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 My 'top 9' of 2024 from Instagram - the most liked images of the year 2024 has come to an end and it was a strange year in many respects. It began with lots of uncertainty over the harbour - my home for the summer - which was badly damaged in a series of storms over the winter. The beach huts were afloat a number of times, but despite quite a battering they all survived mostly unscathed, bar a few scrapes. The harbour wall was not so lucky, suffering a huge breach in the sea defence wall. As is normal for North Berwick however, the community rallied round and turned out to help tidy up the mess on the esplanade and around the harbour area, whilst fundraising began for the major repairs needed. The first couple of months of 2024 I was busy painting for my stand at Borders Art Fair which takes place annually in March. Huge fun, very tiring and I met lots of great people! By April I was back set up in my beach hut gallery/studio for the summer with all my beach hut buddies, in a new spot nearer to the harbour. Our old location on the esplanade was being used for the engineering contractors Southbay Civil Engineering who were rebuilding the harbour wall. What a fabulous bunch they were - kept us amused all summer! In addition to exhibiting at the Borders Art Fair, the East Linton Annual Art Exhibtion (which I curated) and the two North Berwick Art Group shows, I was really happy to have paintings selected for a number of prestigious exhibitions during the year - Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2024, London. Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show 'Now&Then', Dalkeith Palace. Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition, London. Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. And I finished the year by being accepted as a member of NAPA - the National Acrylic Painters' Association - and I look forward displaying my work with them at future exhibitions. Gallery of images from the year - click for a description!
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My painting 'Fenders Abound' was part of this year's Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show at the Royal Scottish Academy on the Mound, Edinburgh. VAS is a leading platform for national and international contemporary fine and applied artists, and I was delighted to have had my work selected for this show. Lots of interesting work in a very well hung exhibition.
Well that's another year over! My seventh summer at my beach hut gallery at North Berwick harbour, and probably the windiest yet (and the coldest - yes I'm looking at you JULY) but the memories are of sun, enjoying the outdoor painting, friendships with my beach hut buddies and meeting people from all over the world. Thanks to everyone that has dropped by and visited, and see you next year!
I am absolutely delighted that my painting ‘Five in a Row’ has been accepted for the annual Royal Society of British Artists Exhibition. As one of only 200 works chosen out of over 4,000 submissions I'm thrilled that it was selected - a fantastic start to 2023!
This year is a special one for the RBA as it marks the society’s 200th Anniversary Exhibition, which is being held at the Mall Galleries in London from 2nd -11th March 2023.
On Saturday I finally made it into Edinburgh to visit the Royal Scottish Academy on the Mound to visit the Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition. It was very exciting to see my painting 'The White Float' hanging on the wall there! The SSA Annual Exhibition is one of the largest contemporary art exhibitions in Scotland, with this year marking the 130th anniversary of the inaugural show. I also had three paintings in the '30 x 30' section of the exhibition.
Every autumn the Royal Society of Marine Artists stages its Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in central London. This Open Exhibition is widely recognised as a showcase for the best in contemporary marine art, with selected work by non-members hung alongside the work of current Members of the Society. I am delighted that I have had two paintings pre-selected, so 'Floaty McFloatface' and 'Drascombe Lugger and Floats' are now off to London to be judged for acceptance to be shown in the exhibition. Fingers crossed!
 I was very pleased to find out that my painting 'Lobster Pots and West Bay' is one of 140 works to have been selected for exhibition at the annual TALP Open at the Patchings Art Centre in Nottingham. Organised by The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines, the exhibition will run from July 14 to August 14, and then online from 15th August at www.painters-online.co.uk
If you had told me six months ago that come April we'd be in this situation I would have found it very hard to believe. But here we are. Hoping for the best, but also worried about how things will turn out. I am lucky in that the two things I enjoy doing the most - art and gardening - are excellent for relaxation and so that is really all I have been doing. I have a great number of paintings ready for various shows and exhibitions that are now cancelled, and I was also getting ready to move back into my beach hut next week, with a number of 'new lines' that are now sitting sadly around the house! Anyway, chin up and keep painting. What else to do...     So it seems that it was April that I last made made a blog post! In my defence I suppose I have been treating my Facebook page as a blog more and more, but I appreciate that is not necessarily accessible to everyone... So here, in summary, is what I've been up to art-wise since my last blog - I moved into my beach hut studio in April and spent a lovely summer painting outdoors and meeting people from all over the world. All the huts were occupied by artists and artisans this summer and we have a real community spirit down there. Although the weather wasn't as good as the exceptional season we had last year - there were several Monumental Downpours and a few High Winds - many more days than not I was to be found down at the harbour. And I gained the tan to prove it :) The North Berwick Art Group Summer Show took place over two weeks at the end of July/beginning of August and we enjoyed the company of the Fringe By The Sea's Spiegeltents at the same time. North Berwick was VERY busy. I was also involved with the East Linton Annual Art Show - now in its 51st year - at the beginning of September. Sad to move out of the beach hut mid September again but I'm sure we'll be back before we know it... Since then I seem to have had a slightly manic painting phase, all good preparations for the shows coming up later on. Slideshow of summer 2019 at the harbour below. |
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