Thanks Mr Thoms

This weekend I've been working really hard at producing some new work for an exhibition coming up in August. It's brilliant and a real luxury to have 3 whole days to work on some new pieces and I have been very productive  but yet not entirely happy with any of them. However, I'm not giving up. This is probably just one of those times when you've tried really hard and worked long hours and produced a lot of inane and inoffensive tripe. How inoffensive can tripe really be? Quite inoffensive? Downright polite? In fact quite well mannered really in a mild kind of way...
However, the fat lady's not singing yet so I'll give it another shot.
I was reminded recently about early days at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen. I met an artist who had been there at the same time as I had - when the school moved from the beautiful old building in Schoolhill to the pristine surroundings of Garthdee. It was a source of real disappointment to me because the building was so new. Everything was white, spotless with not a scrap of old paint anywhere.
The old place was intensely artsy. Scuffs on the wall, the smell of turps, the tiny staircase in the middle of the building which must have led to everywhere because there was always a constant blockage of students trying to go up and down it. And they were usually carrying enormous canvases or huge armatures or bags of materials. The new build at Garthdee was a lot more sensible - mostly on the flat with long straight corridors. It was actually a really beautiful spot and it didn't take long to grow to love it.
Strangely enough, today I met another old crony from Gray's and we were reminiscing a bit. I remembered Colin Thoms who seemed to slide around the studios on castors, he suddenly just appeared towering over you. A long thin gloomy kind of guy 'All colour and no form Miss Macdonald' he boomed. And he was absolutely right.  But there were great characters - Leo Clegg in the fabulous sculpture department who left me with a lifetime passion for sculpture. Many years later I trained with his wife, the delightful Thora Brown from Orkney in figure casting. She left me with an even bigger passion for sculpture and an intense curiosity about Orkney.
So anyway, enough of this procrastination -  it's back to the studio and I might have a look at these highly coloured formless paintings. They can still be adjusted.  Thanks Mr Thoms.

painting in the rain

I've recently been out and about with paints, pencils, charcoal and all the rest of the gubbings and easel - actually not an easel but a big board that usually gets propped up on a wall or rock. I decided to work with some watercolours just for speed and to try and capture the incredible sky, land and relics of old walls at the Rosehaugh Estate. There's an amazing terrace there designed in the Italian fashion and you can just imagine the life and glamour that used to be before nature reclaimed it. Some of the carvings still remain but most are buried in the undergrowth. There is also the biggest Cyprus tree that I have ever seen- a real cracker.
So anyway, just as the piece is coming together, the heavens open, the thunder rumbles and within a few seconds, everything is soaked. Watercolour pans full of water, both bags I brought with me to hold all the paraphenalia with a couple of inches of water and me utterly drenched.
As fast as possible, I quickly gathered up everything because by this time the sky was completely black and there was no sign of anything clear on the horizon and anyway, the thunder was beginning to be a bit scary.
Back in the car, driving home, steaming gently, thinking what a great evening it had been and when I looked at the painting the next day I realised that it had really captured the moment. There were dead midgies and paint splatters made with rain.
Title of piece: Rosehaugh Thursday
Medium: Paint and rain and small creatures
Price: Priceless
And if I could remember how to insert an image into this blog, I would do it now.

this is my brand new blog

it's a new blog, it's new day

You won't see this painting at the Big Art Sale in Cromarty because it's just been sold but you can see lots more at the Stables Gallery.