4 Square at Nairn

 

The Nairn Book and Arts Festival opens next weekend, Saturday 5th June. Apart from all the booky events, there are a number of art exhibitions. The main one is the Nairn Open and sadly I wasn't selected this year. However I have 2 paintings including this one, entitled Meandering Landscape, at the 4 Square exhibition, and 3 at The Baker's Dozen exhibition.

West Coast Magic

 

At the end of June last year I spent a wonderfully sunny week in the far North of Scotland. One morning at Oldshoremore, the sea was the most amazing green and the cliffs warm in the early sun. Just magic. This acrylic painting of the scene is in the new exhibition at Leakey's in Inverness. Runs till August.

Mud Painting

 

And then there was the mud painting.... I just love rock! it's textures and patterns and colours. So I spent a bit of time grinding down weathered rock in various earthy colours, mixing it with water and PVA, and then painting with the goo. Some ready pulverised rock was collecting on a river bank so I used some to make this piece. All very satisfying till I found some tiny wee wormy creatures in it, so I let the rest away. The things I do for my art! (Buyers note, I don't sell work with wee wormy bits in)

olive groves in Spain

 

Just had a week painting in Spain with some fellow artists. The landscape was beautifully green with running water and wild flowers. The area around Fuente del Conde where we stayed was covered in olive groves and I did this piece in oil pastels.

a fabulous day until.....

 

This is the fabulous snowy view of Baosbhein and the Torridon mountains on Easter Sunday. Fabulous until I flipped backwards on the squelchy grass and broke my arm. The good news is that it's the left one and I paint with the right. Could be challenging opening the tubes of paint and I might have to resort to pastels etc. Scunnered.

Abstracts at Inchmore

 

Today I also delivered some wee abstracts to Inchmore Gallery just outside Inverness. With a bit of luck some of these will be exhibited as from this weekend. This abstract is called Eroding Landscapes

Wee Red Box

 
So, I experimented with adding colour to the monoprints. The trick was to find a medium that didn't dissolve the ink on the prints, not easy! Some coloured inks created glowing hues and I used cut outs of these to add interest to some of the monoprints. There are ten of these artworks in various sizes in the Beauly Gallery as from Easter weekend.