Tour dates for our forthcoming tour of Scotland this March. Follow this link for tickets -
https://tickets-scotland.com/metag?fbclid=IwdGRleAQFV5JleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEejdcHJAD5LT1VCNTxf1PfpYeVMEmBbBHkaCARx48wdRmmqDTtZqeLt1AVDRs_aem_eWaTORpidizn7KpeNp1rzg
Great to have a review of the Metagama performance at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh last Saturday.
Join us in celebrating the life and work of Edward Thomas at the Edward Thomas Literary Festival 2024 at The Petersfield Museum on the 4th of October at 10am.
Join poet Isobel Dixon and artist Douglas Robertson for a lively poetry-art workshop inspired by nature and nature-loving creators over the centuries. Over the course of two-hour workshop there will be chance to listen, reflect, engage in conversation and turn your own hand to some writing, drawing and/or making. Writers and artists of abilities are welcome!
Isobel will read some poems from her vivid new collection A Whistling of Birds, which includes 12 beautiful nature illustrations by Douglas Robertson. Isobel will also share a new poem inspired by Edward Thomas, with insights into Isobel and Douglas’ own creative practice and their long-running art-poetry collaboration. There will be time in the session to experiment with word and image through making and drawing that will spark closer observation and enrich participant’s creativity.
Participants may want to bring a notebook and a pencil/pen, but art materials will be provided.
Follow this link for more details.
As part of the London Literary Festival, I will be taking part in a celebration of the poetry of D H Lawrence with my dear friend and collaborator, Isobel Dixon.
We will be discussing and reading from his poetry collections and looking at how his 1923 collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers! influenced our collaboration work for Isobel's 2023 collection, A Whistling of Birds.
Click on the link to book your tickets and for more information about the event.
In January this year, the crew of ‘In the Wake of Metagama’ reunited to perform at the 2024 Celtic Connections Festival at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
A sell-out concert featuring music from Liza Mulholland, Christine Hanson, Charlie McKerron, Calum Alex MacMillan, and Willie Campbell, narration by Dolina MacLennan and Donald S. Murray, drawing and stage visuals by myself, and sound by Steve Bull.
It was wonderful to be back with the crew after our Highlands and Islands tour last Spring, and to sell out the new auditorium, home to the RSNO, was a thrill! It was a superb evening of music, songs and stories about the hundreds of Scots who emigrated to Canada and the United States in the 1920’s.
We were joined on stage again by saxophonist Bev Fraser, and by a wonderful ensemble of musicians from Scotland, Canada and the U.S.
Hopefully this won't be the last time we perform the Metagama story, and we are hope to stage more concerts in 2024/25 in both Scotland and beyond.
One of my spin-off projects from the Metagama performances is a series of eleven drawings depicting the eleven days it took the emigrants to sail from the Isle of Lewis to New Brunswick in Canada.
I wanted to create images that sympathetically reflect the time and atmosphere of the passenger’s voyage, and would give an idea of the emotional upheaval and spiritual feel of the journey experienced by some.
The drawings below are the initial working drawings of what will be large scale charcoal pieces. Hopefully by the time we are venturing on stage again they will be finished and ready to exhibit, both physically and virtually as part of the performances.
Watch out for future posts showing the progress of the drawings, and any forthcoming dates for the Metagama and Marloch shows.
'Never throw out a sketchbook', one of the best pieces of advice I received in my final years at Art College. Now they take up a substantial space in my studio!
One of the key features of my work over the last twenty five years or so is the importance of the sketchbook to my work. Apart from the life-long habit of always having a notebook with me at all times, sketchbooks are one of the most well used tools in my studio.
The bookshelves in my studios contain an archive of sketchbooks dating back to 1988 and my post-graduate years at Art School. Notes, landscape and seascape sketches, and working drawings for assemblages fill the pages, plus a variety of photographs, clippings, postcards and random aide-memoires make up the rest.
On the 31st of October, my dear friend and collaborator Isobel Dixon and I did our first Whistling of Birds talk together at Churcher's College in Hampshire.
A wonderful evening discussing al things birds, beasts, flowers and D. H. Lawrence with a great audience.
Exciting offer from Nine Arches Press! Pre-order your copy of A Whistling of Birds from their online shop, and receive this beautiful set of limited edition postcards. Click on this link to visit the online book shop.
In the last two weeks of April, I was privileged to be part of the team performing In the Wake of Metagama, touring the Western Isles of Scotland, and a final performance at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.
The cast for the show included acclaimed actress Dolina MacLennan, award winning poet and my life long collaborator, Donald S. Murray, and musicians, Liza Mulholland, Christine Hanson, Charlie McKerron, Willie Campbell and Calum Alex MacMillan.
I produced a series of drawings that were projected along with archive photographs, telling the story of the people who left the islands of the Hebrides in 1923, and set out for a new life in Canada and the United States.
It is alway a pleasure for me to work in collaboration with such talented artists. It is stimulating for my own work to share ideas and themes, and see and hear the project develop through rehearsals and artistic dialogue.
Hopefully, we will be able to perform the show again in the near future. A lot more people need to hear this wonderful and touching tale of emigration.
Pre orders for the book A Whistling of Birds are available now. Follow this link to order on the Nine Arches Press website.
Very pleased to include the artwork created for the performances of ‘In the wake of Metagama’, April 2023.
Click on this link to go to the collaborations section of the website.
So pleased to have been asked to be part of this wonderful project. More posts featuring the Metagama story will appear here over the next few weeks.
https://www.traditionalmusicforum.org/news-post/?fbclid=IwAR04Rjsx8F3bYVpx1MD0-9vYYJWf1bHQ9OC-n9YYIuYQcVoJxIKZslkmjdk
Here are the dates and venues for the Metagama performances. So proud to be part of this wonderful project and to be part of this talented team. More information and details about the Metagama story will be posted over the next week.
It was great to hear that my website has been added to the Pencils4Artists website. All of the drawings and other artwork I’ve posted on my blog and website are produced using the great materials supplied by the Devon based company.
With so many art shops closing over the last few years it’s great to support this business that has managed to survive and thrive in both commercial forms.
Many thanks to Alan Heard for the link. Follow the link below to visit the website.