Here are a selection of some of the paintings currently on show at Fire Station Creative. All are for sale.
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As well as having the solo paintings show on at Fire Station Creative, Dunfermline, right now, I will also have some of my Edinburgh etchings on show and available for sale at Edinburgh Art Fair this weekend.
Please click the links for more info! I’ll be demonstrating printmaking techniques there tomorrow, so stop by and say hello and have a go yourself if you can make it!
Hope to see you there!
Clive
Only 2 weeks to go until my solo exhibition at Fire Station Creative. Here are some words and pictures to help shed some light on what will be hanging on the walls there. The preview will be held between 7.30-10pm on Friday 6th November and the show runs until Sunday 22 November. I hope to see there.
I grew up in Arbroath, so have always been drawn to the sea. Each night, like clockwork, the Bell Rock, the Isle of May and the Fife Ness lights would intermittently flash their beams out across the cold, dark sea miles and I would watch – mesmerised at my bedroom window. I’d follow the fishing boats as they puttered out into the firth from the harbour, eventually becoming little more than red and green dots that slowly edged beyond the moonlit horizon. The twinkling orange lamps of St Andrews and Kingsbarns would beckon to me from far away across the Firth of Tay and illuminate my dreams. Those mysterious, exotic lights across the sea have continued to tantalise and inspire me and I have always wanted to capture something of that magic and atmosphere in pictorial form. So my campervan travels around Scotland’s coast this year have provided me with a wealth of inspiration for new paintings and etchings; I feel I have barely begun to scratch the surface with the work for this exhibition.
I quickly discovered that it wasn’t so much the lights themselves that were interesting me pictorially, but their situations within the surrounding landscape and the wild spaces between them. Lighthouses proved to be a wonderful general theme for the trip and also a great focal point for some of the paintings, but the ‘interesting’ Scottish weather and the colours and atmosphere of each location probably became the more important feature of the work.
I was very fortunate to be awarded a grant by Fife Contemporary Arts and Crafts to help fund my travels, which took me from The Mull of Galloway at the south western tip of Scotland to Stromness in Orkney. I have yet to reach Muckle Flugga, Scotland’s most northernly lighthouse, but I will get there one of these days!
Just a reminder that Aberdeen’s Gallery Heinzel Summer Show is on until 15th August. Delighted to have my etching of Dean Village used for the Art Work advert. I have 6 pieces in the show, so if you’re in the area stop by. It’s a great place and always has lots of lovely work on show!
Just a quick note to say I have a few paintings and prints on show at the Gallery Heinzel Summer Show, which opens next Saturday (20th June) in Aberdeen. Come along between 12-3pm for a browse and some fizz. If you can’t make it then it’s on until 15th August.
I also have a little solo show of paintings and etchings on at the wonderful Stage Door Bistro, which has recently opened in Dunfermline (next to the Alhambra Theatre). It’s run by the lovely Deborah and Michael who are extremely welcoming and the food is truly fantastic!
It’s not the No 1 resturant on Tripadvisor in Dunfermline for nothing! (Stage Door reviews)
Here are the first photos from my journey around Scotland’s amazing coastline (Ardnamurchan, Mull and part of the East Coast). I will be using some of these as the inspiration for new paintings and prints. Plenty more to come, so keep watching this space!
Here’s a map of all the Scottish lighthouses that I found at Ardnamurchan Point. There’s a lot of them! Almost 100 and pretty much all built by the Stevenson family within 100 years from the first (the Bell Rock) which was finished in 1810. I hope to get to as many as possible over the next few months as part of my project, The Lights That Never Go Out, An Artistic Odyssey From Muckle Flugga To The Mull of Galloway.
So after a day spent washing clothes and repacking the campervan after the Easter trip to the west coast, I’m off again to spend the next few days and nights sketching and photographing the lighthouses between Montrose and Fraserburgh. Tonight I’m hoping for a clear and starry sky (ie. no fog horn!) spent at the foot of Rattray Head.
I’ve been working on a smaller scale these past few weeks, partly as a way into painting again after a long period of etching in monotone and also for an exhibition of small works at Morningside Gallery in Edinburgh. I’ve really loved working in watercolours again, which is how I started way back when.
Here’s the latest little picture I’ve just finished of Jeffrey Street from North Bridge, Edinburgh, which will be winging it’s way through to Edinburgh later this afternoon. This one has ended up in Marchmont Gallery along with a few other pieces. I went in on spec this afternoon and the manager, Karen, wouldn’t let me leave with it! Delighted to be represnted by another lovely gallery in Edinburgh!
If there’s one thing I know I’ve always been good at, it’s procrastinating! So my New Year’s resolution is to try to get to my studio (or at least start working from home or wherever I happen to be) before 9am Monday through to Friday … from now on and for ever more!
Ok, I know we’re only half way through the first full working week of the year, but I have managed to keep to my new regime and – I have to say – I’m pretty impressed with myself!
So here’s my output so far for the week; 4 small paintings based on previous etchings and larger paintings, all finished and delivered for the latest mini works exhibition at Morningside Gallery in Edinburgh (which begins in a couple of week’s time).
Hope your New Year has gotten off to a good start!
