Flaxmill Installation

                                       Photographic image on Left    Plate with Pipe image on right

Ruth Gibson, a ceramacist, and myself have collaborated to make this installation at the Flaxmill Maltings in Shrewsbury.  www.flaxmill-maltings.co.uk

This interesting and exciting collaborative process has challenged their printing skills and created an installation that has genuinely combined their different mediums.

They have responded to the Apprentice building , where the children who worked in the Flaxmill lived.  One can only imagine how their lives must have been.  Ruth and Sheilagh have used images of their daughters, Jessie and Josie, to represent contemporary children contemplating the plight of the Flaxmill apprentices.

This work entitled ‘Neglect and Nurture’  uses images of the Apprentice house integrated with cutlery motifs as well as plates to explore the notion of ‘nurture’.  Firstly, in memory of the Flaxmill apprentices and secondly to respond to the  ‘restoration’ of the Flaxmill Maltings building that is presently underway.

The Flaxmill is having a major event this weekend:       11th and 12th May 10am - 4pm.

                                              'Revitalize'

                         Do come along and see this amazing building as well as loads of art.

Snowy April

                                                                           Blue Reindeer 4'x4' oil on canvas, tartan bags

This piece is still in progress. 

The Blue Reindeer represent 10 of the highest mountains in Scotland. The tartan bags will have tags of the names and height of these mountains. 

Inside the bags will be short extracts from 'The Living Mountain' by Nan Shepherd -  Canongate Press.  "Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us."  Introduction by Robert Macfarlane.    The material has been sponsored by Lochcarron Tartan.

 

The profound stories of landscape are incredibly rich and add a context to this body of work.

More light again

                                                             'And then the sheep came'  in progress 4'x4' canvas


The work, this month, has expanded into exploring images about the Highland Clearances.  This is the first exploratory  piece.  I am considering whether to keep all 16 sheep or reduce the number and have a split canvas.  Each sheep, however,  will be labeled with the name of a Clearance village.

So far I am exploring images about Culloden, Covenanaters and Clearances.  All major Scottish historical events and which I imagine are deeply felt within the Scottish psyche. 

I am mindful that this work is translated into painted images that have to be cohesive and stylistically compatible.  Working in oil paint gives the work the substantaillity that the content deserves and this is, for me , very important.

However, I am aware that the oilrigs images are contemporary, industrial and link to economic and political controversy.  As well as environmental concerns. How to translate and present these I think will be quite different from the images with historical content.

The dynamics of how this body of work is progressing is fascinating and continues to illuminate my practise.
I am feeling very strengthened by the momentum it has generated.

After the Snow

                                                                                   Covenanters iii     Oil on canvas


Preoccupied with snow and festivities!                                             But back to work now.

The blue empty chairs represent the Covenanters who were imprisoned in Dunnotar Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland in the 17th century. 

This work explores the notion of Scottish identity. It wishes to honour those ordinary Scottish people who stood up for their religious freedom by not signing 'The Test' and were subsequently imprisoned by a tyrannical monarchy. 

This work of the dungeon walls, within which are placed the chair images considers those emotions, that we may experience, when visiting  historic places that evoke the words....

                    ............................'if only the walls could speak'. 

Work emerging

                                                               Culloden the Battlefield     detail of 72"x30" oil on canvas


I've been working on other themes besides oilrigs since my return from The Cromarty Firth. 

Not far from the city of Inverness is the Culloden battlefield site, now stewarded by the Scottish National Trust.

It has a wonderful visitors centre with a very graphic exhibition of the actual battle. However, I found the explanations and assimmilated sound effects all rather overwhelming and had to make a hasty retreat!  And then I found myself, outside walking through the battlefield itself. 

It was a very miserable, cold September day with low cloud and drizzle.  The expanse of land before me was desolate and uncompromising and there was a tangible 'atmosphere' that I found depressing....I thought then, that this must have been pretty much how it felt on the day of the battle, 16 April 1746. 

I was chilled by this experience and went off to seek a pleasant, warm hotel and some tasty food.

I was suprised therefore when on my return to the studio....that this powerful image of Culloden had followed me !  I quickly started this painting a few weeks ago...the image developed very quickly but as  the paint went on very thickly I am now waiting for it to dry before continuing with its next layer.

Drawing Again

                                                         Drawing of village of Cromarty and oilrig in Firth

At last some oilrig drawings emerging. 

I have spent some weeks now considering the photographs that I took in situ and at last I have made quite a few small drawings of different rigs in different settings.  Several of these drawing are making an impact and I will take them further.  This one in particular.  So I am enlarging this to do quite a sizeable drawing.

The size of these structures in comparison to the village houses is extraordinary and often not appreciated as the rigs are often only seen in a great expanse of sea!

I have thought it could be interesting, ultimately, to put the paintings on floating alluminium.  I have ordered some small alluminium frames to experiment with.    So watch this space!

October Trip to Scotland - Cromarty Firth

                                                                 Cromarty Firth oil rig


I have just purchased a new commercial van and so decided, on the spur of the moment, that I had to take a trip North. 

I wanted to see these oil rigs in situ.   Although the weather was not conducive to making big drawings I did take loads of photos and managed some small, rather technical drawings.  These drawings help me to understand the structure of the oil rig and their 'presence' in the landscape.

This small industrial landscape around the Cromarty Firth hold some of the most contemporary iconic images of Scotland today.  Its this that I am exploring in my work.

However, this landscape is also in the shadow of Culloden and its significance to the Scottish psyche is of paramount interest as I develop this Scottish work.

The new van was great and I had such easy access to all my equipment in the back.  Its well and truly run in now!