Autumn Blog

The  Scottish Independence debate has caused much discussion and heated exchanges in our family and given it's topicality I can't write this post without reflecting on how I feel about it.
 Living so close to the border with England and spending so much of my down  time there it felt strange to think we may well have been more separated than we already are this Friday. I have never doubted or felt there was a blurring of lines between Scotland and England and each country and the various regions within these countries all have their own unique and distinct identities. Our identities are strong.

Being Irish and having grown up for a good part of my young life in Southern Ireland it did seem strange on moving to the Borders of Scotland twenty odd years ago that Scotland acknowledges a Monarchy and that her Government is not her own so to speak and located at the other side of the UK.
I hadn't really considered these things. Many Irish people of my generation left Ireland to travel to England to seek jobs and money, Scotland in my mind always seemed like a wild and far flung place, a place far away from the idealized and so much more civilized world we as young people believed England to be. 
Scotland was a revelation to my naive twenty year old self and I suppose in someways (perhaps negatively) it perpetuated that myth we grew up with about the under dog and the view that somehow the English were superior historically and that countries like Ireland, Scotland and Wales had something to prove. 
 Now as my adopted home I see things very differently and see how strong Scotland is in so many vital ways, as a country she is in no way inferior etc. I voted yes because of  these views. This mornings' news is disappointing and many yes voters will feel raw and perhaps betrayed but we should take heart...yes voters will not be ignored, reform has been promised and both sides will work together to make it happen.

Ripening wheat, the end of last month.

No wonder I have been slacking with the blog! Since my last post things have come on a pace or two with just about everything. My sister is doing incredibly well and this week is back working in the studio! 
The Summer show in Peebles , the Crossing Borders Art Trail have came and went and we are more than four weeks into the new academic term. We have been climbing and bouldering almost weekly and also finding time to forage and brew. Life is full to bursting with activity at times, always a good thing.

Moving through the trees.

Small studies for Working Perspectives

Glentress

 The Working Perspectives residency  I am involved in is slowing taking shape. I have made some tentative steps and feel strongly that I will be making paintings for the show in 2015. Glentress and the Go Ape site is  filled with trees and despite the man made structures and the whirring of the zip wires, whoops of laughter from visitors etc it is very much a place where nature thrives, lives and breathes.
I can't pretend and say I'm finding it straight forward in terms of idea making but what is interesting to me at the moment is the environment....looking up from ground level and looking down when higher up. The juxtaposition between the organic environment and man made structures is jarring it feels like the thick streaks of oil paint in one of Gerhard Richter's photographic  pieces.  Time will be the revelator.

Installation shot from the Summer Show (paintings on the right are by Niall Campbell)

Studio all spruced up for the Trail

Rowan berries, I think!

Rocks in the Lake District

Maybe this is why I like cake so much!

Foraging in Ireland

This red tin roof caught my eye,view form Debi's kitchen

Ireland bound.

The strange things you find at crags?

New ropes...feel like silk

Wild meadow, Lake District

Berries, everywhere

Heading home from Castle Crag

Back Bowden

Photogenic Arete, Hepburn

Lonely trees at Gouther Crag