A Fantastic Open Day and a magical night in Edinburgh!

Yesterday’s open studio day turned out to be fantastic in many ways. I met some lovely new people who made the extra effort to climb all those stairs to my studio and, thankfully, their thoughts and impressions of my work were very positive – always good to hear! It was also great to catch up with a few old friends too.

As well as being an opportunity to sell and show my work to new clients, the viewing also provided me with a chance to see a lot of the work I’ve been doing over the last couple of years framed and hung together as a collection, instead of being shipped off to various galleries, where there is often little opportunity to see that or to get a feel for how it’s all going or any feedback from clients. That was very useful, as sometimes it’s difficult for me to see the cohesion that exists between the individual pieces I’m working on at any given time. This is particularly the case with the etchings, as it can take a pretty long time to complete the whole process of making them and I usually like to work on just the one or two at a time. I think it all worked well together as a whole though, and seeing it all together gave me a few ideas for new pieces to add to my series of etchings and paintings.

I enjoyed the whole experience so much I will be doing it all again this coming Sunday. So if you couldn’t make it this time, please come along between 11-4pm at the Abbot House!

So after a very long but productive week and a successful day yesterday, I decided to crack open the gluhwein and sample the Christmas festivities on offer at Edinburgh’s Winter Wonderland. I feel very lucky to have what I think is probably the most beautiful city in the world – especially at Christmas – right on my doorstep. And what artist could fail to be inspired by scenes such is this!

2014-11-29_21-15-40_HDR
Edinburgh’s Spectacular Winter Wonderland

 

Open Studio this Saturday!!

Come along to my studio this Saturday between 11-4pm too see some of my and my fellow artists’ work at the Abbot House. Just follow the signs and keep going up!

Details about this amazing medieval building and directions can be found here

Looking forward to seeing you there!

 

PicsArt_1417111416998

 

A Fox Tale

Late last night, on the way home from Edinburgh, I ran over and killed a fox. It had suddenly appeared as a sillouette in my headlights; like the idea of a fox conjured up by my weary mind on the dark road. Then it was gone. I couldn’t stop on the duel carraigeway as there was traffic behind me. I felt shaken and distraught. I just killed something!

I love foxes. I once spent a magical hour watching a playful pup dancing on the graveyard lights in St Cuthbert’s church in Edinburgh. It followed me to the cemetry gates where I had to shoo it away, as it might have followed me out onto the street and all the way home. I went to sleep thinking about that fox and how fragile life is. One second it is there, animated and full of spirit. The next it can be gone, like it never existed. I’m not religious, but I began to think of the spirit of the fox and all foxes and hoped that maybe I had set this one free. Poor consolation, perhaps!

Of course, I realise that killing this wild animal was an unavoidable accident. And I know we sometimes look for meanings in these situations, whether they exist or not, probably for our own comfort. This morning I was still upset and felt a need for that comfort and meaning. So I read about the nature of foxes and their use symbols in life and art. I learned that they hunt with their entire body, head to tail, stretched out, poised and pointed like an arrow; focussed only on one thing, their target. This is exactly how the fox appeared to me for that split second in the headlights. It must have been hunting. In art, the fox is often used as a symbol for inspiration and the emergence of ideas. This reminded me of one of my favourite poems, The Thought Fox, by Ted Hughes. His fox took him from staring down in frustration at the blank page on his desk to writing one of the best poems in the English language. I’m not expecting my poor fox to do the same for me, but I do feel more inspired today than I did yesterday. And hopefully I’ll be a little more focussed in my life and work in future too.

So Mr Fox, if you are out there somewhere, thank you for that!

And I’m sorry!

Here’s a link to Ted Hughes reading of The Thought Fox

 

[ssboost url=http://www.cliveramage.com/blog]

New etchings of Edinburgh and Dunnotter Castle, plus a note on the ‘sugarlift’ technique

Here’s a couple of new prints I’ve just finished. Dunnotter Castle in particular is quite different from what I’ve been doing for the past couple of years, but I have loved the painterly method and the scratchy effects you get from using sugarlift, which is how I did this plate. Picasso invented this style of etching where you paint or use a fine nibbed pen to draw a suger solution onto the metal, then once it’s dry you cover the whole plate with straw hat varnish before pouring hot water over it. The water and the heat makes the sugar solution expand and burst through the varnish in the areas you painted, exposing the bare plate.  The varnish elswhere on the plate protects it from the acid. You then clean the plate and add an aquatint (a fine spray of acrylic or resin-based dots which acts like a protective mesh screen) to it and begin the process of exposing it to the acid for the various tints. The tiny dots of aquatint again protect the metal beneath them allowing the acid to only etch the spaces in between, thus creating tone. I usually bathe the plate in 30 second dips for each tone, but it depends on the metal and the acid being used. It can be a wonderfully expressive technique and I’ve used it a few times now.

Edinburgh from Inverleith Park  below is another sugarlift etching. I’m looking forward to experimenting with it some more in the coming months.

 

Edinburgh, Arthurs Seat, etching
Edinburgh from Inverleith Park, etching (35x15cm)

 

Dunnotter Castle
Dunnotter Castle, etching (30x30cm)

 

[ssboost url=http://www.cliveramage.com/blog]

Think I’m about to have an art attack!

Storm Approaching Catterline (80x80cm oil on canvas)
Storm Approaching Catterline (80x80cm oil on canvas)

It has already been a ridiculously busy few weeks for me, what with various galleries putting out requests for new work in the run up to christmas and also preparing for and entering the end-of-year open exhibitions etc. Last night I conked out at 8! And next week is going to get even more hectic! I somehow have to get a load of paintings and prints including the one above to Gallery Heinzel in Aberdeen (that’s a new one for me) before 5pm on Monday and then get back in time to take my son to his violin lesson in Edinburgh at 5. I also have to finish sorting out the prints I’ll have on show at the Dunfermline Printmakers stand at the Edinburgh Art Fair by Wednesday morning (was actually due in yesterday!) then help deliver most of our prints and equipment to the fair, which is ope to the public on Friday at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh – plug plug! On Friday I’ll spend the whole day at the art fair along with some of my printmaking pals showing people how to screenprint and use an etching press and then I have to get my print of Edinburgh Castle over to the RSA before heading off to Cornwall on Saturday for a week of sketching in the campervan, with my girlfriend and her 2 mutts! Oh yes, and then there’s the 3 gallery preview shows I’d like to go to between now and next Friday – mainly for free wine, of course!

Jeez, I think I’m in the middle of a middle class crisis!!

Talking of exhibition openings, I have 2 free tickets to get into the Edinburgh Art Fair. They can be used any of the 3 days it’s on (and also the Thursday preview). If you’d like to have them then all you have to do is share/retweet this post and I’ll select the person whoo did that and is most likely to spend loads of money on prints! 😉 Anyway, here’s a few links to some of the things mentioned above:

http://www.artedinburgh.com/home

http://www.galleryheinzel.com http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/exhibition_frame.asp?id=428

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=198459066928820&_rdr

[ssboost url=http://www.cliveramage.com/blog]

Painter’s Block

When I have painter’s block and I’m struggling to think of a new project, I often go for a long walk in the hills or a drive in my campervan and come back to the studio fully inspired. Sometimes though I can’t get away for one reason or another, so I’ll just paint something nice and easy that doesn’t require a lot of stress or strain. Here’s one I did a few weeks ago, (photo is a bit fizzy but I’m afraid). It’s a miniature version of an oil I did a few years back, Dean Village in Edinburgh. The only real challenge here was to try and get the same level of detail that was in the 80x80cm original onto a canvas barely 6 inches square. It was fun to do and got me out of my rut. It also gave me the idea of doing more detailed miniatures based on previous larger works as a little sideline.

 

Dean Village, Edinburgh, oil on canvas (15x15cm)
Dean Village, Edinburgh, oil on canvas (15x15cm)

 

[ssboost url=http://www.cliveramage.com/blog]

RSA Open Exhibition 2014

Heard back from the Royal Scottish Academy today that my print Edinburgh Castle From The Grassmarket has gotten through the first online round of selection for this year’s Open Exhibition. Keeping my fingers crossed they like the real thing as much when they see it mounted and framed in a couple of weeks!

 

PhotoEditor_1413726291876

[ssboost url=http://www.cliveramage.com/blog]

Exhibition in St Andrews this Friday

Please come along to the preview night of an exhibition of contemporary prints editioned at Fife Dunfermline Printmakers Workshop.

This Friday 19 September between 6pm to 8pm

Kinburn Gallery, St Andrews Museum, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews KY16 9DP

Hope to see some of you there!

[ssboost url=http://www.cliveramage.com/blog]