A March Wind Exhibition Blows thru to Summer Work

~March Winds Blow Towards Summer~

For nearly all of this winter I rented the beautiful Northlight Gallery http://northlight.artweb.com/ at Graham Place. If you have it, you will use it and so my temporary studio was created. The days were grey and the nights were long but I began my winter work with the lampshade series of the last post.  One day, my wee 16 year old Westie with failing eyes joined me and finally settled into his new day bed.  He only managed the one day, while I carried on trying all sorts of new ideas.

All the while I was turning the shades round and round moving the paintbrush along, I looked at the blank walls and my blank round canvas. They had been damaged in shipment and the tears were just so beautifully arranged.  As I worked, I began to develop the metaphor of the torn canvas: Tears thru Time.  What better way to paint archaeology?  The digger painstakingly uses a trowel skimming the surface of piece of flat earth until something interesting bursts through.  Then they use a brush to gently remove the powder and something wonderful might be revealed. 

Well, working with the idea master, Douggie Drever, the tears in my canvas would reveal some glittering Neolithic marks or images, made by incising into the special surfaces Douggie prepared for me.  So my painted canvas would go beyond its own surface to reveal a secret below!  What will I be inspired to do when all my paints are at the excavation at the Ness of Brodgar? Here is my attempt to narrate a film of  the main pieces of the exhibition held March 2018 of my winter work…the work that precedes my summer artistist-in-residence at the Ness of Brodgar http://www.nessofbrodgar.com/:

This project is supported by a Visual Artists and Craft Makers Award. The awards are a partnership between Creative Scotland and Orkney Islands Council.