ALL THESE WORKS WILL BE FOR SALE ON THURSDAY MARCH 17 FROM 6PM-9PM.
The work pictured is just a sample of what will be on sale on the night. A few of the artists will also bring prints, which are very well priced
From the top:
Vessel of Tears by Heather Nevay ( Oil on panel 38 X 38 cm £4250)
Torso by Sue Biazotti (Limited edition giclee print 12 inch £135
Detail from New Year Twins by Rowena Comrie (watercolour 70X78cm £725)
Poppy Buds by Liz Knox (oil on linen, 10 X 10 inches £850)
Orange Trees, Montes Da Vala, Algarve by Charles Jamieson (watercolour, £650 inc VAT)
Seagrasses by Annette Edgar (oil on linen, 12 X 12 inch £650)Glasgow Clydeside Study by Ruth Nicol (Acrylic, oil, bar and pencil on board, £295)
Berlin Tram by Paul Kennedy (Framed screenprint £135)
Fashion, Art + Beauty @ Richardson Murray
6pm-7pm
Thursday March 17
487 Great Western Rd
Glasgow
G12 8HL
0141 337 2999
www.richardsonmurray.com
Reserve your place TODAY
http://www.itison.com
The other night, I watched a BBC Scotland Artworks programme in which the celebrated Scottish artist and writer John Byrne talked to actor and director Peter Capaldi. The two men both attended Glasgow School of Art - Byrne in the late 1950s and Capaldi in the late 1970s. They both talked about their respective stop/start career trajectories while sitting in an alcove of the Mackintosh-designed art school.
What stuck in my mind, apart from Byrne's observation that rewriting is as important as writing, was his comment to Capaldi that 'you make your own luck' in life.
Byrne was quoting his own father Patrick, whose persona he nicked to present his faux-naïf 'Patrick' paintings to the world in the 1960s.
My own father, Donald, was a Church of Scotland minister who was also given to handing out advice, though most of it in the form of a biblical text.
One of his favourites was: Cast thy bread upon the waters (Ecclesiastes 11:1) and in a way it amounts to the same thing as making your own luck. The second part of the text is, 'thou shalt find it after many days'.
We all know mums know best but Dads are wise creatures too...
Over the course of the last five years, I have been busy casting bread upon the water, being drawn back to visual art, which I loved with a passion when I was young. I have been lucky enough to have had a few breaks in terms of writing about it for publications such as The Herald and also for Homes & Interiors Scotland.
This blog too, has taken on a surprising life of its own.
In doing all this, I've also drawn on 20+ years experience of journalism, writing about everything from the scrap metal business, to the tragedy of dustbin dogs to casanova conmen, tedious soap stars and everything in between. (Note to young would-be journalists: it's not all glamour!)
You could say, I've served my time at the coal-face of popular and not-so popular journalism.
So, back to the programme. In the course of interviewing artists and writing about art, I have discovered a couple of things:
• Artists need to sell work to be able to survive
• Artists are generally approachable people who are only too happy to talk about the work that consumes them
Casting my bread upon the water, I had a great introduction to curating and organising an exhibition when I worked with the artist Charlie Jamieson and the Riverside Museum team to put on the selling exhibition The River Runs Through It at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Scotland's leading visitor attraction.
On a completely different platform, I am now putting together a wee selling exhibition of work by some of Scotland's leading painters at my friend Dawn Murray's hair and beauty salon, Richardson Murray in Glasgow's west end.
The line-up is growing but the current roll call presents a veritable cornucopia of award-winning fine Scottish artists, whose work will be on show and for sale on the evening of March 17 at Dawn's salon. That's the good thing about writing about art. You meet some great artists, who also become friends.
They are (drum roll...)
Rowena Comrie (www.rowenacomrie.co.uk)
Charles Jamieson (www.charlesjamieson.co.uk)
Liz Knox (www.lizknox.net)
Annette Edgar (www.annetteedgar.net)
Ruth Nicol (www.ruthanicol.co.uk)
Sue Biazotti (www.suebiazotti.com)
Heather Nevay (www.nevayburke.freeserve.co.uk)
Paul Kennedy (/www.paulkennedyart.com)
Dawn has often talked about how Richardson Murray has an artists' 'salon' feel about it because its clientele has a real west end mix of creatives who drop in to have their hair done or beauty treatments carried out.
Just before Christmas, I asked my artist friend Sue Biazotti, if she'd like to hang a painting there and she brought along one of her stunning 'Red Series' works, which received a lot of comments. A lot of clients said they'd like to see more work on the walls so the idea of an art exhibition and sale in the salon was born.
Sue won the prestigious Aspect Prize in 2005 and now she will be joined on the walls of RM, by Charles Jamieson, the founder of the Aspect Prize, Liz Knox, its inaugural winner in 2003, Rowena Comrie, who was a finalist this year, Paul Kennedy, who was a finalist in 2009, Annette Edgar, whose stunning work usually heads for London before being seen in her native Glasgow and recent graduate Ruth Nicol, who was one of the stars of the River Runs Through It exhibition at Kelvingrove.
We are also delighted that Heather Nevay, a west end resident, whose work generally heads off to London and Miami before being seen in her native Glasgow, will be bringing along one of her stunningly intricate paintings. Heather is one stylish lady and was gracing the pages of Vogue recently in spread based around her friend, top fashion designer Christopher Kane. Tali Lennox (daughter of Annie) and Amber Le Bon (daughter of Simon) also managed to muscle in on the shoot...
So, in the words of one facebook friend: quite a line up.
All original artwork will be for sale (at quite surprisingly low prices...) and there will also be affordable prints to buy too. We will put a price list on the Richardson Murray website in due course: www.richardsonmurray.com