Perthshire Open Studios

I've got some lino prints in Bonnie Maggio's studio as part of the Open Studio event being held between 27th September and 5th October. Bonnie also has a range of knitware that compliments her glass beautifully. See www.perthshireopenstudios.com for what's on and where.

Mounting and framing my prints has made me see them properly and has given me a better idea of where I'm going for the exhibition at Birnam Institute. Up to now, I've been seeing my prints as simple illustrations but I'd like to do more with them. It shows what role different processes have in creating something, from start to finish and back again (but not all the way back to the start I hope).

Middle Ground 2

Here's an extract from the pamphlet and a lino cut.

I came across a tumbled square of stones sitting in the middle of a patch of grass that looked almost good enough to eat. This was a shieling where people had once come to stay through the summer months. They came up with their animals, cattle mostly, in search of better grazing. That was in the days before the uplands lost most of their population. Those that stayed moved into the houses that stand at regular intervals along the road, just near enough to be neighbours, and turned to sheep that were left to wander for most of the year. The old places were abandoned and the hills became places where no-one stayed, even through the long days of summer. A whooit, whooit of a curlew filled the air and the only voice was my own, calling my dog. A ewe huffed at me, annoyed at my intrusion, with dogs no less, into her heft. This was her ground and I was not welcome.

Middle Ground

I’ve just produced a 16 page hand-stitched pamphlet. It involved lots of faffing about with the pages so that I could fold a great big A1 sheet and stitch it in the old-fashioned way. The text is a piece of writing, which I called Middle Ground, because that’s what it’s about, the bits in the middle. The middle of Scotland, walking to Lawers by Loch Tay, crossing the middle altitudes between the coast and the mountain tops, and the sort of ground that covers most of Scotland where people used to live but now there are just sheep and deer. It’s illustrated with lino-cuts, mostly done for an exhibition at the Birnam Exhibition in November and December this year. I’ve also got some prints for sale at Open Studio event in Perthshire, at Bonnie Maggio’s glass studio.