Getting ready for Christmas

Our fantastic artists have been working really hard for our Christmas Exhibition, which opens on the 3rd December.

Michael Ashcroft made a special trip to Dumfries and Galloway to do some painting 'en plein air'. Here he is at The Sands in Dumfries, on the banks of the Nith. And here's the painting he made:

We love hearing about what artists are working on and seeing the work they are creating for our exhibitions so I was delighted to get an email from Michael with these photographs.

Our Christmas exhibition is a little different this year. We are taking a break from the 'Galloway' theme and this has allowed us to introduce some completely new artists and curate an exhibition with them alongside artists who are regularly represented in the gallery. Judging by all the fantastic images I've been getting the exhibition is going to be a stunner!

Unpacking

Unpacking - that's what I've been doing a lot recently. We have deliveries of new work from lots of different artists: ceramic reliefs from Hilke MacIntyre, paintings from Aliisa Hyslop,  lustre ware and domestic porcelain from Jonathan Chiswell Jones, prints from Anita Klein and last week new copper work from Allan Craig. The gallery is brimming with gorgeous new art work.

Away from the gallery I've been doing a lot wall paper stripping in my new house. Lots of progress there! It's quite exciting.

New Paintings by Jonathan Mitchell

 JONATHAN MITCHELL The River Tay at Kenmore

We have a fantastic collection of new work by the talented Scottish landscape painter Jonathan Mitchell. You can view the paintings on our web site here.

There is something about the painting above that reminds me of the Claude Monet painting in the recent BBC TV programme, 'Fake or Fortune' although that painting was of a river in France. I've got Jonathan's painting hanging next to my desk in the gallery and it's completely tranquil, I love the dark reflections in the water from the trees on the river bank.

James Faed 1821-1911 Exhibition at The Tolbooth

James Faed by Thomas Faed from www.artistsfootsteps.co.uk

My brother informed me this morning that I would have to put something on my Blog that didn't mention whippets, as he feared people would think I was mad if I posted any more photos of dogs. Ok, I take his point.

This morning, after my Iyengar Yoga class in Kirkcudbright, I went to The Tolbooth to see the James Faed (1821-1911) exhibition. Our gallery has been selling work by the Faed family since it opened in 1980. I saw the Faeds' work in exhibitions at McGill Duncan Gallery when I was a little girl so I've always known about them and understand the importance of this family's work. The exhibition at the Tolbooth, which runs until the 30th October, very much concentrates on James' incredible skill as a mezzotint engraver. One of his mezzotint plates is on display and there is even the notebook in which he kept note of the charges for each mezzotint commission. He was commissioned by his brothers- some of the best painters working at the time- to make mezzotints of their paintings. I think he was quite highly paid, with one mezzotint costing £200. I'm not surprised, as his work is exquisite.

The exhibition explains the print making processes really clearly and along side the mezzotints there are many interesting artifacts. The other part of the exhibition is on display at The Mill On The Fleet in Gatehouse so I'm looking forward to a visit there before the end of October.

I love Wigtown Book Festival!

Wigtown Harbour. Aww, look at Antony's little white paws.

I love the Wigtown Book Festival! In an ideal world I would like to stay in Wigtown for the whole ten days but sadly this year I could only manage one day away. Jill and I went last weekend and took Antony for his first taste of the book festival.

It's always difficult to take dogs out and about as so few places welcome them but we were delighted that he was allowed to join us for tea and delicious gluten free almond cakes at Reading Lasses and also for lunch at the Bladnoch Inn.

We started the day with a great informal chat by Deirdre Nelson. She talked about her residency at last year's Book Festival where she collected over 700 favourite words from festival goers. It was fascinating to hear what happened to the words and all the projects and collaborations that have resulted. Author J P Flintoff was sitting next to us and he drew pictures and wrote down snippets as Deirdre chatted, resulting in a little paper book by the end of the talk. It's creativity like this that the festival attracts and cultivates. You see it everywhere during the ten days of the festival and it's very inspiring.

Antony at Bladnoch Inn

Our afternoon talk was by David Mach. I enjoyed his current show at the City Arts Centre in Edinburgh but a lot of his talk didn't really resonate with me. We came away with lots of interesting thoughts about public art and private galleries, and went home to have an interesting debate about it over dinner that evening.

Antony in Andy Priestman's Studio

Finally we went to Andy Priestman's beautiful studio to choose work for the gallery and buy some pots. Antony looked as if he was made to pose in Andy's grey and red studio and Jill was wearing exactly the colours of one of the paintings!

Antony @ Wigtown Book Festival

Here's some photos of my dog and gallery companion, Antony, taken by J D Andrews, who we met at Wigtown Book Festival last Sunday. Thanks for the lovely photos J D! Antony is five and a half months old now and it's a while since I posted some photos of him.

We visited the Artist In Residence at the Wigtown Book Festival, Kim Ayres who is taking portraits of festival goers but Antony was too wriggly to sit still on my knee for a portrait. Take a look at Kim's blog and Facebook page though as he's gathering quite a collection of interesting faces.

Antony has a W for Whippet on his chest!

Vault Art and Edinburgh

A weekend off meant I went to Glasgow and Edinburgh to see what's going on in these two fabulous cities.

On Friday I attended Vault Art in Glasgow's Briggait. The open panel discussion called Art, Money and Value - Artists Talking About Making A Living was an interesting and engaging debate, very well chaired by Graham Jeffery from the University of The West Of Scotland. It was a shame that a discussion about money and art didn't have commercial gallery on the panel but I did manage to make a small contribution and I think some of the points raised were so interesting that the discussion will emerge again in some form!

It was great to catch up with the two Marions from Glasgow Print Studio and then we had to rush back for Gatsby the puppy as he'd had two hours on his own, which was long enough!

Then on Sunday I finally got to see two exhibitions in Edinburgh that I had been looking forward to all summer. David Mach at The City Arts Centre and The Queen: Art and Image at The National Gallery.

Gatsby, Leo and Inga

It was a bit of a family outing as I went to Edinburgh with my brother Leo, his girlfriend Inga and Gatsby the whippet puppy.

David Mach's exhibition, Precious Light: a celebration of the King James Bible 1611-2011, is dramatic, both in scale and subject. His collages are huge and you feel yourself being pulled into all the detail, and a sense of amazement when you step back and see the pieces as a whole. It also made us all want to get a bunch of magazines and start creating collages! Very inspiring.

The Queen: Art and Image is a fascinating exhibition - I'm glad I waited until after the Festival was over as I imagine the space would have been very crowded. The piece I specifically wanted to see was the tiny oil painting by Lucian Freud. It didn't disappoint.  I was lucky enough to see a huge retrospective of Freud's work at the Pompidou Centre in Paris last year. This small painting managed to capture an amazing sense of power and was just as striking as the large scale work which I'd seen in Paris. The three dimensional holographs of The Queen by Chris Levine were quite fascinating and the little holographic postcards in the gallery shop are pretty cool too.

There are only two days left to see this exhibition - if you're in Edinburgh, go!