Scottish Ceramics and the Festival

So far this festival, I haven't been able to soak up much in the way of festivities. One year, I promise I'm gonna post some great tips and must-sees but so far this year, I've done some wondering, seen one incredible play and taken my aunt to see this pottery. Hopefully we'll be able to get some comedy in by the end of the month...
From my limited festivities, my recommendation is the tiny studio and gallery in my part of Edinburgh, Adam Pottery. Its a must for any ceramic lover all year round with traditional and contemporary Scottish ceramicists, working on their collections in the studios on site. This festival, the space is an official Edinburgh Fringe venue showing and selling some beautiful pieces. My absolute favourite work there is by Lara Scobie. The colours, textures and shapes got me a little excited and let's just say; that amazing tall stripy jug; it's no longer available...if you know what I mean...

images are from Lara's facebook page 

Francis Cadell

Edinburgh artist Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell was quite a character. He had a great sense of humour, was confident, flamboyant and charming, and had a great many friends who adored him. He was homosexual, at a time when it was illegal, and lived life to the full, spending outwith his means and socialising with high society. When times were tough his paintings paid for a roof over his head.
He painted landscapes (most famously of Iona, where he spent a lot of time), portraits, still lifes and my favourites of his works, grand interior spaces. I find it hard to believe that his paintings of the interior rooms in his George Street studio (my favourite; below) and Edinburgh Newtown townhouses were painted in the early 1920s. Some of the interiors look contemporary even by today's standards. He was fascinated with reflective surfaces, carefully placed objects, and liked the composition of a room beyond a room through open doorways.

 Last Thursday my parents were invited to a private viewing of the exhibition at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, with Alice Strang, the author of F.C.B. Cadell; an emalgamation of all the research undertaken for the exhibition. Sebastian and I tagged along. It was fascinating.
The exhibition is Cadell's first solo show since his death in 1937. I recommend you go along and have a look. It's on till March 18th 2012.
image via here

Cate James

The lovely Cate James is a printmaker and illustrator based in Edinburgh. Last year she set herself a little project of (read: became slightly obsessed with) drawing the 'beautiful' faces of the guests on the popular daytime TV show, Jeremy Kyle.
Having just become a mother, and having been freelance for the last couple of years, I have to shamefully, admit to having become quite familiar with the show. For those of you who are not, it may help to know that I have to actively avoid it, regularly, as I feel myself losing all faith in human existense and becoming convinced that everyone in the world needs a DNA and lie detector test.
I love Cate's illustrations of the 'colourful' characters who grace Jeremy's stage. I can see how drawing them would get addictive. She has more than 6 sketch books full of them! Wouldn't they make an excellent exhibition?

You can see more of these gorgeous faces on Cate's blog. Cate is currently working on the illustrations for a new series of children's books along with many other projects on the run up to Christmas...keep a look out for her work at Paper Tiger stores.
Illustrations by Cate James

Holly Fulton

I've been getting requests for some sort of gift guide...whilst contemplating whether to do one post with a montage of glorious goodies or spoon feed you with dribs and drabs of festive findings, I keep finding objects that are just too special to stuff in a stocking.
Namely, these beautiful notebooks and diaries by Scottish designer, Holly Fulton for Smythson. You may have noticed that I have a thing for stationery items especially of the notebook variety but these are yellow and blue goatskin, die-stamped, deco-inspired, illustrated, pieces of art! Not only that but Holly Fulton was born and bred in Edinburgh.

Holly studied at Edinburgh College of Art before heading south to The Royal to do an MA. She graduated in 2007 and since then her collections have gone from strength to strengh. Her Art Deco and Bauhaus inspied work is incredible.

Holly Fulton Spring/Summer 2010 London Fashion week

Yay, for home grown uber-talent!

Images from Smythson and LondonFashionWeek.co.uk

Christina Kernohan, Gammel Butikken

Edinburgh based photographer Christina Kernohan travelled to a remote Norwegian Island, deep in the arctic circle to take photographs of this abandoned store house, or in Norwegian; gammel butikken (as the collection is titled).
These buildings were used to store everything from medical supplies, to fishing nets, to porcelain and coffins as the islands had no bridges or connective tunnels until the 1980's. They were vital to the communities living there. Once, the epicentre of the island, this unit now sits untouched, alone in the landscape open to the elements.
These beautiful photographs are currently on show, and are available to purchase, at The Saint in Stockbridge.
The light is just amazing...as is that blue backdrop. Abandoned objects and spaces are such a fantastic thought provoking subject. Every image tells a different story...

The exhibition has gone down very well in The Saint with the diners & drinkers; but unfortunately they'll be making way for another artist's work very soon so I recommend you get down to St. Stephen Street for a look...

Many thanks to the lovely Christina for the images.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival Programme

Back in March of this year, the smart people* behind the Fringe Festival asked Scottish illustrator, Johanna Basford to sit in a room for 12 hrs (twice) and draw. They then asked the tweeting public what quirky sites they'd like to see at this year's Edinburgh Festival.

They set up a camera and a live internet link and Johanna picked out the most random suggestions as they piled in through the live feed. She drew 176 suggestions out of 1675; these make up the shape of the recognisable Fringe font.

If you are a fan of the festival or live in Edinburgh you'll realise the enormity of having your work on the cover of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival programme. Even though this particular festival only lasts for the month of August; every coffee table, hotel reception, shop counter, bar, restaurant, café, festival venue, and poster in the city will feature the artwork from now until the last firework pops in the late summer sky just over the barracks of Edinburgh Castle...

Personally, I'm a massive fan of this type of illustration. Every time you look at it you see something new. I wish I could doodle so well. You can see more of Johanna's work here including the graphics for independent Scottish brewers BrewDog.

Clever marketing huh? Commission local talent. Check. Interact with the public. Check. Use a very current media communication system. Check. Stream it live on the internet. check. Originally, Johanna had completed a couple of what she calls TwitterPictures as previous personal projects but kudos to the Fringe team for jumping on the bandwagon and spreading the word to the masses.

By the way, my suggestion was a bramble berry shaking a cocktail and can be seen in the top left hand corner of the 'g'...I was going for subliminal advertising for my husband's cocktail bar, Bramble...wonder if it'll work...

In the end they went for three different covers (below) with a stream of illustrations rather than the font but i'm hoping to see the illustrated type on other graphic bits and pieces around town (especially the g)...

They've also made a nice little video explaining how it was all done.

* turns out those smart people were whitespace!

all images from JohannaBasford.com

book your tickets at www.edfringe.com

Actual Abode {Volume I}

I have a group of girlfriends...there are 6 of us and we became close in the last few years of secondary school. The years when things got heavy. We shared a lot of teen experiences and did some major growing up together. At the time, we thought we were cool but there's only so much you can get up to in suburban Glasgow in the mid 90's...
Whilst down in London recently to celebrate one of the girls' last weekends of singledom, we realised that actually our teenage years were far from 'rock 'n' roll'. Yes, we would go into town and try to get into bars and clubs, but we spent a lot of time at each others parent's houses (when they were out), with boys, watching Four Weddings and a Funeral and Lost Boys, listening to 'vocal house', smoking, drinking vodka and tequila, eating chinese food...
One of these houses belonged to Vivienne's parents...I think it was the most effortlessly stylish house I've ever been to and I still remember every room. It was not the kind of house where you have to take off your shoes or feel like your messing it up just by standing still but a real home, with real character.
I think some people have a real talent for placing objects- furniture, artwork, trinkets, souvenirs- where the outcome looks ripe for an interiors photo shoot, but far from contrived.
It seems this talent is hereditary, as the flat Vivienne shares with her boyfriend, Joe, in south London is bursting with objects, beautifully and effortlessly arranged. Some objects are souvenirs of the couple's travels, some are heirlooms or gifts and even the collecton of correspondance on a pin board looks good!

It has to be said that Vivienne has been a bridesmaid an amazing 7 times! Above is one of her dried bouquets hanging in the hallway.
Cowboy boots waiting to be worn.
And what a lovely surprise it was to see one of my own sister's photographs hanging in her hallway!

Gorgeous smelling flowers sit on top of an mini rustic cupboard in the living room.
I love the painted wooden zebra table...

A very fitting 'Queen Of Scots' plaque sits above the window in the kitchen.
In the dining area hangs a beautiful little canvas by Vivienne's very talented sister Rosalind. Rosalind's collection, coincidentally and somewhat spookily, is a study of the 'social construct of the domestic ideal' (I feel a future blogpost coming on).
The living areas and kitchen are all open plan but each area is well defined. Photos of them with friends and a vintage soda bottle stand on a very cool extending table bought by Joe's grandparents when they first moved to London. They bought it from a student at the Royal Collge degree show!!

Shelves with organic veg and a pin board with all their invitations, cards and correspondance stands between the kitchen and dining area. You can also see the MUJI flying swallow postcard I got for Vivienne.
Only a few of Vivienne's many pretty toiletries arranged in the bathroom.
The gorgeous little round vase, was a gift from Joe's mum in Spain.

The amazing upstairs bedroom has a pitched roof and porthole window. The floor space spans across the majority of the flat.


On each side of the bed is a low shelf. Vivienne's side has another bridesmaid bouquet, photo of her and Joe, her family and black and white photos of her grandparents, along with artwork, and of course some bedtime reading...

I plan to do some more real homes or 'actual abodes' of people I know in the future so I hope you like this one!

Photos taken by me on my iphone (forgot the memory card for my camera...ooops)

The Glasgow Boys

'The Glasgow Boys' were a group of young painters who rebelled against impressionism in the late 19th century. James Guthrie, E A Hornel, George Henry, Joseph Crawhall, John Lavery and Arthur Melville all had studios in Glasgow and were great friends. Their work was rejected by London and Edinburgh art circles, as they painted real people in rural scenes, and experimented with symbolic art (before Klimt etc), although the Glasgow Art markets loved it.
The exhibiton is at The Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and shows some never-before-seen paintings from private collections.
This sort of work may not be what you'd expect to see on my blog but 'The Glasgow Boys' were revolutionary in their time, and I'm a patriotic Glasgow girl so I plan on going along next week. My parents have already been and thoroughly enjoyed it! Who's keen?

Hard at It (1883) by Sir James Guthrie

The Druids – Bring in the Mistletoe (1890) by George Henry and EA Hornel

From April 2010 till September 2010.
Click here for ticket information, and go to The List for more on The Glasgow Boys.
Images from TheGuardian.co.uk