This is an open invitation to come and view my exhibition at the Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham, Hampshire.
If anyone can make it along to the private view, it would be great to see you!
For more information on the Ashcroft and how to get there, click on this link.
Back on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh again for day two of the Scottish Poetry Library residency. One of the great aspects of doing this has been the opportunity to meet and talk with artists, poets and musicians who’s work I admire.
Two of early visitors were photographer, filmmaker and architect Alastair Cook, and musician, photographer and creator of the award winning People and Songs of the Sea, Shona McMillan.
Alastair has recently been artist-in-residence at Timespan in Helmsdale, and has produced some stunning images of the north-east coastline. He has also been collaborating with Italian composer and cellist Luca Nasciuti on several films. Follow this link to view more of Alastair’s superb work on his website.
Every now and then you meet a real kindred spirit, and Shona McMillan fits that description. Her passion for all things concerning the coast and its fishing communities is infectious and refreshing. Her enthusiasm and dedication was rewarded recently with an award for her People and Songs of the Sea CD, which has also received much acclaim in America and Canada. I’m looking forward to collaborating with Shona on a future exhibition project concerning the fisher folk and coastal communities of Scotland, and the diaspora.
Other welcome visitors to the exhibition were Shetland poet Christine De Luca, and Edinburgh photographer Chris Scott. Christine has recently allowed me to use several of her new poems to create art works, and I hope to be showing the completed works in the next exhibition in September. Her poems have taken my work off into a different direction, focusing on the more abstract and musical aspects of linking art and poetry. It has been exciting and challenging working with her texts, and I hope the images do justice to the excellent poetry and sit well alongside them.
I’m now heading back to the studio to develop more collaborative works inspired by the writing of some of our finest poets. These pieces are probably the most challenging for me, as I feel privileged and honoured to be allowed to use these words to kindle new images and ideas. But, rather than being merely illustrations of the work, I strive to create works that will sit alongside the poems as new interpretations of the themes.
Over the next few months I will be in the company of many fine poems, and hopefully, will be producing work which will do justice to them. I’ll be posting images of these new work as they develop. I would like to send a warm thank you to everyone who took the time to visit the exhibition at the Scottish Poetry Library, and especially to Andrew Philip for his continuing support and friendship.
Many thanks also go to the staff of the SPL for their warm welcome and hospitality, with special thanks going to Julie Johnstone, Peggy Hughes and Robyn Marsack.
Twa Poets - Andrew Philip and Robert Fergusson, outside Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.
Good first day of the residency at The Scottish Poetry Library, developing and drawing the ideas for the poems of Kenneth White.
The drawings, for texts including Brandan’s Last Voyage, Late August On The Coast, and Scotia Deserta, will be used to illustrate the next issue of Soylesi Uc Aylik Siir Dergisi, the Turkish edition of the Conversation International Poetry Project Journal, along with the photographs of Marie-Claude White.
Working up on the mezzanine floor surrounded by a wealth of poetry was very conducive to producing good sketches. The people of Edinburgh (and the wider community of Scotland) are very fortunate to have such an excellent resource on their doorstep. Combine that with the nearby and equally superb National Library of Scotland, and you have enough to keep any would-be bibliophile very happy!
The day was made all the more enjoyable by visits from sculptors Angela and Brunton Hunter, and poets Rob A. Mackenzie and Andrew Philip.
Looking forward to Day 2, and working on the finished drawings for Brandan’s Last Voyage and Low Tide at Landrellec.
Postcard image of Bas Baile - Rotal
As part of the Net Mender exhibition at The Scottish Poetry Library, I will be artist-in-residence at Crichton’s Close on the 1st and 2nd of June, creating new art/poetry collaboration works. Poetry (and literature in general) has always been a great source of ideas, images and influence in my art work, and to have the opportunity to exhibit and develop new collaboration pieces at such an important national resource is a great privilege and pleasure.
Currently in the studio, I am working on several assemblages and drawings which will feature in the two days of the residency. Two poems which are being translated into box constructions come from poems by Shetland born, and Edinburgh based poet Robert Alan Jamieson. Also with similar geographical connections, poet Christine De Luca has given me two fantastic poems to work with, ‘Fire - Sang Cycle’ and ‘Breton Circle Dance’. Both poems will feature in Christine’s forthcoming new collection.
Breton Circle Dance
Ouessant, Finistère
An dro
Feet drum doon a aert flör
dancin hit clean
rivlins in rhythm,
side-steppin, saaft sheen.
Airms linkit tagidder
back, fore, up an owre,
lik flail apö flakki,
lik sail at da shore.
Minuet
Da wye da horizon wavvels:
hadds tae her, but tizes farder,
balances apö da aedge.
Even time dips her, salists.
An boats, heeld owre i da ebb,
recline for a artist’s brush.
Da snaar here - a slow dance –
isna sib tae da Manche whaar
tides gallop fast as a horse.
A sea foo o sky. Sun lip-lines
waves as dey hadd der braeth,
glosses dem. Dey tip, smush
inta smoorikins, a hush
apö saand; a linkin o airms,
a steppin tae da sea’s percussion.
An dro
Feet dance doon a aert flör
daddin hit clean
rivlins in rhythm,
side-steppin, saaft sheen.
Airms linkit tagidder
back, fore, up an owre,
lik flail apö flakki,
lik sail at da shore.
An dro – a Breton circle dance, with linked arms
Along with the above, there will be new works from collaborations with Jen Hadfield, Donald S, Murray and Rob A. Mackenzie. So, if you are in the Edinburgh area at the beginning of June, pop along to the Scottish Poetry Library just off the Canongate, on the Royal Mile, and find out more about the collaborations, or just say hello!
The Scottish Poetry Library at night.
Poem by kind permission of Christine De Luca
Scottish Poetry Library photograph by kind permission of Chris Scott,
If you would like one of the Bas Baile postcards, leave your address on my contacts page, and I will forward one to you.
The Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh
A selection of the Net Mender exhibition is now on show at The Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh.
The library is a fantastic national resource, and it is a privilege for me to be able to show my work amongst one of the finest collection of poetry and literary studies in Scotland. Poetry has played a large part in influencing and enhancing my work and the pieces on display in this exhibition have either direct collaborative links with poets such as Andrew Philip , or are in response to poems I have researched relating to a subject as with the Emigrant and Bas Baile works.
The exhibition rums from the 8th of May until the 12th of June, 2010. The Scottish Poetry Library is located in Crichton’s Close, just off the Canongate, on Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile.
As part of the exhibition, I will be taking part in an event at the library in early June. More details will be posted soon.
Click on the title below the picture of the SPL to link to their Our Sweet Old Etcetera webpage, which has the latest news from the library.
Some views of The Net Mender exhibition at the Bedales Gallery
A small selection of images taken at the gallery today. Most of the works in the exhibition can be seen
in the photographs. The exhibitions runs until the 24th March.
Cille - 2010
Details from Cille - 2010
Sea Votive - 2010
Details from Sea Votive - 2010
Press cutting from Portsmouth News, 26th February 2010
