Monthly Archives: June 2018

‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat’ exhibition – new venue

Leave a reply

Citadel Bookshop, on Montrose Terrace, Abbeyhill, Edinburgh

Paintings from the ‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat’ series will be on exhibition at the Citadel Bookshop, Edinburgh, from now to mid-August (see map below).

I’m really pleased about this as it’s great to have the paintings viewable ‘in the flesh’ as it were – especially as I’ll be away up north for the whole of July, so they wouldn’t otherwise have been on exhibition.

You can see the paintings online Here

And here’s a map showing the location of the Citadel Bookshop ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Citadel is run by poet Alan Spence and his wife Janani and is open 1pm to 5pm Monday to Saturday (closed Sundays). Drop by for a chat (they’re both very friendly!) and enjoy a peruse of their excellent book collection, which includes many rare or unusual poetry editions among an eclectic selection of general literature.

Alan Spence

 

 

 

 

You’ll likely find several books relating to spirituality, meditation and Zen practice since Alan and Janani ran the Sri Chinmoy Meditation Centre in Edinburgh a while back. (read an interview with Alan  in the Scottish Review of Books Here )

Alan was named Edinburgh’s Makar in 2018 (Makar is the Scots word for learned poet). His work explores Japanese culture and spirituality, including Zen traditions and Haiku poetry. In recognition of this, Alan was recently awarded the Decoration of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Government of Japan). 

I collaborated with Alan and cellist Atzi Muramatsu on the ‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat’ project these last two months. It was a pleasure to work with Alan for the first time – he and Atzi (with whom I’ve collaborated since 2013) brought much creative sensitivity and invention to the project.

I recommend a watch of the 2-minute video below, which features poetry, cello and painting about a frog in Hunter’s Bog on Arthur’s Seat ..

 

‘Frog’ – poetry, music and painting

Leave a reply

‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat, Swimming Toad, Hunter’s Bog’ Mixed media on 16 x 13 inch wood panel. Rose Strang 2018 £250

I found time to edit this two-minute video – ‘Frog’ – featuring poetry and cello music by Alan Spence and Atzi Muramatsu, and my painting – ‘Swimming Frog, Hunter’s Bog’  – (more info below vid) ..

This was part of the launch event of ‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat’, which has been an incredibly rich experience – learning the history of the wells and their significance, collaborating with Alan and Atzi who responded with such artistic sensitivity to the ideas.

And of course the idyllic mid-summer’s night music performance on the summer solstice, at St Anthony’s Chapel on Arthur’s Seat, by the talented and wonderful Dominic Harris and Riley Briggs.

Watch my little vid of the evening here –

It’s a great parting note on which to leave Edinburgh for my up-coming painting trip to the Isle of Iona, where I’ll be painting purely en plein air, as they say, for a month, from a tent. The island is meaningful to me as I’ve been going there since I was 20 (back in the far mists of time!)  so I’ll post on that soon.

Thanks again to everyone involved in this last project, I think it will yield further fruit in future!

A Mid Summer Night’s Eve …

Leave a reply

Summer Solstice – what better way to spend the longest day of the year than up on Arthur’s Seat in the sunshine, with friends, family and two of my favourite musicians – Dominic Harris (Dominic Waxing Lyrical) and Riley Briggs (Aberfeldy)

This was part of the ‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat’ project (which ends on Sunday).

Dominic Harris, me, and Riley Briggs

 

(Photo by Kenneth Duffy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We began the evening at my studio with cocktails (invented for this special occasion – Chartreuse, vodka, fresh lime and syrup of Sweet Cicely over crushed ice, titled an ‘Arthur’s Sprite’ by my friend Donald!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dominic and Riley Briggs treated us all to a live acoustic set – which was melodious, full of invention and fun as always. I think this may be one of my favourite gigs – being a bit high on ‘Arthur’s Sprite’ cocktails – music, sunshine, the atmosphere and conviviality.

My camera’s sound was playing up with the wind, but still I think my vid below captures some of the atmosphere…

What a special evening, as Dominic said ‘this isn’t one we’ll forget’. My warm thanks to Dominic and Riley.

Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday 24th) is the last day of the exhibition, so if you’re in Edinburgh drop by for a cup of tea (or glass of wine!). You can view the paintings Here

Society of Scottish Artists

Leave a reply

Photo – at the launch of 2018’s SSA Annual Open Exhibition

It was really lovely to be selected, along with 16 other artists,  as a Professional Member of the SSA recently.

The SSA (Society of Scottish Artists) is an artist-led organisation which holds an annual exhibition every year at the the RSA.

 

 

 

Artists are selected for; actively practising professionally within one or more branches of the visual arts and are selected in recognition of their talent and dedication in this field. 

It means I can add ‘SSA’ to the end of my name, which is nice! The SSA is a friendly, supportive organisation, run by its president, award-winning artist Sharon Quigley and a team of artists selected each year. Its honorary President is Richard Demarco CBE.

In addition to the SSA Annual Open, they organise a year-round programme of national and international exhibitions, also events, residencies and workshops.

If you’re interested, here’s a brief history of the SSA (copied from SSA website)  …

“The Society of Scottish Artists was founded in 1891, and held its first Annual Exhibition in the Royal Scottish Academy Gallery – then the Royal Institution. Its inaugural catalogue laid forth the SSA’s function as:

“… being formed with a view to holding an Annual Exhibition in Edinburgh, to give inducement to the younger Artists to produce more important and original works by providing hanging space for such works. The opportunity has also been taken to obtain for the Society’s Exhibition examples of all Schools of Modern Art from distinguished living Artists…”

The SSA and the members and government of the RSA enjoyed an uneasy relationship during the early years of the SSA’s existence. The SSA was seen as a “rebellious” and “progressive” group, while the RSA represented the more traditional and conservative stance. After many appeals, however, including some to the Queen and the House of Commons, the SSA secured the use of the RSA galleries for its Annual Exhibition from 1902.

There are few Scottish artists of note who have not, at one time or another, been involved with the SSA, with Presidents including James Cadenhead, Stanley Cursiter, William McTaggart, Edward Gage, George Wyllie and Barbara Rae. The roll call of members and exhibitors is also impressive, including –The Glasgow Boys (Guthrie, McGregor, Walton, Hornel and Roche), the Scottish Colourists (Cadell and Peploe), John Duncan, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William McTaggart to name but a few.

The SSA also strove to represent the more “adventurous” work being done abroad and so exhibitions included the work of the Post Impressionists, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse and Van Gogh in 1913 and, in the same year, the Futurist, Gino Severini showed work. In 1922 the Sociey presented work by Picasso, Daumier, Degas and Forain. In 1931, the Society showed, for the first time in the UK, twelve canvases by the then highly controversial Edvard Munch who went on to become a member of the Society.

In 1934 the SSA showed a selection of work by international living artists including Paul Klee. At this exhibition, the Scottish National Gallery bought his “Approaching Snowstorm“, which is now on show in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Prices for work then ranged from £35 to £350, with a head in pastel by Picasso costing £210, while framed etchings by Matisse, Picasso and Salvador Dali were available for £5 each.

The SSA has continued in this vein to the present day, always willing to show the controversial, the unique and the most adventurous and challenging work available. Its network of artist members and contacts throughout the world gives it access to some of the most interesting work by contemporary artists, which it endeavours to bring to a Scottish public.

A fully illustrated history of the Society of Scottish Artists can be found in the book, published by the Society in its centenary year, “The First Hundred Years“. This book is available from the Society. Please CONTACT US for further details.”

(From SSA website – http://www.s-s-a.org

Private View – Wells of Arthur’s Seat

1 Reply

Saturday’s Private View of Wells of Arthur’s Seat was a wee oasis of healing, arts and magic!

All paintings in the series can be viewed Here . Background ideas of the project Here

I look forward to sharing the poems and music (I’m editing video tomorrow), which I hope will convey the atmosphere created on Saturday –  the sense of calm – of water, flora and fauna, and my delight at the way Atzi Muramatsu and Alan Spence interpreted this.

Photo – Liza Horan http://mediamoxie.com/

Photo – Donald Ferguson

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the evening, for me, was Alan Spence reciting his poem Frog, with Atzi finding sounds on his cello that captured the very essence of water, or the spring of a frog’s legs as it plops into the water!

Alan introduced this frog poem last of all, describing how the Haiku poets (particularly Basho, and Japanese artists) often referenced the frog.

One of my paintings was titled ‘Swimming Frog, Hunter’s Bog’ – an appealing and amusing rhyme for a poet’s ear! As he explained – “Hunter’s Bog meets Basho’s frog – the last line of one of Basho’s poems is sometimes translated as the sound of the water” …

FROG

there’s this wee frog

in hunter’s bog –

furuike ya…

in hunter’s bog

just this

wee frog

kawazu tobikimu…

just this wee frog

mizu no oto

the sound

                    the water

the sound of the water

(Alan Spence June 2018)

 

That really made me smile! The pleasing simplicity and evocation of happiness in nature – especially after all my walks in Hunter’s Bog on Arthur’s Seat this past year.

In the next two weeks I’ll post a video featuring the music, poetry and paintings. (We will also be developing the project in September this year, to show to a bigger audience).

Lastly, my warm thanks to the following …

Atzi and Alan, for inspiration, and love of the arts. Donald, Sabine, mum and Catherine for helping make the event happen, and their support and enthusiasm. David Finnie, for buying my paintings and being such a welcome presence at these events, as are his wife Fiona and daughter Sarah, for such friendly and responsive presence.

Thanks to Scott Terris for bringing flowers, and Liza Horan (owner of Media Moxie) for these lovely words on Facebook –

As the windy rain transmuted to a vibrant sunset, Rose Strang shared a very special collaboration with Atzi on cello and Alan Spence on verses of haiku. The paintings sang of Arthur’s Seat and St. Anthony’s Well within, while the strings bounded high and sunk low, and the colorful haiku captured the rhythm of the place. Congrats and thanks for sharing your spirit and work.

Thanks to all for coming – you’re always welcome!

Also, someone anonymously left these flowers outside the door during the event. Thank you too! How fitting, when the healing rituals of Arthur’s Seat’s wells were sometimes completed with a gift of flowers …

This Saturday – exhibition launch

2 Replies

Just two days until the exhibition launch! Atzi and I poured a wee libation at St Anthony’s Well – and here’s an engraving from the 19th century showing a mother and child at the same well..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dates/times of exhibition Here

All paintings for the series are viewable on this link, with sizes and prices etc (if you are interested in buying one paintings from the series, please contact me at rose.strang@gmail.com

About the Wells of Arthur’s Seat ..

Paintings; Rose Strang. Poetry Alan Spence. Cello; Atzi Muramatsu.

This collaborative project takes inspiration from Arthur’s Seat; its flora, fauna and local history …

Back in the mists of time, long before St Anthony’s Chapel was built in the 12th century, St Anthony’s Well was a place of worship, celebration and healing rituals. Descriptions collected from the Victorian era describe how, up to the 19th century, locals would visit the well to enact healing rituals.

‘Clootie Wells’ (or ‘Rag Wells’ as they’re called in England) were places believed to be sacred; this was part of a pan-European way of worship, or faith in nature. People believed that nature held everything in balance; disease or failed crops meant that nature was out of balance; they visited wells to restore balance. To invoke a sacred space they’d walk around the well, in silence, three times (sun-wise as it was called). They would soak the rag in well water, apply it to the afflicted area of the body, then leave the water-soaked rag nearby in the earth or hung on a tree, to be absorbed by the earth or sky. To end the ritual they’d leave tokens such as wild flowers, coins, or iron nails in gratitude.

When the more punitive approach of the Protestant Reformation reached its height in the 17th century, religious leaders created laws against these healing rituals, since they were believed to be un-Christian. To be discovered enacting a ritual which invoked ‘magical’ powers could lead to interrogation, sometimes torture and death (at its height during the witch trials of the 17th and 18th century).

Yet, locals still attended their wells right up to the mid 19th century. On the 1st of May they’d bathe their faces in the dew at dawn, livestock would be led through the streams for good luck, at dawn or sunset throughout the year, they’d come to the well to pray for healing of the sick or wounded.

Water was seen as a place of in-between, the threshold to another world. The religious term might be ‘a thin veil between heaven and earth’. Nowadays we might use the word liminal – a place of change or transformation between two places.

Thanks to dedicated conservation in recent years, the flora and fauna of Arthur’s Seat is flourishing again, much as it did hundreds of years ago. With paintings, poetry and music we celebrate the people who cared for their landscape in ancient times, and the beauty of Arthur’s Seat today.

Wells of Arthur’s Seat – 2 more

Leave a reply

‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat, Swans on St Margaret’s Loch’. Mixed media on 16×13 inch wood panel. Rose Strang 2018. £250

‘Wells of Arthur’s Seat, St Antony’s Chapel II’. Mixed media on 10×10 inch wood panel. Rose Strang 2018. £180

Two more paintings today, for the Wells of Arthur’s Seat exhibition, which launches this Saturday (all details Here).

I couldn’t resist painting this view of St Margaret’s Loch with swans, having spent the weekend sitting there with friends watching them take off then fly down across the water.

For this second painting of At Anthony’s Chapel I splodged primary colours directly onto the wood, the colours at sunset are so vivid it’s the only way to capture it.