These are most of the latest works for the Whitespace exhibition this Friday, just two more to go! I’ve made quite a few changes to ‘Rum from Laig Bay’ as it just didn’t capture the strange bottle-green slow-motion waves I was so fascinated by. This version seems closer to it..
(More info about the exhibition/times/dates Here )
‘Mountains of Rum from Laig Bay’. Acrylic on 40×30″ canvas
‘Waves in the Rain, Singing Sands Bay’. Acrylic on 40×30″ canvas
‘Cliffs of Cleadale’. Acrylic on 20×16″ canvas
‘Cliffs of Cleadale 2’. Acrylic on 20×16″ canvas
‘Wave, Singing Sand Bay’. Acrylic on 20×16″ canvas
‘Moonlight on Eigg’. Acrylic on 20×16″ canvas
‘Boat in Pier Harbour 1’. Acrylic on 20×16″ canvas
I really enjoyed the Gallery Ten exhibition ‘WEST the west coast and beyond’ today. Beautifully curated by gallery owner Paul Musgrave – I thought the pieces went very well together.
I’ve added a images and links to the participating artists below. (two didn’t have links/websites though)
Eigg Series No. 50. Acrylic, ink, salt and varnish on 5×5″ wood
No 50; A view of Eigg from the ferry, with sunlight sparkling on the sea.
Well, this has been such an enjoyable project – mostly the daily discipline of painting, and the feedback that follows, thank you!
Also it’s been enjoyable for the chance to explore subjects I care about – landscape, ecology, social justice, history and the arts. The Isle of Eigg has been a perfect focus for that – a wonderful example of a way of living that’s collaborative, innovative, cultural and above all respectful of our planet.
I’ll be continuing the Eigg project and exhibiting new works as part of two shows this summer:
Exhibitions
WEST. The West Coast and Beyond at Gallery Ten (Sat 21st June Private View. Show ends 26th July )
Rose Strang; Eigg IslandSolo Exhibition,Whitespace Gallery (Friday 18th July Private View. Show ends Thursday 23rd July)
Map/Address on this link Whitespace (Whitespace is at 25 Howe Street, Edinburgh from April to August 2014)
I’ll send an emailed flyer invite to everyone whose email I have, also it will be on Facebook and Twitter
It’s been wonderful getting to know new people through the 50 Paintings Blog, many thanks for following it.
Stay in touch..
I’ll be blogging once a week with updates on paintings and exhibitions, so to receive updates by email click on ‘FOLLOW’ on the right-hand column (underneath the Facebook section)
Or click ‘like’ on the Facebook section on the right and you’ll receive facebook updates
Sincere thanks to readers, also the following Eigg people, buyers and social media sharers. It’s much appreciated!
And many thanks to buyers, I hope you enjoy the paintings! –
Alicia Devine
Alison Kidd
Angela Williams
Carol Strang
Donald Ferguson
Eilidh Soe-Paing
Francis Snee
Gillian Strang
Helen Squires
Ian Nimmo Smith
Jacqueline Tunney
Julia Campbell
Kirsten Beard
Linda Cairnes
Lucy Conway
Lynn Carter
Malcolm Strang
Norah Barnes
Oonagh Reynolds
Rosanna Law
Tony Jones
You can view the entire series on this link – Paintings 2014
Around 20 paintings are still available at £45 each, or if you buy two – £80. If you’re interested in any of these, feel free to contact me at rose.strang@gmail.com
Today’s painting; The mountains of Rum from Laig Bay with turquoise sea in the foreground.
Tomorrow is the last day of ’50 Paintings of Eigg’ – I’ll miss this daily blog and painting! But I’ll still blog once or twice a week with painting updates etc. Just click ‘Follow’ on the right hand column under the Facebook section if you’d like to receive email updates.
I’ve mentioned a few influences throughout this blog, and can’t get to the end of the 50 paintings series without mentioning my love of perfume – I often use perfume and music to put me in the right mood for painting (the hourly news on Radio 4 can somewhat deaden inspiration!)
I tend to think that perfume, and the sense of smell in general, have been given something of a back seat in terms of the human senses. Smell is often described as a primitive sense, linked to instinct, as if our other senses weren’t also integral to negotiating our environment!
And it’s almost as though love of perfume is something to be kept in a closet; a frivolous concern. Yet, think of those who after receiving cancer treatment may lose their sense of smell – with no knowledge of whether or not it will return.
This is what happened to a friend of mine (Calum, who runs the printing company Giclee UK, who make art prints from original paintings. I’ve relied on their services quite a few years now). He described how overwhelmingly sad he felt at the loss of smell following cancer treatment some years ago, and the sense of joy when many months later on opening a bottle of Shiraz wine, it all came flooding back.
It gave him a new appreciation of scent, and on discovering that his favourite lime-scented soap from Penhaligons had been discontinued, he decided to concoct something similar himself, and thus an amateur perfume-maker was born!
Oakleaf, Ariundle Nature Reserve
I’ve only experimented a little with perfume absolutes and essences, but I’ve been collecting and testing perfumes for a few years now and have a good idea of what I’d like to create. So in collaboration with Calum, the plan is to create a new perfume based on the the scent of the Oak woods of Ariundle on the West Coast of Scotland.
Ariundle is one of the last remaining fragments of natural woodland that once covered all of Europe’s Atlantic coast, from Portugal to Norway, so it’s now a protected National Nature Reserve
I’ll be sure to post information here if and when we launch the perfume, which will of course be titled Ariundle. It’ll be a soft woody/green floral with hints of moss – I can’t wait to begin experiments!
Today’s paintings; a view of Eigg’s Sgurr from the shore and a sunny view of the cliffs of Cleadale
I can’t quite believe I’m nearly at Number 40. – I’m going to miss this daily painting after the 29th, which is actually Thursday next week!
As mentioned there are two exhibitions coming up, these are;
June 22st to July 26th, Gallery Ten, Stafford Street, Edinburgh (The West Coast and Beyond – group exhibition)
July 17th to July 23rd, Whitespace Gallery, 25 Howe Street, Edinburgh. ( Eigg Island – solo exhibition, Rose Strang)
You are all of course most welcome to attend the previews. Though I enjoy the process of blogging, there’s no substitute for paintings in situ, and there’s always that nerve-wracking moment when you see your work installed in a public space so I feel I’m psyching myself up for the next stage now..
For the first exhibition at Gallery Ten in Stafford Street it’s a mixed show. I’ll be creating two 10×10” paintings on wood and around four at 5×5”. It’s a lovely gallery with an excellent collection of rare contemporary prints, ceramics and paintings.
For the Whitespace (another lovely space – a Georgian former house in the New Town) I’m working on two 40x 30 inch canvases and around four canvases at 20×15”. It’s going to be a challenge after a month of working at 5×5, but I’ve bought the canvases and they’re sitting in my studio saying ‘paint me’ so there’s no going back!
One thing is for sure though, these small paintings of Eigg have been a delight to paint, and the techniques and views I’ve explored here will definitely be developed onto canvas.
I’ll be posting full details and links to exhibitions of exhibitions with maps and directions in the next week or so
I’m using a mixture of glue and salt for texture, which makes highlights stand out, also the salt has a subtle glitter which you can’t see from the photo.
I haven’t had time for two paintings today. Starting to get organised for upcoming exhibitions and am off to look for some canvases today..
I watched the documentary series ‘The Story of Women and Art’ last night. Excellent and very informative. Here’s the first episode on BBC Iplayer if you didn’t catch it..
Two paintings today of houses beneath the Cleadale cliffs on Eigg’s West Coast. I’m beginning to really love these cliffs and their colours!
My plan is to create 50 paintings by the 29th, so I’ll be painting two per day until I’m up to date with them, having missed a few while on holiday. Also if you’d like to buy two paintings I’ll take £5 off (making that £85 for two paintings).
The cliffs of Cleadale are made of volcanic rock or plateaus formed by outpourings of lava, but they’re not as resilient as the volcanic pitchstone of the Sgurr (see post 14 about the Sgurr of Eigg) so the cliffs are crumbling at a faster rate, and apparently on a quiet day you can hear them crumbling. I asked Lucy Conway’s partner Eddie about this and if it made living under the cliffs a little ominous, he answered wisely ‘well, everything’s crumbling gradually isn’t it?’.
Hmm, all of us included I suppose! – but the cliffs of Cleadale do crumble with style, and I think I’ll be painting these on a much larger scale for upcoming exhibitions.
Incidentally, I won’t be posting every day after the 29th May, so if you’d like to receive up-dates about paintings and upcoming exhibitions (readers here are most welcome to attend private views of these) feel free to follow this blog: The ‘Follow’ button is at the top of this page on the left.
After the 29th, it’s going to feel strange not posting every day, but I will post regular updates re’ the continuing Eigg project, new paintings and shows..
Here’s a photo of Edinburgh’s stormy sky today – just before thunder and lightning struck!
Today’s painting – a choppy wave in Singing Sands Bay.
One of my hopes is that, given more time and practice I’ll begin to paint waves with more ease. I find landscape much easier – it’s more forgiving of inaccuracies whereas a slightly wrong brush-stroke on waves or sea messes up its sea-ness
So today I was looking around the internet at the different ways painters handle water. I’ve always liked the landscape paintings of Alex Katz (later American abstract expressionist) though they’ve been criticised for being too easy or beautiful. I think for many people his work can seem a little bland, but to my eye he has a wonderful capacity to suggest with the simplest compositions.
Today’s painting – a house nestling beneath the cliffs of Cleadale on Eigg’s West Coast. Painted in acrylic with palette knife
Now, a little while ago, I mentioned my friend who accompanied me to Eigg and adopted a rock from the Singing Sands, so today I’m pleased to introduce you to both Donald Ferguson and his rock
Rose: Donald, thank you for sharing your excellent photographs with us today and for creating a video (below) for which you’ve created a brief soundtrack, firstly can you tell us a little about that?
R: What drew you to the rock in Singing Sands Bay?
D: It’s amazing! Its two halves, its holes, its weight, shape and all-round rockness. That the holes link up to enable it to be hung is a later discovery which adds to its amazingness.
Photo by Donald Ferguson
R: Do you feel a personal connection to the rock?
D: Although I’ve named and gendered the boulder (Petre – he was almost going to be called Trevor after the bassist in the Spiders from Mars) I don’t think of it as human, so there isn’t really a personal connection. It’s more an aesthetic, kinetic thing.
Petre by Donald Ferguson
R: It strikes me that around 20 million years ago, Petre would have been formed from the sandstone plateau that forms the most ancient rock formations of the Isle of Eigg, so in effect (and without being too dramatic) you’ve wrested him from the bosom of his forbears where he had so far resided undisturbed for millennia, how do you feel about that?
D: I do feel a bit bad about re-siting it and so depriving people the chance of experiencing it in its original setting. I might take it back one day, and meanwhile it is being experienced in new ways by a different audience. I like to see myself as a custodian more than a thief/owner.
R: What does Petre add to your life back in Edinburgh? Do you sit and watch him in the evenings and if so how does that compare to TV?
D: Opening the curtains in the morning gives it an energy input, and when I return, showered, to sit with coffee for ten minutes before leaving the house it’s still gently oscillating, which is strangely calming/reassuring.
R: Thanks for sharing your creations with us today Donald, I think the video is oddly compelling, and the photographs are truly wonderful. If any readers are interested in prints of these do let me know..
Land emerging from low-lying clouds on Laig Bay – a gentle return to the 50 paintings series after my brief holiday! There’s always the slight worry that after a break it’ll be hard to focus but I find that I’m welcoming the peace and calm of familiar routine
I was in London to see a Scott Matthews gig, then in Birmingham where I caught up with friends (I lived in Birmingham for a couple of years while working as an arts curator for the NHS). It’s a somewhat maligned city but with over 8000 acres of parks it’s actually one of the UK’s greenest cities
I used to love the walk to and from work through the parks of Moseley, Edgebaston and Selly Oak (it was the work aspect in the middle that I struggled with – the NHS management division didn’t turn out to be the ideal climate for a creative mind!)
So when I return I always visit Canonhill Park to reconnect with its geese, squirrels and trees, and just for today I thought I’d post a few photos taken over the years..
(In the next week I’ll be posting about Eigg’s Eco Centre and also talking to Camille Dressler, one of Eigg’s historians. I’m also hoping she has some archival photos of Eigg’s past inhabitants to share with us)
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Rose Strang Artworks 