Sunday 15 February 2015

Seen it all before, see it all again and again......




Clean slate
Half way through February and finally it feels like there's light at the end of the tunnel. The dark months of winter are often a good time for me creatively, cocooned in the studio when the weather is bad I 'm not so easily distracted and in a strange way I like this part of the year.

With the advent of Spring comes a feeling of unsettledness and anticipation. It's the  changing over of one kind of living to another....it just takes time to readjust .

The Working Perspectives exhibition is up now and it was great to see the varied range of work on show. It's really interesting to see how artists respond to different locations and stimuli.

I enjoyed the whole experience and it really pushed me to consider areas of exploration and experimentation in my work not thought about for a long time.

Like all professions and jobs in life, being an artist demands a certain level of planning...something I am not always prepared for!
So next in line is work for the Scottish Borders Art Fair in Kelso, a group show at the Stonewall Gallery in Duns, representation on the all new online OGallery and finally two great opportunities in September and October....a small solo show at Coldstream Gallery and taking part in  a group  exhibition titled  The Debatable Lands at the Scott Gallery in Hawick. 

So my work is cut out and I am eager to make headway. 

So to the title of this months blog...occasionally I feel that my ideas and inspirations may dry up and some days there is nothing, the muse goes silent.
 But like yesterday when I put brush to paper the landscape opened up before me and it felt like I was back in a place I know very well. Perhaps a bit of a cliche but to me the landscape keeps giving...I have seen it all before, but I see it again and again in new and different ways. This is what keeps my work going and strangely remains a mystery to me at times.









The snow didn't stay long this year but it was still a small thrill to see the landscape transformed from earth colours to pristine white.


The noughts and crosses tree top walkways at Go Ape featured in many of my images for the Go Ape Working Perspectives residency. 
The stitching that appears on the small concertina card constructions is a reference to the many mountain bikes tracks winding their way through Glentress forest.

Oil on Linen 30x30cm
Detail -Monoprint ,cut out and stitching on Rosapina paper
 
I see the paper concertina constructions as pieces that echo in part the shapes and parts of the high up walk ways. They  have images on one side and rolled on solid oil colour on the other. Both sides are intended to be seen by the viewer and the idea is about making the simple distinction of being on the ground and being up in the trees. 

And so...finishing with a few  images from January this year. Thanks if you have been reading :)




Hownam Law




The Working Perspectives exhibition is showing at Tweeddale Museum & Gallery, Chambers Institution, High Street, Peebles. Open Mon-Friday 10.30-12.30 & 1-4pm Sat 9.30-12.30 Closed Sundays. Exhibition runs until 11th April.