Wigtown Book Festival 2013

It's been a busy week trying to get necessary information and images together for my Spring Fling 2014 application.Luckily my friend Julie Hollis at Cloud 9 Studio gallery was on hand to help with taking the final image and the resizing involved.
Yesterday with temperatures hitting a balmy 20 degrees,my daughter and I set off for Wigtown,a 10 day literary celebration in Scotland's National Book Town.There are nearly 200 events including workshops,readings and activities ......

After a glorious drive along the coast we arrived and just enjoyed the ambience of the day.There were children playing on the beach.....

...which was actually a large sandpit installed by the County Buildings....

We visited the Camper Obscura-a project which has seen over 14, 000 people over 3 years sit inside a old camper van and view the surrounding area....

Feeling peckish we decided to explore The Kist-which means Treasure Chest.It was a fabulous mix of craft,arts,food and drink stalls where we bought delicious chilli jam from Galloway Chillies,vanilla fudge from Galloway Fudge Co,rapeseed oil from Stark Produce and admired the beautiful crafts at Handmade at Helens.

We also met Kim Ayres ,photographer to the stars...or in this case continuing his search for authors to photograph as literary characters.....not forgetting the enthusiastic Renita Boyle,the entertaining author and storyteller.....

On the way home and in need of a cuppa, we stopped at the Mill on the Fleet ,the visitor and exhibition centre at Gatehouse of Fleet.

A new exhibition entitled "Drawing a Voice' was literally just starting.It's a fantastic collaboration between 2 visual artists and a poet which covers different projects.It was lovely to catch up with Pamela Grace who does the most wonderful pen & ink drawings and paper batik.I also was fortunate to meet Jean Atkin who was there to read some of her wonderful poetry and Catriona Taylor -who works in mixed media.The exhibition runs from Sept 28th until Nov  2013.

There is also the most fantastic bookshop....Garvallan Books...(garvallanbooks@gmail.com).

Beatrice has decided she'd like to go back to Wigtown next Saturday when James Morton from the Great British Bake-Off is holding a bread-making class.....Well he was our favourite!

Bea enjoying the Festival.....

Here are the websites of aforementioned folk....

www.gallowaychillies.co.uk

www.gallowayfudge.com

www.starkrapeseedoil.co.uk

www.handmadeathelens.blogspot.co.uk

www.kimayres.co.uk

www.renitaboyle.com

www.millonthefleet.co.uk

www.pamelagrace.co.uk

www.jeanatkin.com

www.catrionataylor.co.uk

September Start-up......

It's been a great week which  involved seeing art as well as finally getting back to creating it.On Friday I drove  across to Langholm to the excellent Mustard Gallery to see the opening exhibition of work by Gill Shreeve. Her acrylic abstract work is wonderful-backed by images of her up on the hills in all elements with her materials and rolls of canvas. An exciting way to work which shows in the dynamic movement in her pieces.Unfortunately I didn't take any photos....but it was a really enjoyable evening.

It was good to finally get back into the studio as it has been a lengthy break. With work required for a Winter/Christmas pop-up exhibition at the Mustard Gallery and the deadline for Spring Fling Open Studios event 2014 looming I really needed to at least make a start.

I started on a canvas,preparing it with texture and adding layers of colour. This is just the start and definitely work in progress.

Detail...

And in the meantime the damsons became jam,the apples have been stewing and  I've acquired plums which are soon to be plum and mulled wine chutney...... Well the nights are drawing in and the weather has that autumnal feel to it.

Work in progress.....

From working on the canvas the cogs have starting cranking up and a feel new ideas blossoming.Hopefully they'll become real in time for the Spring Fling application deadline.....

Harvesting......

It's been a while since I last posted.There have been a number of reasons-a busy summer and undertaking other projects have meant I haven't been able to get in to the studio.
In the meantime I have de-cluttered and deep-cleaned the house-numerous bags to the charity shops,rubbish for the tip and making use of Gumtree.According to the principles of Feng Shui,the energy must be zipping around the rooms now.....

The children went back to school with all that entails-activity and cost-wise!

This week the weather was beautiful and I decided to tackle the neglected garden.We're putting in a patio area so we've somewhere to eat our BBQs next year. More bags for the tip.....

Husband is currently looking after a large property where he tends the massive garden.Today we started harvesting the fruits...damsons,plums,cooking and eating apples......

  

Tomorrow I'll be busy making damson jam and plum jam.....

For dessert tonight I made a batch of plum and oat muffins -delicious warm....

Sadly the Crown Gallery in Carlisle ,the marvellous venture of Joe and Julie will be closing its doors later this year so my exhibition starting October has had to be  cancelled.

The other sad news is that our local art shop in Dumfries,Art-astic is also closing.I've been popping in to stock up on supplies ......

Thick watercolour paper,48 Derwent Inktense pencils and a selection of gorgeous soft pastels will hopefully get me inspired and back into the studio.....