News: Spring 2008

What a wild winter so far, but March is nearly upon us, so the start of a new season approaches.

Over the last 5 weeks I have been grappling with the mysteries of paint and working on a series of images based on the remains of crofting landscapes. it's been a time of mixed emotions working alongside the art portfolio students over in Ullapool. These interactive sessions always lead to bouts of introspection and the following quotes from my journal document this new journey ~

"Observational drawing can be evidence of a struggle to understand, rather than an attempt to make a picture ..."

This whole endeavour is a mixture of elation and frustration as James Hawkins says ...

"...keep fighting...and be prepared to embrace chance ..."

As part of our course we discussed the work of contemporary artists such as Francis Bacon, Anthony Caro, and Anthony Gormley ~ without fail these giants of creativity caused us to look more deeply into our motives and reasons for painting and drawing. To be honest it often left me feeling "what's the point!" of me carrying on as an artist. The scale of the vision, commitment and sheer audacity of the work just operates on a completely different level.

The portfolio exhibition runs from Sunday 24th February, 2008 to Friday 29th February 2008 in Ullapool, Sutherland.

However after much huffing and puffing I have put together a new body of work "Fragments from a crofting Landscape" which will continue to inform my expression for 2008.

The new season begins with the gallery launch on Saturday 15th march ~ it would be good to see you there.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Best wishes