I’ve been on a diversion back to our built heritage! My earlier artwork focused on drawing and painting streets in town conservation areas – often the overlooked parts. One project I was involved with was painting the rear views of Lanark’s twelve named Closes, many of them dating back to medieval times. The work was part of a joint exhibition at the Tolbooth Lanark; you can read more about it on my Drawing the Street blog here.
Hunter’s Close Lanark – inspiration for the composition ‘Luminare’ by Rob Hall
The paintings and stories of these closes inspired local musician Rob Hall, to compose some new pieces for clarinet and piano and resulted in one of my paintings forming the cover of a book of this music. Rob also invited me to display my Closes paintings at Biggar Corn Exchange where Rob would be performing his premier of ‘Close Encounters’ together with fellow musician, Chick Lyall during Biggar Little Festival 2024.
Musician Rob Hall, left, and me holding Rob’s book of new compositions for clarinet and piano.
The foyer of the Corn Exchange is a super location for my artwork and this called for some new work featuring Biggar to compliment the Closes work. I’ve been sharing this on my Instagram @drawingthestreet account but just wanted to include a few photos here.
Exhibition is up! Lanark Closes work on the left, new work ‘Biggar Rooflines’ on the right behind me.
This body of work is a step away from my Closes work. I use the same process as for painting in the orchard – spending time in Biggar sketching, developing my theme around what has caught my attention (rooflines), lots of play with colour and gelli plate printing into my work book and then working collage on to wood panels.
Starting out on this new project with notes on a theme – Rooflines – and exploring colour palettes
Chimneys and dormer windows
Composing a textured townscape of Biggar:
Interweaving shapes of Biggar
I began this new body of work early in August and worked flat out to have these six paintings finished and framed and on the wall for early October. I’m really happy with them – they look colourful and full of life – just like Biggar and even more so during the festival! I’ve created a private room to view these here on Artwork Archive – this is such a useful place to keep track of my work and easier to update than my websites!
Six paintings finished and framed and up on the wall.
I’ll be at the Corn Exchange for Meet-the-Artist on Sunday 27th October 1 – 2.30 ahead of Rob and Chick’s performance – exciting times! More info and tickets are available from the Corn Exchange here.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Ronnie