I am going to enjoy playing with my cola pens..

Hope you can find a fun project too.

I am so happy to hear that Britain will be once again part of the Erasmus scheme.  I was lucky enough to be an Erasmus student in my mid foeties, studying landscape design in Sweden and Venice, two fascinating and very different cultures. I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences of my life.

In the recent big studio tidying up and sizing down I got rid of a lot of paper - lists of paintings, exhibition posters, client lists for private views, gallery contacts ,records of sales and more. So many memories - at ome point I felt I  was disposing of my life and it got painful. Fortunately I Iwas doing this with my sister and my daughter who were happy to listen to my stories and memories of the work, the places and the people, and it began to feel more like a rather nice rounding off of that particular part of my career. It cleared the  studio and it cleared my head.

If you have this kind of clutter clearing to do  I  hope you have thughtful, sensitive people to do it with, and that it becomes a positive experience, as it did for me.

.Don't be too shy to ask someone. It could be a reciprocal arrangement.

Just have to buy oranges with leaves on.

I have today sold another painting, bringing the total from the Open Studio weekend to 23  (one lovely customer seems to be doing her complete Christmas shopping with me!). I always said being a full time painter was a crazy way to try to earn a living, and I always felt very lucky to sell enough to allow me to keep doing the work I loved.

I know that some of you are artists - Lucille, Grace, Susan in Dorset, Viv, Eizabeth  - any others? Do you think it is harder now to make a living with your art? I began almost thirty years ago and the art market has changed hugely since then. I suspect there is much greater competition. The internet has had a huge impact.

What do you think?

David Hockney said 'Art moves you' which I think is a pretty sound definition of Art.

A lot of pink! See here.

We really just scratched the surface on our fairly short visit, but my friends felt it worth taking out membership as it is not far from their home and there is a lot to see.

This building dates from 2015.

The fantastical element.

It is all beautifully maintained - with particularly lovely hedges.

Have any of you been there?

 A curious mix of the historic, the fantastical and a bit of kitch thrown in,
Jupiter Art Land has been in existence for about ten years.

Big names - Charles Jenks, Ian Hamilton Findlay, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Andy Goldsworthy and many more  covering many acres.

More tomorrow..

..and really heavy rain all day.

I didn't mind as I didn't need to go anywhere today. It felt quite peaceful.

I have sold six more paintings since the Open Studio weekend to people who came back for more!

Delighted.

On day one we had nine visitors plus the postman. The first visitor bought a painintng so that made a great start to the day.

The severe weather wrning for day two was not encouraging and no-one came till after four o'clock (we were open till five). Six brave souls made it through the horrible weaather.

Day three was bright and sunny (this is Scotland!) and sixteen people came, the first customer buying three paintings.

On day four no-one came until mid afternoon when two lovely people came and saved the day, buying three paintings.

A total of 32 people,and 14 paintings sold. Amazing. And quite wonderful!

to Paris. As I was sorting and hanging the paintings I gott a call asking if Soft Light Coriander was for sale..

I grew the coriander and picked a huge vaseful to display in The Boathouse at the Scottish Sculpture Paek where I was artist in residence.  The arrangement was about five feet high and I was so excited by it and the way the light fell on it that I just had to paint it! I am thrilled that it is going to a good home.

See the post of 29.7.2012 - I am sorry I am having trouble linking to it.

..to my sitting room/gallery! I'm not sure I can live with so many paintings on the walls till the 26th..

Over my twenty odd years as a full time painter I have tended to work in series and each time I had a new theme or tried a new medium I kept some favourite pueces  back - this is the work I am now selling.

So it's a bit like a retrospective.  Quite emotional. It is stirring up a lot of memories of successful exhibitions n beautiful places with wonderful people.

It also feels like the end of something.

Here is a link to my page on Cowal Open Studios website. I am adding a little to it each week.

Sorting sorting...Cowal Open Studios. The pressure is on..

..but not uplifting in the way I expected it to be.
..

This is the first piece you see in the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition, and I have to say that for me it had neither wit, nor beauty nor lyricism  - things I have come to expect of his work.

The screen of barbed wire was disturbing...

This reminded me of the work of Christo but without the panache!

I was disappointed at the number of photographs of work which were I thought not very well framed or hung. I have  several of his books of photographs which I love  and I would rather have seen more originals.


I found myself thinking of the logistics rather than the poetry.


Mixed feelings then, but it was worth seeing and I got my 'fix'!

Where do you feel most like your true self? For me it is in art galleries and I took myself off to see the Andy Goldsworthy in Edinburgh with high hopes.


Here are my highlights.

Loved this - kind of  daring and the scale so bold!

Elegant and beautiful..

and pinned to the wall with such patience.

Loved the sheer craziness of the concept. Few arrtists would have the commitment to carry it out.

But there were disappointments too..

Have any of you seen it yet?

Those precious moments of stillness tend to be in early morning or late at night I find.

The new artwork is a gift from an artist friend who came to stay.

..change the room.

This is a lovely and extensive exhibition at the Dovecot Studio which shows The  Colourists in an international context and includes many paintings I had not seen before. We went to a very well attended talk by Alicce Strang.It's on until the end of June. Well worth seeing!

There is a good five minute video about this group here.www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/scottish-colourists

 ..that posts will be a bit erratic over the next couple of months. There is a lot going on (mostly nice things!) Apologies in advance.

I saw War Horse in the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on Thursday. Spectacularly good!
The stage sets and special effects amazing.

Have you seen it?  Here's a 7 minute video of the puppets and the puppeteers.

On my recent trip to the city I visited Kelvingrove Art Gallery, coinciding with an organ recital which soumds amazing in this great space.

But inspired by the book Thunderclap by Laura Cummings I wanted to revisit the good collection of Dutch painitngs in the gallery.  This is one of my favourites. Neither the artist or the sitter is known. It is titled Portrait of a Girl aged 15 and was painted by  a followe of Nicolaes Eliasz in 1633. Such skill!

I always visit her and wonder about her life.

Off for my face to face getogether with my sisters...

..at The Burrell Collection is excellent

 and on a sunny day the interiors are beautiful. Never tire of it and will be back to see tis exhibition again.

The SMK in Copenhagen is a wonderful place - the collection, the architecture, the cafe and the shop - loved the shop!
gallery
Everything spacious and airy and clean, and everything in Copenhagen seems to work. I find the city and the gallery  very elegant and at the same time friendly.

The huge modern extension is gorgeous.

We especially wanted to see the collection of Hammershoi's work, which didn't disappoint. He paints two of my favourite things - silence and empty space. I can see why he is sometimes called the Vermeer of the north.

There is nothing like the thrill of standing in front of the original. What a brave painter Matisse was!
I came across the Matisse unexpectedly - I know this painting well from reproductions and did not know the original was here. How different from Hammershoi - extrovert and vibrant.

I love them both.

..in Port Glasgow is as you would expect, about shipping.

Note the scale!

This however is my favourite. Possibly my favourite public art anywhere. It says so much so eloquently and elegantly.
Four ferries are now being built in Turkey, so I hope the future of Ferguson's can be secured.

See here

Painterly is how I woud describe this photograph. The textures and the subtle greys contrasted with the zingy lime green, which is the same green as the leaf of the snowdrop.. this appeals to me. The composition is not quite balanced. The subject is down towards one corner, and is nearly, but not quite balanced by the dark tone on the top right. This creates a tension which keeps me looking, in a way that a perfectly baanced more traditional composition would not. I know I won't get tired of looking at this.

I will print it out quite small - just a few inches and frame it simply with a large white mount. I will hang it somewhere I will see it every day.

I won't title it The Suffering of The World though (even though it has those connotations for me). Can you think of a more poetic title which still suggests that fragility/resilience association it has for me? Perhaps conveying the idea of strength in adversity, or compassion for those who suffer.

I have loved your wonderful comments on this thread. Thank you so much for making a most interesting conversation.

.. if you have had enough of my obsession with this image!

I was  looking for things for my January nature table and my daughter proferred two tiny snowdrops (the green pot is just one inch high). The flowers were still closed and as I looked at it a wash of tenderness came over me, felt really towards my daughter but projected by me onto the snowdrops..

I decided to photograph them outside even though it was minus four out there. The frozen window of the shed  looked like a good place but I had to prop up the little pot with a pebble on the sloping ledge. I knew as I was doing it that the stone was not quite right, but it was so cold I just made it do (it was interesting how many of you picked up on this). I  was struck by the snowdrops' fragility - why does it flower in January? But I was also in awe of its resilience.  Frost, snow, gales and rain - nothing stops it flowering. The recent wars have cast a long shadow on us all, and the images of suffering are seared into ur minds, and the two little bowed heads conjured up unbidden, media images of children  fragile and vulnerable, so that the photograph became for me soomething deeply moving and precious.

What a heavy weight of meaning to put onto two innocent flowers!

But I think this is what we do. The Quakers have a saying that something speaks to your condition. Each person brinngs to a work of art their own history and unique sensibilities.

Tomorrow I will write about the aesthetics and why I am having it framed, and then I will change the subject. Promise!