Tag Archives: rose strang art

Borders Country – Day 2

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‘Tweed River near Peebles 2′. Acrylic on 5×5″ wood

‘Tweed River near Peebles 2′. Acrylic on 5×5″ wood

‘Water Reflections (River Tweed) 2’. Acrylic on 5×5″ wood

‘Water Reflections (River Tweed) 2’. Acrylic on 5×5″ wood

Today’s paintings – two studies of the River Tweed.

As mentioned in last Sunday’s post this year I’ll be painting the Borders landscapes of Scotland and England.

There’s no particular topical reason for this (Scottish independence for example) – I just decided to paint the Borders because it’s such a familiar landscape and I’ve been visiting the area since I was a girl.

In summer we usually spend quite a lot of time at the River Tweed – building fires, canoeing, or just sitting around enjoying a picnic.

Borders countryside is quite gentle compared to the Scottish Highlands, or even the Yorkshire Dales farther south, but there’s definitely a distinct Borders look and feel; characteristic rolling hills, the patchwork of farmland, tree plantations, un-tended areas of wilderness that are variously verdant and lush, or stark and bleak.

There are numerous lochs, reservoirs, castles, Peel towers and rivers. Dry-stone dykes, sheep – loads of them, and horses (an excuse for me to paint horses, which I love to do!) And of course there are the west and east coastlines in Dumfries and at Berwick.

It’s very varied, which is why I’m looking forward to painting this series so much. As always, I’ll blog about the places I paint since that’s all part of the fun. People, the arts, places to visit and so on. Also, the Borders country has a very dramatic history – due partly to wars between Scotland and England.

Engraving, showing Borders Reivers raid on Gilnockie Tower

Engraving, showing Borders Reivers raid on Gilnockie Tower

‘Reiving’ (raiding cattle and other resources across the borders) became a way of life for many in the Borders.

In the first place this was through necessity – as a side effect of war and its devastating impact on the land, but then even in peace time Border Reivers chose to live this way, and they didn’t take kindly to being monitored  by the authorities of the time!

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research and in tomorrow’s blog, I’ll explore more about the Border Reivers. You’ve maybe read or heard of Sir Walter Scott’s famous stories about the Borders, and though factual in terms of names and some events, these were highly romanticised.

Statue of Borders Reiver, Galashiels

Statue of Borders Reiver, Galashiels

In fact, the more I read about Border Reivers history (Charles MacDonald Fraser’s ‘Steel Bonnets’ among other books) the more it sounds like a cross between cowboys, guerilla warfare and the Mafiosi (but more anarchic!)

Nowadays the Borders are as calm and safe as it gets – sleepy villages with antiques shops and small art galleries, sheep farmers, baroque hotels. You’d never guess its dark and difficult history, the only clues to the past in the landscape are the occasional Peel Towers (defensive look-out towers) dotted around the countryside, and of course there’s a wealth of literature and history to be explored in the numerous books on the subject, also castles, abbeys, ancient houses and museums

So how did this area change so radically after the Union of the Crowns in 1707? I suspect that this may reveal yet more grim history. It’s not all gloom though – there are Borders Ballads and poems, not to mention the beautiful landscape of which I have many happy memories, and there’s another reason I want to explore Borders history; one of the most notorious Borders Clans or families were the Kerrs, and as my Grandmother was a Kerr, I definitely have ancestors from the Borders!

So this year’s blog will be a combo of painting forays and ‘Who do you think you are’ minus the celebrity angle!

Today’s paintings again, from different angles, showing texture/size etc. (All paintings at 5×5 inches are available to buy at £57 each, or £100 for two)

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‘Eigg Island’ launch event and performances

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Jennifer L Williams perfoming 'West', 'North' and 'East'

Jennifer L Williams and Atzi Muramatsu performing ‘West’, ‘North’ and ‘East’ (Photography Eleni Laparidou)

The exhibition of Eigg Island launched at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on Thursday evening last week. It was a great success, with 60 or more people attending and much positive feedback about the performances and artworks. You can view all the artworks Here.

I was as always very moved by the poetry and music performances of JL Williams and Atzi Muramatsu. Atzi Muramatsu also performed his piece for string quartet, Gaia Metempsychosis which took its inspiration from the fossil filled cliffs at the North end of Eigg.

These works were created as part of our on-going collaboration inspired by Eigg Island, and the 6 minute video (below) brings together paintings, music and poetry created for the project

Photos of the launch (below), were taken by Photographer Eleni Laparidou  (EL Photography)

This is a link to the video of the Eigg Island launch event courtesy of Summerhall TV, an arts channel dedicated to promoting the arts in Scotland.

Thanks again, to everyone who took part in the launch event!

 

Three days to go!

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On the west coast of Eigg last year

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous about the upcoming exhibition launch and performances on Thursday!

I hope there will be a good audience, that everything’s just right for Atzi and Jennifer’s performances, but mostly I hope that people feel inspired, and feel some of the magic that I have while working with Atzi and Jennifer in the past year.

 

We’ve had a few collaborations over the past year, but Thursday represents the culmination of the Eigg project. We’ve all worked hard on this one, and it’s going to be truly special.

Yesterday I also received three very moving poems that Jennifer L Williams has written in response to the paintings and themes, which she’ll read aloud at the launch. I’ve attended many of Jennifer’s readings, so I know this is something that she has an outstanding talent for; expressing mood, atmosphere and meaning beautifully.

This video from last year is a reading of ‘Stormy Sky’ which Jennifer wrote  in response to my painting ‘Stormy Sky, Lindisfarne’

As mentioned in the previous blog, I’m also very happy indeed that Atzi Muramatsu will be performing ‘Gaea Metempsychosis’ (  inspired by his experience of the cliffs at the north end of the Isle of Eigg) with string quartet at the launch.

Atzi’s talent as a musician extends in many different directions; as part of the band he leads – Lypsync for a Lullaby – also as a cellist in traditional orchestra concerts and as a composer of contemporary music. I remember listening to one of his shorter compositions ‘5 Seconds Left’ a year ago, and thinking that I’d love to collaborate with him on art projects.

Last year I overlaid ‘5 Seconds Left’ onto a slowed down video I took of ferry waves on my first trip to Eigg in April last year, I love the mesmerising, gradually deepening thrum, echoing the movement of deep sea, and the inter-layering of voice (all Atzi’s voice as far as I know!)

As Atzi and Jennifer rehearse, and I get together the final details for the exhibition, I just want to say again what a pleasure and an inspiration it is to work with such talented and great people!

If you’re coming to the exhibition on Thursday (details Here) I look forward to saying hello!

Lastly, here’s a video which features my paintings from last year’s Eigg exhibition, Jennifer’s poetry, and Atzi’s improvised music piece to ‘Moonlight on Eigg’

North; transmigration

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'North'. Mixed media on 40x40" redwood panel

‘North’. Mixed media on 40×40″ redwood panel

Happy days. I love it when work and ideas merge together into new forms.

The above painting is North, second in the series of three paintings for the upcoming Eigg Island exhibition. It was inspired by  a day in September on the last visit to Eigg, on the geology trail with geologist Prof’ John Hudson, who showed us fragments of bone from a Pliosaurus (estimated to have lived about 147 million years ago).

We sat underneath the fossil-filled cliffs on the north end of the island and ate lunch whileP1140952 Atzi Muramatsu began (unbeknownst to me!) to write a music piece which became ‘Gaea Metempsychosis’; a piece for string quartet, which will be performed at the exhibition launch.

It occurred to me after a day of painting the final touches of North that it would make perfect sense to add Atzi (the musician I’m collaborating with alongside poet JL Willams for the exhibition) on the cliff. Once painted I gave him a quick call to make sure he didn’t feel a bit ‘Dorian Gray’ or superstitious about it, but he thought it was a great idea as long as it worked for the painting!

P1200137‘Metempsychosis’ is a Greek word meaning transmigration of the soul – or its reincarnation after death, ‘Gaea’ meaning of course – the earth. So the inspiration of fossils, and of being on the island in a particular moment in time, yet feeling the sense of our own infinity – and that, like fossils, we become part of the landscape once more, was the inspiration behind Atzi’s music.

North’s place in the trilogy of paintings, is to represent the idea of the reality of being on a Hebridean island, after imagining what that experience will be like, because to me there’s always a time when you feel not a part of the landscape, you’re not sure of your place in this wildness of sea and cliffs, although of course we are a part of it.

I have a piece of marble that I collected from the Isle of Iona (the beautiful small island off the coast of Mull on the west coast of Scotland). It represents the idea of ‘Gaea Metempsychosis’ exactly to me. Iona was the first place where, in my early twenties I felt a powerful connection to nature – I felt my place in the cycle of everything.

The piece of marble in the photo to the right is formed  by the minerals of  tiny sea creatures P1200138from millions of years ago, their remains crushed by the weight of  rocks and ocean over time into dense, heavy white marble. You can see seams of serpentine – a silicate formed by algae and water that ran into cracks and faults of the marble.

It’s so beautiful, and it’s from a very rare seam of marble on the south side of the island that’s pretty difficult to find for newcomers. Islanders mined it about 100 years ago to form the alter in Iona Abbey, but to me it’s is best experienced on those south cliffs of Iona, looking out over a wild blue sea.

It’s quite difficult to express how rewarding collaboration is; when ideas connect – also the way that nature inspires and makes meaning of our lives. I felt very similarly about the recent Lindisfarne collaboration with poet JL Williams – view video here – When you write to the light..

Ideas gathering pace..

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P1190480I enjoyed a most inspiring meet-up today with JL Williams and Atzi Muramatsu at the Scottish Storyrtelling Centre.

Jen and Atzi are planning a performance and music collaboration, to be performed against the backdrop of paintings. Also part of Atzi’s string quartet, inspired by the fossil-filled cliffs of Eigg, will be performed, which will relate to the painting I’m working on at the moment called ‘North’.

This interplay between music, poetry and painting is what I find rewarding about collaborating – it offers an atmospheric, layered experience, drawing out imaginative or emotional associations between each of the works. And, as always, it’s a pleasure to work with Jen and Atzi.

The first painting P1190481should be finished by Wednesday next week, which I’ll post here. On the whole, all aspects are going really well – I’m now beginning to really look forward to the 26th March!

Don’t forget you can book tickets here – https://www.facebook.com/events/368794979959904/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcomingOr you can pay at the door on the evening.

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2014

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Eigg during September trip -a geology trip including Camille Dressler, Norman Bissell, Prof John Hudson , Atzi Muramatsu and myself

This has easily been one of the most memorable years of my life – in particular the inspiration of visits to Eigg and the Scottish Referendum.

The referendum was a political awakening for many thousands of people here in Scotland. P1150335For me it went hand-in-hand with my experience of Eigg – an island which brought about its own independence as a community, then went on to create an award-winning renewable energy  system. (I’ll be posting early in 2015 about the up-coming Eigg exhibition to be held at Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre)

I was inspired to learn more about Scotland’s landscape, environment and political history, I spoke to many people, researched and read books such as Lesley Riddoch’s ‘Blossom’ and Andy Wightman’s ‘The Poor Had No Lawyers’, both of which opened my eyes to the changes that are needed for Scotland’s landscape and communities to thrive.

My experiences this year have been a reminder of how art at its best P1130832opens our world; it’s not about prestige, money, recognition or any of those things, it’s a way to connect with other people, where we live and make meaning of our lives.

donald 1I feel very grateful for the people I’ve met on my creative adventures this year, on Eigg and in Edinburgh, and most of all the great friends who’ve shared it with me – especially Donald Ferguson, Jennifer L Williams, Atzi Muramatsu and Alicia Devine.

 

(You can view my paintings and blog posts from the project on this link Here )

0A week or so ago I went along to an exhibition held by Richard Demarco at Edinburgh’s Summer Hall Arts Centre. Richard Demarco (now in his early 80s) is the Director of the Demarco European Art Foundation, which exists to promote artistic dialogue between European countries, it has fostered numerous creative connections with war-torn countries over the decades. (I worked with the Foundation from 1999 to 2000 and have kept in touch over the years).

One of the central themes of Demarco’s life has been ‘The Road to Meikle Seggie’, a concept inspired by creative journey he began in the rural landscape of Fife in the early 70s with artists, poets and creative thinkers. They spotted a sign saying ‘Meikle Seggie’ but there seemed to be no place corresponding to the name!

Meikle Seggie then became a metaphor for the creative journey; it has no end, no particular goal, it’s about a journey made with imagination, an organic journey if you like, on which if we keep our eyes and hearts open, we make meaningful creative connections with our world and with other people.

I can’t put it better than Richard Demarco in his new book ‘The Road to Meikle Seggie’:

The supreme reason and impulse of any journeying is inevitably for us to see, perhaps for the first time, the extraordinary aspects of life which we had begun to call ordinary and take for granted. The land we must traverse is full of the markers and guide posts left behind by those who recognised this truth and traveled before us.

Which was why it was very moving for me to share my news of visiting Eigg with Richard at that exhibition a few weeks ago, and to hear that it had been part of his journey too.

In January 2015 I’ll begin to create a new series of paintings of Eigg which will express my experiences of the past year and what it has meant to me. The exhibition will launch at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the 26th March and will include (among other work) poetry by Jennifer L Williams and music by composer Atzi Muramatsu.

I look forward to adding my story to all those stories that have been and are still to come. Wishing you love, inspiration, peace and success on all your journeys in 2015!

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‘Dusk, Lindisfarne’ – paintings and poetry

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Dusk, Lindisfarne is the third in a three-part series of videos showing a collaboration between myself and poet, Jennifer L Williams.

This is a beautifully moody poetry reading and interpretation of the painting Dusk, Lindisfarne. (I think the most abstract of the three poems, so my interpretation is subjective). As always, Jennifer captures the feel of the painting – the sense of leaving an island – ”When the end of land approaches’, leaving an imagined haven – ‘the brush rushes to blend the dream’s receding story of belief’, and an ominous mood evoked by an imagined ‘cormorant’s wasted flesh’, whose feathers become receding clouds.

She draws attention to the sea (in this painting the least obvious part of the composition) – ‘in the teeth of winds’ which to me evokes something of holding onto this island haven, before returning again to measured everyday life – ‘we trade in hours’.

I’d hoped to post all 12 of the Lindisfarne paintings today, but I’m currently awaiting scans of all the paintings, which I’ll hopefully post here tomorrow..

Sea and Sky Preview Evening

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10734127_877853568900852_4967409169763845328_nThe Sea and Sky preview evening was lovely. Many thanks to Gallery Manager Karen Bates, Atzi Muramatsu and Jennifer L Williams.

(I’ll post all 12 paintings here on Tuesday this week)

The paintings will be on show at the Marchmont for another fortnight, so drop in to have a look, you can be sure of a friendly welcome from Karen and Anupa!

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Sea and Sky, Lindisfarne

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Stormy Sky LindisfarneThe exhibition Sea and Sky opens this Saturday at 10am. If you’re in or near Edinburgh this weekend, I hope you’ll find time to drop in and say hello.

(I’d love to post updates on all the paintings in progress, but am advised by the gallery to keep them under wraps till the launch!)

In the meantime, you can find more information on the Marchmont Gallery link here – Marchmont Gallery – Sea and Sky

I’ve really enjoyed working with Gallery Manager Karen Bates, an artist herself with a great collaborative and creative approach. The gallery is part-funding a small booklet which features paintings and poetry (written by Jennifer L Williams) and this will be available after the launch.

Composer/Cellist Atzi Muramatsu is also playing live at the gallery, but we have had to limit numbers as space is limited. But I will definitely be recording the performance and posting it here afterwards. I’ll also create another of my short videos combining music, poetry and paintings.

Atzi and Jennifer are on a bit of a high just now as both have had great news; Jennifer’s book Locust and Marlin was nominated for a Saltire Award, and a film short – Monkey Love Experiments for which Atzi composed the music score has just won a Scottish Bafta. Both well deserved!

I’ll also post images of all paintings after the launch, I’m so used to sharing the creative process it feels unusual not to post them here, but it all adds to the mystery, I hope!

Castle Point, Lindisfarne

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Yesterday I posted the video of Jennifer L William’s wonderful poetry response to ‘Stormy Sky’ Lindisfarne,which you can view on this link: https://rosestrangartworks.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/when-you-write-to-the-light/

And as promised here is the second poem in response to ‘Castle Point, Lindisfarne’..

I’m also very delighted that Atzi Muramatsu has agreed to perform live at the Lindisfarne exhibition next weekend (Saturday 22nd) at the Marchmont Gallery Edinburgh. I absolutely love Jennifer’s and Atzi’s creative work, and it’s always a great pleasure to work with them.

The Marchmont Gallery have created a Facebook Event page for the exhibition, which you can view here Lindisfarne exhibition facebook event

In a few days I’ll update information about the Eigg Island project.