News, exhibitions & BLOG 2012

New items have been added to our online shop. “Fairy Dog” textile works from Midge”s Lismore exhibition, prints of the river falls in Glen Dubh, Barcaldine taken from painted images done earlier this year by Alex, and a painting , just completed of a beach at Vallay, N.Uist which we visited earlier in the year, also by Alex.

Midge has been leading a group of stitchers from Appin to complete a 1m square panel as part of the Great Scottish Tapestry. To see progress on this panel visit http://www.blipfoto.com and look at “tapestry’s journal”. The panel depicts the building of HMS Hood, recently shown on Channel 4’s documentary ‘The sinking of the Hood by the Bismark’ and the Battle of Ypres 1917. It’s a big undertaking for local stitchers and getting a lot of interest.

Go to the online shop to see all the prints for sale. Prices have been reduced for the run-up to the Festive season and could make that special gift for someone. Each print is of high quality on Epson Museum Quality paper and is posted safely to you in a cardboard tube.

We are sending three pieces each to the Macmillan Art Show at Bonhams in Edinburgh later in September. The charity hopes to raise money for cancer research and care and is usually well attended with over 200 paintings from a wide variety of artists.

Following on from that Midge has an exhibition of textile works at the Heritage Centre on Lismore from 1st. to 31st. October. The exhibition is titled ‘Fairy Dogs’ or ‘Cu sith’ inspired by Gaelic mythology and superstition. It coincides with a Book Week at the Centre. There will be 13 framed textile works.

Midge has managed to arrange that the ‘Appin Stitchers’ will work one of the panels for the Great Scottish Tapestry. The stitching will be done as a winter community project and depicts the Battle of Ypres and the Building of HMS Hood.

We have just returned from a week in Finland visiting Steve & Katri, Tomi & Isla. Steve is very busy with his yurt making business.The rest of the family, Kim,Alex,Cailean & Sasha, with Lewis,Abby & Reuben had rented cabins beautifully situated beside a lake with boating,swimming and, of course, sauna facilities.

Kim and I have been trying to master drawing on iPads ( no Hockneys yet! ) but impressive software.

Our short video – Port Appin Studio-artists at work can be viewed via our website -scroll  to Facebook at bottom of page and look at the Port Appin Studio page or go to Youtube : ” Port Appin Studio – Artists at Work”

At the beginning of June we made a return visit to Lochmaddy, N.Uist for more inspirational views. The weather was fine and sunny ( unlike the rest of the UK ) and with long daylight hours. We visited Berneray, with its lovely machair and long,white sandy beaches looking up towards Harris and ,en route , Clachan Sands. The colours of the sea and sands are breathtaking. Another day was spent at Balranald Nature Reserve. Plenty of stimulus to keep us going for a long time to come.

Now available online is a short video made by our son Lewis at Cagoule Productions of us at work in our studio in Port Appin. View via Port Appin Studio on Facebook or on YouTube: http://youtu.be/B77MLB5JqIA.

For more information on the pieces shown on the video go to our website.

We have just returned from the Hurtigruten voyage in Norway from Bergen to Kirkenes at the Russian border above the Arctic Circle. We visited many ports en route including Trondheim, Tromso, Alesund and the Lofoten Islands. We were able to do lots of sketches and take photographs of the superb fiords and snow covered mountain scenery which has given us lots of inspiration for new works.

On the return journey we took the train from Bergen to Oslo through spectacular mountain scenery. In both Bergen and Oslo we visited several Art Galleries seeing mainly Norwegian artists – Edvard Munch , Nikolai Astrup ,Harald Sohlberg and many others. In Oslo at the National Gallery there was also an exhibition of Canadian painters, “Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven”, of the early 20th. century who had been inspired by Norwegian artists of the period.

Last weekend Midge & I went to the re-opened Portrait Gallery. It has been many years since our last visit. What a difference from the rather gloomy, uninviting building that it had become. Now, it’s a pleasure to see and explore with lots of interesting things. Well worth a visit!

Last weekend Midge & I went to the re-opened Portrait Gallery. It has been many years since our last visit. What a difference from the rather gloomy, uninviting building that it had become. Now, it’s a pleasure to see and explore with lots of interesting things. Well worth a visit!

Last year was not the most successful year for art sales with art markets being the first hit in times of recession but despite that we keep producing works, coz. that’s what we do. During the year we had our last visit to France as property owners though we will continue to go there and see our friends and be inspired by a familiar landscape. Two visits to Finland, including an excursion to Lapland, to visit Steve and Katri and the kids. Steve had a big project making 8 yurts for a holiday complex. We had a short visit to Iona to keep up our west coast island experiences in the company of our French neighbours. In August we had our open studio week which had a good turnout. The autumn, spent this year mainly at home in the rain and storms, seems to have passed quickly.

This year we have a Hurtigruten boat trip to the Norwegian fiords, on to Finland, and our first return to France to look forward to. With the closure of the Oban art gallery we’ll have to look for other outlets this year and be more proactive with our website and marketing