Visitors from far and wide

Antony and his cousin Woody

Easter in the gallery has seen visitors from far and wide. Friends and customers have come from Manchester, London, Glasgow, Hong Kong and other far flung places. It has been great to see so many familiar faces.

Antony had a visit from his cousin Woody yesterday. Woody belongs to artist Ian McNicol and his family. They got him as a result of meeting Antony in the gallery. They have funny faces in this photos but I can assure you they were doing play bows and not being bad tempered. There was a bit of woofing when they first met though! They are both the same gorgeous colour of blue and I think you can see by their faces that they are related although Antony is quite a bit bigger than Woody.

Opening Night

 Michael G Clark The Little Black Dress

What a snowy time we've had in Galloway over the last few days. Everything is more or less back to normal in Castle Douglas now. We are getting ready for a brand new exhibition which is very exciting.

What is not so exciting is I have injured my back quite badly and I can't help with any of the physical work in the gallery. Luckily Jill has had help from Leo, Inga and Roger so we'll be alright on the night.

Tomorrow night! That's when the show opens, from 7 pm to 9:30 pm. As it is so cold we've decided the drinks will be warming spicy mulled cider or ginger cordial.

Hope to see you there!

Spring Newsletter

FELICITY WALKER Hill Farm, Galloway

Read our Spring Exhibtion Newsletter here.

A Night of Awards

Zoe with The McGill Duncan Gallery Award winning painting 'Folk Art' by George Donald RSA RSW

McGill Duncan Gallery awarded a prize at the Opening of last night's Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) exhibition. The exhibition takes place annually at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh along with exhibitions from the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) and Visual Arts Scotland (VAS).

The McGill Duncan Gallery Award went to George Donald RSA RSW. Here's a picture of me with our prize winning painting 'Folk Art'.

My brother Leo Blamire had paintings in both VAS and SSA exhibitions and his work 'Summer Cacti' won the Glasgow Art Club Prize - a solo show at The Glasgow Art Club and a year's membership to the club.

LEO BLAMIRE 'Summer Cacti' the Glasgow Art Club Award winner at VAS

Leo with his painting (and wine!)

A great night was had by all and we particularly enjoyed the cocktails at The Balmoral.

Photos from 'Meet the Artist' with Lisa Hooper

Here are some photos from our 'Meet the artist' event in the gallery with Printmaker Lisa Hooper.

Jill and Inga in the kitchen

Inga was mulling the cider and mixing the drinks and did a fantastic job.

 

Lisa's demo table all set up and ready to go

We hung a solo show of Lisa's work in the large room at the front of the gallery. It's great to see all her work together, and so many new prints. I especially like her new work inspired by Inuit art.

Japanese woodblock and tools

Lisa brought a Japanese woodblock 'Black Throated Diver' to print in the gallery. This technique uses waterbased paint and ink and you don't need a printing press, it's ideal for demonstrations away from the studio.

Quite a crowd gathered to watch

 

Lisa Hooper and her husband Alan

The lovely stained glass panel in the door through to the gallery kitchen

The finished print

It was a great day and we're really thankful to Lisa, who put such a lot of work into her demonstration and talk, not to mention all the work on the walls.

The exhibition continues until 2nd March.

Forsinard

Our current Lisa Hooper exhibition includes a large multi plate linocut 'Forsinard'.

Lisa has incorporated text from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem:

Let them be left wildness and wet
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet

Perhaps because of these very poignant and meaningful words the linocut has been used to illustrate an article in the January/February issue of Resurgence Magazine. You can read the article by clicking on it at the top of this Blog entry and also on the Resurgence web site.

Our solo Lisa Hooper exhibition is in the large room at the front of the gallery and still in its first week has already proved to be very successful. It runs until the 2nd of March. I will be adding new images to our web site next week.

News from our artists

Congratulations are due to a few of our brilliant artists.

Current President of the Paisley Art Institute, Michael Durning has been given The Diploma of Artist Membership of the Paisley Art Institute, which abbreviates to PAI. This is awarded by the Institute on the recommendation of the Credentials Committee whose members are themselves holders of the Diploma. So, his new post-nominals are Michael Durning PPAI PAI. The letters PAI are granted in perpetuity and at any one time only 35 living artists hold this honour. Michael is doing a sterling job as President of the Society at the moment and really deserves this recognition of his work.

James Cosgrove PAI has been elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW). He joins the 123 elected members who are permitted use the title RSW after their name. Many congratulations Jimmy!

And finally, Simon Laurie RSW RGI is featured in the January/February issue of Homes and Interiors Scotland Magazine in their 'True Colours' article, which showcases contemporary Scottish painters who are well known for their use of colour. If you click on the article below it will enlarge so you can read it.