Sunday 31 July 2011

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.





9 comments:

Kim Ayres said...

Maggie said you'd popped in. I took a look around a few places myself yesterday - I love some of the things going on in nooks and crannies and down at the far end of gardens. There are areas of KBT I would never have known existed from just sticking to the main streets

Shundo said...

A lot of talented people out there - I especially like the three tree-related works. I hope the Feral choir were not too wild.

The Glebe Blog said...

Nicely done Sandy,look forward to seeing your subsequent post/posts on the trail.
I'll upload some of my footage soon,but nowhere near as detailed as yours.
It was a very enjoyable day out.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Oh lovely! I really like the idea of getting passing children to add to a work in progress. I love Liz Farey's work, she had an exhibition on in Edinburgh recently,

Unknown said...

I dabbled a bit with wood block printing during an Art course in high school and can appreciate just what's involved. Love arts and crafts exhibits and can't wait to get around to a few once the weather eases a bit. Thanks for the tour, Sandy!

Sandi said...

I also love arts and crafts exhibitions. My favourite pieces have to be the round willow sculptures...and Wuthering Heights immediately came to mind when I saw that print of the tree.

Great blog as usual, Sandy!

Sandy's witterings said...

Kim - I was certainly in bits of Kirkcudbright that I didn't know existed. Those are nice light rooms they have round where Maggie has her studio.

Shundo - the feral choir seemed quite in control - perhaps they were saving there wildness for the second concert a couple of hours later.

Jim - I look forward to seeing what you've got from the trail.

Juliet - I'd seen Liz's stuff at Gatehouse - I hadn't realised that she was situated just around the corner.

Chip - glad you enjoyed it - your weather does appear to rather swing around the extreems.

Hi Sandi - isn't it funny how certain images bring to mind different things to different people.

Colin said...

Thanks for this first selection of pics and comments Sandy It's interesting also to get the feel of who's been where ...course I know you have been EVERYWHERE!

Becky said...

How wonderful!