Edinburgh

Angie Lewin, exhibition

Scottish nature drawings – Angie Lewin

There will be a new Angie Lewin exhibition:

Wednesday 2nd May – 2nd June 2018

The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

“Spey Path and Strandline”.

Cup with catkins and Feathers
Snowdrop cup
Winter Glenarder
Angie Lewin, the artist
Bains Beach Blue

 

Circles, feathers and feather-like leaves abound in this collection of watercolours.  Also known for her strong graphic images as a printer, Angie recently exhibited at City Art Centre, in a group show with a few friends, “A Fine Line”. Previously written about on this blog here.

Read the exhibition catalogue for her new show, here.

And to see Angie at work with her printmaking, pop over to this earlier page in this blog.

 

Advertisements

Online exhibition, Edinburgh

So I curated an exhibition of contemporary art, poetry and readings – and it’s viewable in Edinburgh and online.  The works are by a collection of artists and writers, many of them are friends, all of them are excellent.

IMG_1919.jpg

Online catalogue – with tracks for various audio streams: poems, readings of the narrative by congregation members and curator or artist’s comment, describing the work.  This brings the exhibition to you.

https://wp.me/P3Cret-l3

Ideally, you’d visit in person, with the website page on a portable device, with headphones, so you could choose which tracks to listen to, at each artwork.

IMG_1918 - Version 2.jpg

 

However, if you can’t be there in person, the online catalogue is better than nothing.

I was commissioned by St Andrew’s and St George’s West, which is a church in a very central location, in Edinburgh, close to one of the main hubs of the International Edinburgh Festival.

The theme covered are the days from Christ’s resurrection through to Pentecost – all the transformed grief, new hope, encounters and excitement of that time, captured through 21st century disciples reading the words of the eye witnesses of that time, through semi-abstract pictures and modern poetry.  Something for everyone.  Those separate 3 strands of audio are clearly indicated on the audio guide, so if there’s one you’d rather miss (and it may well be the audio tracks recorded by the curator with a sore throat!) – then you can choose that.

For those of us minded to meditate, we don’t need to look far to find in our own lives and those we love, the same themes as in this exhibition: of despair, loss, recovery, transformation, hope, light, breakthrough and accompaniment through dark days.  Perhaps there will be something to think upon in our own lives as we look at the art and poetry.

Love to hear your comments and feedback.

There’s a dedicated Facebook page, ideal for comments, at http://www.facebook.com/SOLedinburgh

Please do check out the link to artists on the catalogue – many of the pictures are available as prints, if they take your fancy.  The artists featured are based in America, Ireland and Scotland.

“A Fine Line” – 4 artists’ exhibition, Edinburgh

City Art Centre, Edinburgh have a current exhibition curated by printmaker Angie Lewin and Lizzie Farey (willow weaver) who invited ceramicist Frances Priest and artist/printmaker Bronwen Sleigh to exhibit also.  (The exhibition runs until 18th February).

IMG_4072

“In Conversation” (L-r) Amanda Game, Frances Priest, Angie Lewin, Bronwen Sleigh, Lizzie Farey

It was an absolute pleasure to be with them yesterday, at their “In Conversation” discussion, chaired by Amanda Game (independent curator and producer), and to hear them speaking about the process of making art and an exhibition together.  The talk was facilitated with warmth by curator Maeve Toal.

The exhibition took 3 to 4 years to put together but was a really pleasant collaboration.  The generous size of the exhibition space was a bonus, encouraging all the artists to work on a larger scale than usual.  They also agreed on the process of pattern as important to their work, although they work in very different disciplines.  There were also surprising associations, such as the ceramics tiles by Frances, likely to be used on a wall – and the architectural drawings by Bronwen.

(more…)

Poem written for Henry Moore

This day last week, I was in a writing workshop (led by Kate Hastie) on how to make a poem response to artworks (“Ekphrasis”).  In response to this lithograph by Henry Moore, “Upright Motives” – I wrote this:

IMG_3879

 

 

For Henry Moore “Upright Motives”

 

Reinterpreting the body with his pen,

Henry watches his model moving about the room

in velvet sunlight

Heads are too complicated,

he boils one down to a piece of broccoli

As the waist is to the mouth

as the rib is to the flag

as the neck is a tree

the knees are tiered like Padi fields

circling round a mountain

 

A lozenge, a curve,

a salsa dancing line to the shoulders

a lightness and brightness

an awkward hip

 

like double basses made by a surrealist,

listed unbuildings

flickering flames

 

Bones like a xylophone

armoured suits

beat a crackle allure

like the bones falling together

into soft places

 

© Heather Gregg, 2017

 

 

A sight for the ears – exhibition tie-in

Edinburgh, Scotland: Last night, I was at the book launch of a pamphlet book of poetry “Seen/Unseen” written in response to the artworks in an exhibition “Hidden Gems” at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh.

There was a brilliant turnout, in part due to the fact that there were 30 poets involved and most of them were there to read their poems.  Kate Hastie mc-ed the event, having curated the book and the writers – all like herself drawn from the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities.  Or, to put it another way, many doing Masters and PhDs in Literature or Writing.  And to put it another way, rather likely to be our next generation of published professional writers.

Morris Grassie, The Sou’Westers, Arbroath, c.1957. Courtesy of the artist. (Photo: Antonia Reeve)
Anthony Hatwell, Vase of Flowers, 1972. © the artist’s estate. (Photo: Antonia Reeve)

The poets were responding to artworks such as the picture and sculpture shown (photos from City Art Centre website)

(more…)

The art of writing about art – a cure for writer’s block

This weekend past, I was shown a beautiful and enjoyable way to start new writing – with a beneficial side effect of getting rid of writer’s block: begin by responding to a picture. The technical term for this is Ekphrasis – see previous blog post a year ago, here.  And for me, it is hugely enjoyable, and a promising way forward.

This weekend’s workshop was called “Hidden Gems Open Masterclass: Ekphrasis: the art of writing about art”, held in City Art Centre, Edinburgh and tutored by Kate Hastie.  We met to receive some practical guidelines on Ekphrasis – and then simply took the lift down, to select an artwork in the new exhibition in the basement, “Hidden Gems”, and write poem or prose lines about it.

“Every painting is a library of information”  – Kate Hastie

(more…)

Response (Chain): new Edinburgh bridge

This is my late response to the creative prompt “Chain” – a view from the new Edinburgh bridge, Queensferry Crossing.

3 Edinburgh Bridges

3 Bridges

This picture shows 3 Edinburgh bridges across the Forth.  I’m being driven across the very new Queensferry Crossing bridge, beyond, you can see the upright of the older road suspension bridge – and in the background, the rusty red colour of the railway Forth Bridge.

It’s a response to the “chain” prompt because it feels like a chain of events – a succession of bridges – and the two road bridges are both suspension bridges, held up by very many linked and twisted cables.

The new bridge has only been operational for a few weeks, and vehicles are restricted to 40 mph, so it is a good opportunity to take pictures.  Once the speed limit is raised to the usual 70 mph, it would be more difficult to snap.  And perhaps there won’t be a friendly orange traffic cone in the picture, once it’s up to full speed.