A Spacious Place

Hello everyone,

One of the great artists currently exhibiting in The Onslaught of Autumn is the fabulous Hazel Cashmore.  Hazel was one of the very first artists that we showed here, and our love of her work grows every time we see more of it.

Hazel's use of colour and texture gives her paintings an amazing sense of depth and space.  None more so than this:

'A Spacious Place (on the Flows)', acrylic on board, by Hazel Cashmore.
The Flow Country in Caithness refers to an ancient and unique environment of blanket bogland - the largest in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in the world.  It is frequently referred to as The Last Real Wilderness in the United Kingdom. The terrain consists of vast acres of wetland where moss, cotton grass and other vegetation grow.  Hazel, who lives locally, is attracted to the vast spaces and beautiful vegetation with subtle but rich colours, backdropped by the huge Caithness sky .


How lucky we are that a painter as gifted as Hazel Cashmore happens to live in such a stunning environment so that she can record it for us in her own unique way.  This is just one of four of her paintings currently in the gallery.  They are all worthy of spending some time with.

Hopefully you will get the time to do just that before the exhibition closes.

Think About It!

Thanks to gallery visitor Douglas Fraser for posting this in.

How very true!

Speak soon.....

The Itinerant Painter

Hello everyone,

The new exhibition, 'The Onslaught of Autumn', has got off to a flying start with a very well attended preview last Thursday, and lots of interest in the beautiful paintings we are showing.

One of the artists that is enjoying a particularly high amount of attention is Tadeusz Deregowski. 

Born in Zambia, raised and educated in Scotland and now living in Brazil, Tadeusz Deregowski is one of a rare breed of artists.

He lives a truly nomadic existence, travelling the world with his portable kit, painting those things that interest and inspire him.  Deregowski creates a painting every day, wherever he is in the world, and stores them in his home made cases so he can move them even when still wet.  Trained at Edinburgh College of Art, he is a fine artist in one of the oldest of artistic traditions – that of the traveller painting what he finds around him.  He is a painter of the highest quality creating beautiful little paintings, each of which is dated for the day it was produced.

Have a look at this:

'View from B&B, Elgin (11 July)' oil on board, by Tadeusz Deregowski.

And this little beauty:

'On the way to Nethy Bridge (17 July)', oil on board, by Tadeusz Deregowski.

I'll let Tadeusz himself explain:

‘My interest is primarily in recording my subjective responses to places, buildings, things and people. 

The subjects which appeal to me most are places which are in some way hidden or mysterious: one of the central functions of art for me is the revealing of secrets. Cities which are seldom visited or the places off the tourist circuit hold more interest to me than more obvious sights,  and I love to use art as a form of, and motivation for, exploration. Similarly, I love to use portraiture as a way of studying people in their environments, attempting to show their inner lives.

I see my work in the line of both travel painter-diarists such as Edward Lear or Turner, and expressionist painters such as Bonnard or Joan Eardley: I have a little portable kit with which I can easily transport materials and wet paintings.

I have a daily routine of producing postcard-sized or even credit-card sized paintings on card. These are painted plein-air using oils.

The idea of being a sort of itinerant, travelling painter, a la Turner, is one that I find immensely appealing, combining as it does the roles of explorer, artist and holidaymaker. I intend to spend a considerable amount of time in the future pursuing longer and longer trips. Next I shall go to the UK, after that I’d love to visit the USA again, Chile, Iran, the Caucuses, Japan and more of Brazil.

I currently live in Florianopolis, in southern Brazil, but I often travel, usually to Europe or within Latin America.’

A great painter in the finest traditions.

More to follow on the other fine artists who have contributed to 'The Onslaught of Autumn'. 
 

The Onslaught Of Autumn

See you all Thursday for this:

and this....

and probably some of these.....

I love Autumn!

The End of the Bees?

Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!
"Hide from your neigbours as much as you please, But all that has happened, to us you must tell, Or else we will give you no honey to sell!"

A maiden in her glory,
Upon her wedding - day,
Must tell her Bees the story,
Or else they'll fly away.
Fly away -- die away --
Dwindle down and leave you!
But if you don't deceive your Bees,
Your Bees will not deceive you.

Marriage, birth or buryin',
News across the seas,
All you're sad or merry in,
You must tell the Bees.
Tell 'em coming in an' out,
Where the Fanners fan,
'Cause the Bees are just about
As curious as a man!

Don't you wait where the trees are,
When the lightnings play,
Nor don't you hate where Bees are,
Or else they'll pine away.
Pine away -- dwine away --
Anything to leave you!
But if you never grieve your Bees,
Your Bees'll never grieve you.


'The Bee', by Rudyard Kipling

 Last two days to enjoy our beautiful exhibition, Plight of the Bumblebee, before it buzzes off into history.  Come along and enjoy!

 

Precious Bees

Hello everyone,

Along with all the fabulous bee paintings in the gallery this month, there are some interesting and unusual sculptures that have also been specially created for the Plight of the Bumblebee exhibition.

'Precious' is a work by Czech artist Marcela  Trsova, who you may remember by her fabulous ''Sea of Souls' installation earlier this year.  Marcela is a highly creative and imaginative artist who likes to use natural materials in her work.  'Precious' is made largely from black beeswax - unusual in this country, and created from the type of heather the bees pollinate:

'Precious', black beeswax and gold wire, by Marcela Trsova.
Each ball represents an element of the cycle of life, with the ancient symbols of the Seed, the Flower and the Fuit of Life depicted in the gold wire.

I'll let Marcela take up the story:

'The bees are an important part of food chain as without the pollination there will be no fruit, vegetables or cereals for us to eat. There are other pollinators in nature such as flies and wasps but bees remain the most important, espeacially for industrial agriculture.
In the piece I have created for the Plight of the Bumblebee exhibition I wanted to emphasize the importance of the bees in plants life cycle. To do so I used the ancient symbols of The Seed, The Flower and The Fruit of Life. They are considered to be one of the key parts of sacred geometry and have been used in many different cultures. They are also said to contain the values and the fundemental forms of space and life.

I feel the beautiful geometry of the designs is also related to the amazing organisational efficiency of the bees and geometrically perfect construction of honeycombes.
The design gets more complex as the plant cycle progresses, The Seed of Life being the simplest one. The symbols are drawn with gold plated wire and are embedded into the natural black bee wax spheres. The wax is dark because the pollen collected by the bees comes from heather moors, by using the gold wire I wanted to express the preciousness of the bees.' 

And here are the individual elements up close:

 

'The Seed of Life'

 

 'The Flower of Life', and:

'The Fruit of Life'

 Like all the artists who have created work for this exhibition,  Marcela has really thought about the issue of the declining bee population and really gone the extra mile to produce something relevant, interesting and beautiful.  There is still a week to go, so you have plenty of time to come in and view this inspirational and poignant exhibition.

Speak soon....