you hear this endless stream of other peoples audio guides.  It's very myth-centric, and goes on heavily about Finn the giant (to the alarm of small children) and his camel.  Just to clarify, that's not a real camel - it's one of the rocks...

 

There's also a number of new walking trails, so the geocache which was unearthed by treasure seekers as I sat on the cliff-path last year is now no longer there.  Judging by the plants as I walked around, it's obviously been a hard summer in Northern Ireland, as it has been in Scotland.

Another new innovation at the Causeway is the installation of an artwork, 'FLAGS' by Hans Peter Kuhn.  

This consists of 140 boards on poles planted in the hillside, which are red on one side and yellow on the other, and can swivel round in the wind.   Part of the London 2012 Festival, it cost £150,000 to install.  

Apparently the flags "generate a strange form of binary code transmitting nature’s message," and "different thoughts and feelings will be evoked depending on how the flags are sitting, light levels and weather".  

Here they are...

Kathryn Thomson, Northern Ireland Tourist Board chief operating officer, German artist Hans Peter Kuhn 

and Hugh Mulholland curator for the MAC with a yellow flag (Belfast Telegraph)

I have to say, I've only been able to find negative comments about the flags by those who who have visited the Causeway - people find that they either look like like warning markers or are just eyesores, interfering with the natural beauty.

My reaction was "I've travelled all this way to take photos of the Giant's Causeway for my own artwork - and there's a bunch of stuff right in the way that's been put there by some other artist.  I can get 'nature's message' without a whole load of big red and yellow flags flapping about, thank you!"  

It's a very male thing, to plant a flag on a mountain, marking your territory, and it just annoyed and upset me.  It was really distracting, not enhancing.  It spoilt the Causeway, and made it in to a landscape of ego, as it even seemed to claim all the negative space in between the flags.  It must be like climbing Everest, only to find it's actually all covered in litter.

After a day getting thoroughly soaked, it was nice to go to the cafe, where I must sing the praises of the food.  I'd happily marry the lemon and blackcurant cake and have its babies.

So that's the new improved Giant's Causeway.  Although I have to admit, as nice as the new centre is, I'm actually rather nostalgic for the old rough-round-the-edges centre, where everything wasn't so slick and packaged, where you weren't told where to walk, or what to think about the landscape...

Spanish fresco restoration botched by amateur

You couldn't really make this up...

Apparently an elderly Spanish lady in her 80s recently decided to take it upon herself to restore the damaged fresco of Christ which is housed in her local church in Zaragoza.

I'll let you decide which is the 'before' and which is the 'after restoration' photo.

BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser says 

"the delicate brush strokes of (artist) Elias Garcia Martinez have been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint.  The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic."

To make matters worse, the local centre that works to preserve artworks had just received a donation from the painter's granddaughter which they had planned to use to restore the original fresco.

Guess they reckoned without a feisty granny armed with a ladder, a pot of paint and a large brush.   Step away from the fresco, lady....

Read the full article on the BBC website.

Off to Northern Ireland

I'm off on my annual trip to the Causeway Coast this week.

I'm hoping for good weather at the Giant's Causeway again this year!  It can be very very changeable, but I haven't been let down yet, and always get a blink or two of sun between the rain showers....

It will be interesting to see the newly opened Visitors Centre at the Giant's Causeway, whose vast excavations were ongoing when I visited last year.  

I've been going to Northern Ireland for a few years now, and have seen a lot of changes.  You used to be able to pop along to the Causeway, park your car on the verge and walk down to see the stones.  Here's the stones...

And here's the new Visitor's Centre....

 The Giant's Causeway is being turned into a huge 'Experience' by the National Trust, with a vast multi-lingual interactive interpretation centre, and a park and ride facility at Bushmills (certainly no parking on the verge any more - there are fancy car parks paved with little hexagonal blocks now, but you've got to get there early).  

It's all meant to 'enhance your visiting experience', but I think it makes the whole thing more crowded and more processed, and actually takes away from the experience of exploring something natural for yourself.  

Anyhow, I'll see it for myself this week.

Paintings at the 20/21 British Art Fair

I'm going to have a selection of new paintings at the 20/21 British Art Fair at the Royal College of Art in London at the beginning of next month. 

 

Here's a couple of them...

Bluebells at Camusdarach (Oil on linen, 32 x 48)

Gorse in Evening Light, Traigh (Oil on linen, 32 x 48)

These beautiful big canvasses are of the pink and white sands at Morar, on the west coast of Scotland, looking out towards the islands of the Hebrides.  

The sands were empty, and stretched out in beautiful big sweeps, with gorgeous turquoise-coloured sea.  There was the most amazing light, but it was pretty chilly though!

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the fair champions Modern British art, and runs from 12 - 16 September, with my paintings being exhibited with Duncan R Miller Fine Arts.  

The Royal College of Art, next to the Royal Albert Hall, is arguably 'the spiritual home of British art', and an ideal setting to see work by the great names of the 20th century, many of whom are former students: Bacon, Freud, Frink, Frost, Hepworth, Hockney, Hodgson, Lanyon, Lowry, Moore, Nash, Piper, Riley, Scott, Spencer and Sutherland.  It's well worth a visit.

To find out more about the 20/21British Art Fair, click here.