Ullapool Art Advenure

Freezing Cold Print Week                       Print week went well due in part to the fact all three of our teachers are professional print makers and that we had a professional  printing press in the studio and did not have to resort to potato prints and a spoon to burnish the print onto the paper.  Well okay, in the name of scrupulous honesty I confess I did resort to potato printing actually and  thought it was really rather effective.   We had to come up with our own theme and as I live by the sea in the south of England and I am living on the coast of North West Scotland the beach was my theme. I took a bin bag onto the beach and gathered lots of seaweed, shells, dead crabs, dead gulls etc. No-one else wanted to work in the studio except James who didn't seem to have a strong sense of smell!!       I now know the difference between relief printing and intaglio having ...

Snow - Not the weather to get your kit off! Saturday, my self appointed day off, dawned bright and crisp and believe it or not, announced itself with a glimmer of sunshine.  Alas it was not to last.  Leaving Ullapool was untoward but as I drove higher into the mountains I noticed a strange sort of lacy veil effect in the sky just ahead of me and as I wondered what it might be, my windscreen was suddenly obscured by snow. As a soft southerner, I have barely seen the white stuff in the last six years let alone been expected to drive in it.     I immediately positive took action and slowed down to crawling pace - and was promptly overtaken by a boy on a bicycle!  Hardy these Scots. Fearless in the face of blizzards.  Okay,so  it wasn't exactly a blizzard but still more snow than I have seen for a while and actually very beautiful to look at on the mountains.    I drove the 57 miles across country to Inverness and to my su...

Oil Painting Another week has just flown by and this week it was oil painting - a new medium for me.  We were given a large plywood palette and just four colours to work with: Viridian Titanium whit e Alizarin Crimson and           Yellow Ochre For once I was totally in my element as seeing and mixing colour has always been something for which I have  a natural eye. The tutor even carted my colourful specimen round the class to demonstrate how many colours could be made from such a potentially unpromising selection                    Mixing colours with a knife was fun and by the end of the week I had produced some reasonable work.                                                                    ...

The Laundry Blues Do you remember the icy water bucket charity challenges of 2016? Well it's a bit like that living in Ullapool. It appears not to be raining so you venture out and immediately you get dowsed in freezing cold rain or, even today, hail!   You scurry for shelter and dive into the nearest doorway, shop or cafe and everyone stares as you create a large pool of water round your feet. And they look pointedly out of the window and it's not raining.  Until I put my head outside again. The course director says it rains so much here that Boots runs out of Vitamin D from the first week in September.  And yes that is snow on the nearby mountains. For four days each week we work from 9.30am to 4.30pm with a short break before many of us are back in the studio until 9.30pm.  From Friday to Sunday we work on set projects and are expected to organise our own schedule. I love my little home here. It is a wonderful light space but there is no washi...