Tag: art

Winter 2025

Hooperhart

The clocks have gone back and yet again the arrival of winter has taken me by surprise!

It’s been such a busy few months already with new stockists, new products, and winter events to prepare for, which this year are starting EARLY!

You can now find my dioramas, cards and accessories in 3 lovely venues on the Scottish coast – The Beehive in the East Neuk of Fife, Hilde Gallery in East Lothian, and Gallery 48 on the Black Isle. I’ve recently introduced 4 new coastal dioramas to the range, so this has been an ideal development!

This summer I finally stopped procrastinating about going down the greetings cards route (no time to sit down and work out the designs, let alone find a reliable/affordable printer). However, thanks to my studio buddy Alison Price I discovered Redcliffe Imaging and finally did it! The response has been brilliant, and I really wish I had done it sooner. My designs work really well in this format (just a touch bigger than actual size), and I think they are very much appealing to folk who like my work but might not be able afford to buy an original. Plus it’s a great way of getting my work seen by a wider audience…so better late than never!

Now, onto the winter events:

credit: William James Chalmers

I was very honoured to be invited to show my work at Artful 2025. This exhibition showcases work from some extremely talented UK and international artists, all housed in the beautiful Callendar House, Falkirk. Entry is free and the exhibition runs until January 11th, 2026.

The lovely folk at Made In Stirling have also invited me back for another Winter Market:

credit: Made in Stirling

This 2 month market starts on November 2nd and runs until January 3rd, 2026 and is a great place to find gorgeous gifts this winter, all made in Scotland.

Now, onto my in-person events!

Kicking off with a big one! Two days at the fabulous Aberdeen Art Gallery with the tremendous Tea Green

Always a pleasure to take part in, you can a truly phenomenal collection of Scotland’s best artists, makers and designers. If you can’t make it to Aberdeen, I will also be at the beautiful Burrell Collection in Glasgow on Saturday, November 8th ONLY.

On Saturday, November 15th you can find me at Strathearn Arts in Crieff – my first time at this venue, and I am very much looking forward to the hot chocolate and homebaking!

My final in-person event of the season will be the winter weekend extravaganza at our studios in Creative Exchange, Perth – a fun one to end on!

Hope to see you at one of these events but remember if you can’t buy from me in person this year, I will be stocking up my online Folksy shop the week beginning December 8th. And you can always drop me a message through Instagram and Facebook.

Ta ta for now!

Cal x

Long Hot Summer

Hooperhart

It’s been an extremely hot and sticky few months in the studio, with lots of grumbling about the lack of rain and air conditioning! As much as I love the sun it doesn’t make creative endeavours particularly easy, and there’s been no let-up in prepping for this summer’s events…for some reason I always fool myself into thinking the summertime will be relatively relaxed but it never seems to work out that way.

Below are the places and events you can find me/my work this summer:

Made in Stirling

The Made in Stirling Summer Market runs until Sunday, August 31st; I’ve mentioned before that M.I.S. is one of my favourite indie shops, stocking a huge array of gorgeous art, craft and design from Stirlingshire makers. Twice a year they invite makers from all over Scotland to join them for a few months and I was was very happy to be asked back this year! Open every day 10am – 5pm.

Perthshire Open Studios Summer Show

This is the second year I’ve taken part in the POS Summer Show – running until Sunday, August 3rd it is held in the lovely location of the Civic Hall at no. 2 High Street, Perth, down by the mighty River Tay. It’s a great opportunity to see an array of artists’ work in a single location, giving you a taster of the main Open Studios event in September. Open from 10am until 5pm every day, the event is manned by the artists themselves. 

Tea Green at The Burrell Collection & Aberdeen Art Gallery

I’m very much looking forward to being back at the glorious Burrell Collection in Glasgow in two weeks’ time, followed by Aberdeen Art Gallery two weeks after that. Organised by Tea Green Events, these fairs showcase the very best of Scottish artists, makers and designers in absolutely stunning locations so offer a grand day out! You can find me at the Burrell on Saturday, August 2nd, and Aberdeen Art Gallery on Saturday, August 16th. Both are free and open from 10am-5pm.

There’s a slim chance I might have a mini break before Perthshire Open Studios starts on September 6th, although that is very dependent on if I can get a number of projects I have planned suitably nailed by then! More on that another time…

So I hope you can make it to one or more of these lovely events – they’re always a good way to support local creatives and the local economy! I just have to avoid spending all my profits while I’m there…

Back soon with more new work, but in the meantime, TTFN!

Cal

image credits: Made In Stirling, Ceri White, Tea Green, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Hufton & Crow

Out & About in Spring 2025

Hooperhart

Hello! Once again time has gotten away from me and somehow it’s May already, and I have yet to post about my new work as I had intended.

I will get to that in a mo, but first I need to tell you about upcoming events, the first one being only 2 weeks away!

First up is the Big Summer Weekend at the gorgeous Green Gallery in the beautiful Stirlingshire countryside. This is my first time at this event, but I know lots of artists and makers who have taken part before and they all say very good things, so I am very much looking forward to it.

Entry is free, there will be refreshments available from Fallen Tree Coffee (some of the best coffee I’ve had) and I’m fairly sure it’s dog friendly!

Big Summer Weekend & Exhibition

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May, 10-4pm

The Coachhouse, Ballamenoch, Buchlyvie, Stirlingshire FK8 3NX

The following weekend (I won’t know what’s hit me – I’ll be very thankful for May’s numerous bank holidays I can tell you) is the stupendous Spring Market & Open Studios at Perth Creative Exchange

PCE is where I have my studio share and my day job, and is home to many talented creatives…

“Join us at Perth Creative Exchange for another fantastic market weekend – a feast of the visual arts where you can not only browse and purchase beautiful things made by the actual professional makers and artists, but visit 12 open working studios to see how things are made and chat to/buy from the artists who work there too!

All under one roof you’ll find oil and watercolour painting, ceramics, jewellery, felt work, embroidery, papercutting, printmaking, textiles, homewares and much more!

This is the third year of this truly unique event, run by the artists themselves, so discover what goes on in this creative hub, formerly St. John’s Primary School. It’s a great opportunity to meet and buy directly from the makers & artists and to visit working studios to find out how things are made with lots of new things to discover for our regular visitors.

After all this you can kick back with a delicious cuppa from our pop-up cafe run by Perth’s Catering Twist.
We look forward to welcoming everyone to celebrate Spring with us!”

Spring Market & Open Studios

24-25 May 2025, 10-4pm Daily
Free Entry, Accessible, Dog friendly
Cards and Cash accepted.

Perth Creative Exchange (Wasps), Stormont St, PH1 5NW

Much of my new work will be making its debut at these events, and I’m really looking forward to the response; I’ve been really enjoying designing these new pieces and experimenting with different techniques and textures. Here’s a little flavour:

Clockwise from top left: The Cry of the Gulls, Memories of a Mountain, Shell Cottage, Wild Salt Air

These pieces have all been inspired by locations around the wilds of Scotland. I’ve been incorporating laser-cut mount board, initially in order to give me room for extra layers; as it turns out mount board cuts really well, and I can achieve a whole other level of detail than I can with wood. It even engraves really nicely, which enables me to include very fine detail. I’ve been enjoying seeing just how fine the laser cutter can go…

So that’s just a wee taster of what I’m up to – hopefully you can come along to see me in person but if not, I’ll be back with more news in the summer.

Thanks for reading

Cal

Artist Support Pledge

Hooperhart

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding the period we’re in at the moment more of a challenge than when we were in full lockdown; normality is returning, but not necessarily the good aspects (traffic levels springs to mind), and other things are still a very long way off (cultural hubs re-opening etc)…I think I accepted and adjusted to lockdown in the knowledge that it was a temporary situation, and in a few months we would return to our old lives and move on.

Of course it’s not proving to be that straightforward, and the ‘new normal’ is a pale imitation of our old lives – another way of living which we have to accept and adjust to all over again. Thousands of people have no jobs to return to and thousands more are facing the same prospect in the coming months; tourism and culture (both a hugely vital part of the Uk economy) will struggle to recover from the effects of COVID-19 for years to come.  I actually feel more anxious and pessimistic than I did 4 months ago. So, to try and gee myself up a bit I’ve decided to take part in the Artist Support Pledge.

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Artist Support Pledge is “a culture and economy in support of artists and makers established and led by artist Matthew Burrows on 16th March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now a global movement of connected communities committed to an equitable and sustainable economy for artist and makers of all countries, media and ethnicities”. The concept is a simple one – when an artist/maker sells £1000 worth of their work, they pledge to spend £200 on other artists’ work. It is mostly focused around Instagram but I’ll also be posting about it on my Facebook page.

As we approach the tail-end of summer (!!!!) I would normally be starting to plan ahead for the autumn and winter’s markets and fairs, but these are very much up in the air at the moment, which is a huge concern. So I’m hoping the Artist Support Pledge will generate some sales and of course enable me to spend money on lovely things (I’ve already compiled a want list)!

Thanks for reading x