Millie and the Mermaid Tales

Gosh well it has been a long time since I shared any of my art with you. I have not given up making art, I have just changed my focus.
While I was driving to work each morning, I would go past the beautiful west of Scotland coastline for about forty miles each day on my way to teach in two small rural villages. One of these villages was right on the sea front and called Ballantrae!
There is a Pirate festival every year to celebrate the link the village has had with smuggling and pirates. In the past Ballantrae was a busy fishing village and plenty of wealth came into the harbour.
I heard stories of contraband being hidden in the minister's secret compartment under the floor boards  and how the villagers were involved in various plots to keep the contraband hidden. This was very inspiring to me and gave me ideas to write about.
The journey to these two villages were for me quite long and boring, however my imagination invented a character called Millie - who is a mermaid who lives around the coast line of the West of Scotland.
When the weather was dull or foggy, in my head Millie would say " I am Millie the Mermaid, can you see me?'
As I was driving  along,I took the chance to look out to the ocean and take a mental note of what image impressed me and I would then draw what I saw. Some days it was foggy some days - very clear and when the sun shone it was beautiful. I especially liked Ailsa Craig as it is on view right round this coast. So here I am two years later and would like to post some of the images I have enjoyed working on over the last year or two.

I am bed ridden due to problems with my varicose vein. Over the holidays I was inactive except for long walks around the shops. Yes I ate plenty of ice cream and chocolate.

My gran had terrible veins and Yes -Mine are needing removed.

I am doing some art therapy on myself-so forgive me and please take this image at face value - as a pretty picture!

A favourite chocolate keepsake box -however as you look closely you may see the heart as a human heart under strain after too much consumption of chocolate!

Recently I was able to board the Art Bus which is travelling around the country with a driver and an Art person. In the bus are recent winners or runners up for the Turner prize. I walked on the bus and saw the images and sculptures which had won. Then I went away to think how lucky I am to not be in a position where I have to rely on my art to earn a living.
Then I though of the difficult life an artist could lead living from one commision or prize to another.
Most of all I remembered the thinking that had to be done as an artist. It seemed you no longer had to be technically good at art. You had to be able to get inside the minds of not ONLY the general public but the clients who would be rich enough to buy your art.
You had to get inside their minds and think what would be unique way of using skills and talents to produce art which people would rave about.
Hence the reason many students would depict people having their teeth pulled, ritualistic gore and other shocking images in the hope that -yes their particular type of art would -make it BIG!
The most shocking installation I ever saw consisted of a naked student jumping around  in a small room. I did feel quite sorry for him apart from anything else. Gone was his respectability for the sake of getting people to admire him.
So here I am in my attic room typing this and glad that I have a job to go to tomorrow and glad I do not have any clients to please. I am still inspired by the beauty of nature and I love unusual buildings.
Here are two different ways of looking at an image. My favourite island Ailsa Craig.,,

Recently I have had the opportunity to work in two small country schools. I love travelling to work and enjoy seeing the changing seasons as I drive. This week I was impressed with the colour of the waves as they crashed to the shore. 

This Thursday was a wonderful sunny day and the temperature I reckon was at least 20c. We took the chance to go meet up with our number 1 son Nathan in Largs. This time we would go across to Millport. As we sat on the beach watching our ten year old go into the water with all his clothes on, I could not help but look over the water to the islands. How could I remember all of this beauty and the subtle shapes and shades of cloud?  The painting I had done last week was nowhere like reality! SO off to the Poundbasket shop I went and bought 3 sketch books for one pound along with some pencils. The whole family got drawing and it was great fun.

This has helped me to remember the important points such as how the yacht is shaped and I focussed on the part of Arran which you could see beyond Cumbrae. The colour of Arran was a lovely grey/blue and you could see it in three places behind the island. I looked to the right and saw a huge conglomeration of islands and guessed Islay and Kintyre were there. It was fun doing this and then we went on the ferry to MIllport ! How beautiful it was and the highlight of course was seeing the Crocodile Rock. All the tourists had a picture taken with it! It had a fresh coat of paint on it too!

Using a sketch book is an ideal way to record what you are interested in.

Well done to Gordon who did a lovely sketch of the scene - he included everything in it including the pebbles!
I did some drawing of the details and areas which inspired me and the next day drew a sketch of this image - see above. It was much easier to create this image because it was not just from memory.

This week we went to Largs and I have always said  -

"If you get the good weather then Largs , is like the Italian Riviera." I have never been to the Italian Riviera and don't really know - if there is one.  (a riviera).

Gordon who has gone to Italy agreed with the above statement - and so here is a brief synopsis of what I like about Largs. The photos I took were obscured by my thumb and so I had to keep the memory alive using other ways.

We had fish and chips and ice cream - my ice cream was bright blue with white marshmallows and I can see it has influenced my work! The blue and white marshmallow ice cream was influenced by the Smirfs!

We even saw a viking and then went swimming in the pool - the whole journey there and back was very quick. We will be going back soon to see the mock up of the battle of Largs where real vikings visit Largs and real Scots fight them and then they even burn a longboat. Cant wait!