Spring Fling Studio 32 @ McGill Duncan Gallery

Leo's studio is up two flights of spiral stairs at the top of the gallery, he looks over the gardens and rooftops of Castle Douglas as he paints.

The last couple of days have seen all the work emerge ready to be hung in a room on the ground floor of the gallery.

Here are some pictures of the work as it went on the walls, there's still some tidying up to do and labels to be written but it looks fantastic.

Preparing for Spring Fling is tiring work...

The artist takes a break.

Hope to see you over the weekend - we are Open 10am to 6pm Saturday 2nd to Tuesday 5th June, including Sunday.

Spring Fling Friendly

We're Spring Fling Friendly!

What does that mean?

Well, if you're a Friend of Spring Fling you get £20 off purchases over £100 during Spring Fling (2nd - 5th June) and all year round you will receive a very smart McGill Duncan Gallery jute shopping bag with a purchase.

Forget-Me-Nots

The bottom of the gallery garden is awash with forget-me-not: a wonderful fuzzy blue haze of flower.

I've got flowers on my mind a lot at the moment as I am making the bouquets for a friend's wedding tomorrow. It's exciting and a bit nerve wracking.

So, the wedding means Jill and I won't be in the gallery tomorrow but we're leaving it in the capable hands of my brother Leo. I'll be back in the gallery on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing.

My poor neglected Blog. Life seems to be speeding along this year and I have hardly had time to draw breath. Part of the reason for infrequent Blog postings is that I have moved house. I read somewhere that moving house involves picking up every single item that you own and thinking 'What am I going to do with this?'. That is exactly the reality of moving house and I think that's why it's so stressful.

I only have one painting hanging on the wall (the shame of it!) and many more to hang, but apart from that I feel settled and very definitely at home. In fact I love my house more than words can describe.

So it's time for a catch up. These photos were taken by the lovely Garry Maclennan when he came to the gallery in February. He has since moved to London and we will miss his photography skills and expertise here in the gallery.

 This huge picture frame on the ceiling in gallery 1 is always a talking point.

Gallery 2, the largest of our 5 gallery spaces.

The lovely coal fire. Much appreciated by everyone and lit all year round, it is Scotland after all!

The Galleristas

Gorgeous Antony, the gallery dog

Antony lolling on the sofa with me - his favourite occupation.

You can see lots more photos on our Flickr page.

The Last Class?

I had a fantastic weekend at Glasgow School of Art attending a ceramics course as part of their continuing education programme.

I'll have to wait and see if any of the things I made survived the firings. I made a huge cake stand which needed a bit on engineering to get it to stand on a very very tall stem. It might not be totally level but lop-sided cake still tastes great! 

Whilst we were all feeling inspired by our teacher Wendy Kershaw we were also feeling a little sad. Surrounded by an amazing selection of kilns, and a mountain of equipment, we were scheduled to be the last ever ceramic class at GSA.

The degree course finished a year ago and since then the department has been wound down with the staff being made redundant. Everything is being sold off or thrown out and some of the kilns are being destroyed, as they are two large to remove from the building intact.

As a gallery we sell a lot of ceramics. Being a potter is a fantastic way to make living as an artist (although I'm sure many potters will tell you it may never make you wealthy!). However, for people wishing to pursue an artistic career it can't be better. The UK has such a strong history of ceramic production and now Scotland will not be part of creating our potters of the future.

I was told that nearly every department in the Art School used the Ceramic Department - from Sculpture to Environmental Art. So now these students will be denied the fantastic skill, expertise and facilities of the Ceramic Department.

Unless room is found to keep one kiln even the evening classes will finish.

Where is the sense in any of this?

They've arrived

We've spent the morning unpacking lots of new work - four huge boxes of ceramics from Jonathan Chiswell Jones and a very important crate of bronze sculpture from Richard W Boardman in Italy.

It's not often you receive a proper wooden crate like this is it?

And here they all are stretching their legs after such a long journey!

New Sculpture from Richard W Boardman

We are excitedly awaiting the arrival of these lovely creatures.

Richard W. Boardman is exhibiting his bronze sculpture in our next exhibition. Here they are waiting to be shipped from Lucca, Italy, to Castle Douglas. I can't wait to unpack the crate when they arrive.

I am lucky enough to have a Richard W. Boardman 'Siren' sculpture in my own house, sitting in the middle of my dining table,  I love it more every time I see it (a sign of a wonderful piece of art) and am so pleased to share my home with it.