Art and Crafts trail - part 1

As if it wasn’t enough to have the sculpture symposium in town, this weekend it is the Kirkcudbright Arts and Crafts Trail. This year it is over 4 days to give people a better chance of seeing everything – perhaps as well as there are over 70 venues, some of the venues are thankfully very close together saving much shoe leather. Some venues have many artists in the same place, so I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to how many are involved (by the way, last year’s trail blog here). There is considerably more to see than I could put into one blog, so this will be the first of at least two (more I should think).

This chap turns up every year – he doesn’t seem to do much more than sit in the sun. I see this year he has a lady friend.

Colin Warden hard at work – just because your studio is full of people is no excuse for not getting a day’s work done.

He had this marked down as a work in progress if I remember correctly – looks pretty good to me as it is.

In Mike Quirk’s studio, a canvas has been set out so that passing kids can each paint a little bit of the picture. This picture was taken on Friday and he thought that this year he was going to be needing a second canvas to get him through the weekend.

Last year’s picture on display at the harbour.

Here’s one of Mike’s own which I thought rather fun.

At the small, but perfectly formed, Greyfriar’s church in the middle of the town, there was a recorder recital yesterday afternoon.

A look around the garden and washing line art at venue 31…………..

………..but for two young ladies I came across here, this venue was the highlight of their visit, peg dolly making.

Towards the end of last year, or maybe this year, I can’t remember, the Wasps studios in the High Street opened up. The next three artists, among many, have found a home there.

Liz Farey sculpts these wall hangings from local willow and other woods.

I particularly like this.

Worth a much closer look.

This print is from Claire Cameron-Smith who specialises in Japanese techniques of woodblock printing. If you drive around the area with your eyes open, you’ll see many trees which will remind you of this print.

Here is the block it was made from.

Prints comprising many colours require many blocks to print them. Claire includes information on each of the separate printings required for every print on the back of every one she sells.

Maggie Ayres is a mixed media artist who creates these flowing works by combining textiles and paints.

She had a small sculpture out yesterday – first of these I’ve seen from her.

The Feral Choir gave an excellent concert in Greyfriar’s church last night which rounded off the day perfectly.

Big Art in Kirkcudbright 2011 - about half way

A  couple of blogs ago we saw the start of this year's sculpture symposium. Today we're at the half way mark and for the sculptors who have been here since the beginning things are really starting to shape up. These pictures here cover Monday through to Wednesday.

We'll kick of here with Martha and her knotted rope. Five days, it seems, is long enough for her to start receiving mail in the harbour square.

Not so wee and sleekit, it's quite easy to see what is appearing from Alan's piece. In all the times I've passed by, I don't think I've seen him working with anything more aggressive than a hammer and chisel.

It's certainly more than a hammer and chisel for Nigel, who now looks like he has the basic shape made. Though not pictured here, when I left this afternoon, he had the marking for some of the details chalked out on one side.

Nuala and Toms' piece progresses with just Nuala at the moment. I'm told that Tom was returning shortly after I left today.

One of the advantages of the symposium is that the sculptors are working close together and can interact and learn from each other. Here's Martha having a wee shot at Nuala's rock.

Eldon's piece being shaped and smoothed.

It is of course, not so straight forward to move such large pieces of stone about. Here's the forklift shifting Eldon's for him. I think it was going to get stood up - we'll see the next time we pass.

Chris, who has put a lovely stippled surface on most of her rock, is putting a tartan pattern on the flat surfaces.

The large empty surface you see here from Monday, was well on the way to being patterned when I left today. Being a bit of a daftie, I forgot to take a picture of it.

The light's not being kind to me here but the checks have been coloured with wax.

Andy Breen, who was here last year and is a regular at art events in the town, arrived today and start carving a large cedar log out side the gallery at the harbour. It is his intention to move round to the Greengate gardens once it's small enough to fit through the gate.

Peter Dowden, marked down as absent in the last blog has actually been labouring away round at the museum. Though every time I arrive there seems to be the wrong time - pictures from Peter eventually.

Michelle's lettering is progressing brilliantly - see for yourself.

Ali, who studies sculpture in Italy and whose website I eventually found here, tell's me that the way to carve a perfect sphere is to carve a perfect cube and remove the edges in a contoled manner. Here he's producing a flattened sort of sphere so it's not a cube that he's starting with.

He had a little model of the shape he intends to produce.