Street art returns to the Low Ousegate building in the centre of York (kindly donated by Mack & Lawler). The next event opens on 11th July 2025 and will span four storeys of the unoccupied building, featuring the work of an exciting group of world-class street artists alongside a cohort of local artists. Street art, modern art, murals, art inst...
ROSE WYLIE'S DOODLEBUGIn my job at York Art Gallery, I have to give a talk to the public which I usually deliver every Friday. The talks are on anything in the gallery that the staff feel inspired by and I chose Rose Wylie's - Artists Early Memories Series No. 2 Doodle Bug.I was invited by the Friends of York Art Gallery to present this talk to the...
I made Christmas cards this year; an angel and a snowman. Simple drawings made with black and white chinagraph pencils and yellow fluorescent Caran D'ache crayon. They were varnished and attached to blank white card. It took a fair amount of time to make about 30 but was very satisfying. Merry Christmas!
As the year winds down, I look back on it as a remarkable one. A year when I was blessed with a lot of opportunities and food for the soul. However, it has been difficult to become excited and motivated when the world is as it is. In all my days walking the earth I have never felt such a divide in society nor such hysteria or posturing as the...
It's difficult to become motivated and inspired during this madness when culture has been closed down and the colour rinsed out of our days but try we must. I try to be mindful of the moment in my shrunken world. I have been moved by small things; a crow landing on the beach, frost glitter, the stark skeleton trees and the changing light as the sun...
I have just finished another A3 poster for the Out Of Sight Out Of Mind exhibition to be shown in Summerhall, Edinburgh in October. This is now my twelfth year producing A3 posters for the event and it is an honour to be asked again. Out of Sight Out of Mind is part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival year-round programme and features digit...
ART The Cooper Prize 2023 Exhibition, Barnsley I was thrilled and delighted to have my painting of a cow (A Cow Looked At Me (Ha, Elan Whirls!), accepted as part of this exhibition. It is on display until 6 April 2024 and is priced at £450I have been invited to participate in RISE OF THE VANDALS - BOMBSQUAD EVENT again in York (Jun/Jul 24). This br...
I recently designed another A3 poster for the Out Of Sight Out Of Mind exhibition to be shown in Summerhall, Edinburgh in October.Out of Sight Out of Mind is part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival year-round programme and features digital artwork, installations, films, projections, animations, sculptures, photography, paintings and drawin...
I love this quote - "You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace." - Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes Some of the incredible things seen and heard I have recently stored in my mind, my palace of treasure . . .ARTA Hip Hop Journey: 50 years of Kulture - Leeds City MuseumEducated Vandals, Street Art Exhibition, YorkBasquiat ...
Jellies And Other Works, Picture House, City Screen York Sunday 23 April – Saturday 27 May. I hung 15 recent works on Sunday 23 on the back wall of the café. I think they look good and have some impact. One of the cleaners said that the pictures made her laugh in a good way!The Riverside Cafe Bar is a brilliant space in the redeveloped Yorkshire He...
"Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it," Sylvia Plath wrote in her journal while at Smith College. "The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."I largely keep my self-doubt as an artist in a cage with a cloth cover over it! Occasionally it escapes and haunts my paper, canvas, paint, pencils and mind rendering ...
Get a word in edgeways number 2 (see 24/08/18, number 14 on blog) It is now almost 11 years since I started writing bits of poetry, jingles, nonsense and enigmatic sentences on Twitter. Since then, I have never missed a day and have now, to date, written 31,522 words! Tomorrow I shall put this 2-line poem up on Twitter with a sketch. Sometimes, the...
York has rejuvenated me. I have now been here almost a year and it still offers fascination and stimulus.My work is taking on a new face with a little sparkle of humour in its eye! I have work on show in 3 venues and have become involved with Navigators Art which is a dynamic group of artists trying to change things. I also deigned A5 flyers & ...
I got accepted! After years of rejection I got into The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. I am thrilled and honoured. My piece, It Looked Like Rain So I Did Not Go :( is number 575 in Gallery IV, which has been curated by Grayson Perry. Grayson says, "The first time I came to the Summer Show preview party I remember being overwhelmed by the ...
EDINBURGH TO YORK On the 19 January 2022 I moved to York after twenty-five and a half years living in Edinburgh. It was both exhilarating and edgy. Moving house is one of life's greatest stressors; but it's also a thrilling new adventure. I needed to move, I needed new experiences and opportunities, and, as much as I loved Edinburgh (most of the ti...
I currently have a painting on display at the Scottish National Gallery as part of the Artists at Work exhibition (12 May – September 2018).Artists at Work shows 74 works by members of staff from across the entire organisation. It is a varied and inspiring selection created by, amongst others, gallery attendants, conservators, retail team members a...
I watched an amazing documentary last night – Frank Auerbach - To The Studio - gave me goose bumps! It opens a rare window into his secret, obsessive but brilliant world. Fascinating and compelling, Auerbach's work is fiercely original, disquieting and yet beautiful. I saw Head of Gerda Boehm at Bowie the Collector, Sotheby's, London in November 20...
I took this photograph a few months ago at Tate Britain in the All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life exhibition. I work in a gallery and see this all the time; people glued to their mobile/cell phones. I don't mean the casual look to check the time or a new text message but prolonged scrolling and viewing. It saddens me, especi...
I have recently been working on an A3 poster design for a Scottish Mental Health Art Festival exhibition to be shown in Summerhall, Edinburgh later this year.Here are two draft versions that are loosely based on the theme of 'new beginnings', for 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind'.Now in its sixth year, Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind is a collaborative exhibit...
This week I have been listening to (and painting and designing to) David Bowie, Sound + Vision Box Set, Astrakan Café by Anouar Brahem, Jungle Revolution in Dub by Congo Natty and Matthew Bourne's Isotach. All sublime, all offer different rhythms and atmospheres.
