Tag: scottish artists

Spring Exhibitions

Hooperhart

It’s been a while!

Needless to say the first couple of months of 2025 have zipped by – I don’t know why I think I’ will’ll have time at the start of each year to do things like read books, do jigsaws and generally chill-out, it’s never happened yet! And suddenly we’re into March (and joyously) lighter evenings, so I for one am not complaining, it would just be nice if time could slow down for a wee while and give me the chance to catch up…

So anyway I’m here to give you the heads-up on a couple of group exhibitions which you should definitely check out if you can:

Whimsical Imaginings, Artisan And, Aberfeldy:

I’m very happy to be back at Artisan And – a lovely gallery in Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire. The owner Angela thought the theme of Whimsical Imaginings would suits my work perfectly, and I have to agree! The exhibition is open until March 18th 2025, Thursday-Monday 11am-4pm

New Perspectives, Green Gallery, Buchlyvie:

I’m very excited to be showing at the gorgeous Green Gallery, located outside the village of Buchlyvie in Stirlingshire. New Perspectives is a mixed exhibition showcasing work from artists and makers new to the Gallery, so is sure to be well worth a visit! It’s open 11am – 5pm every day except Thursdays until Sunday 30th March.

Also, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that you can now find my work south of the border! I’ve not long topped up the beautiful Blue Tree Gallery in York with a selection of dioramas and I hope to keep doing so in the future, so if you’re in the area please pop in. One day I hope to do just that – I’ve never been to York but it looks a really fascinating place.

I’ll be back to let you know what else I’ve been up to soon – new things are afoot!

TTFN,

Cal

Perthshire Open Studios

Hooperhart

Somehow September has arrived which means that this year’s Perthshire Open Studios is only a few days away!

P.O.S is back in full effect after a wee hiatus and there will be over 120 artists, designers and makers welcoming the public to their workspaces and galleries

I’m experiencing a mixture of excitement and panic as this is my very first P.O.S and there’s an awful lot to tick off the to-do list before it kicks off on September 6th. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a deadline though, so I’m confident everything will be ship-shape and ready to roll come Wednesday!

Perthshire is a sizeable, mostly rural county so it has been split up into six easily navigatable areas – you can find me on the official South route, but I am also handy for the West route which covers our nearest town, Auchterarder. If you haven’t already picked up a brochure you can download one as a PDF from the P.O.S website and everyone has a What 3 Words address to help you find them. You can also browse each area’s studios online before you go – have a look at mine here

It’s a great opportunity to buy/see my new work and pieces I’m currently working on, as well as experiments and discounted items I won’t be selling anywhere else. It’s also a really fun way to explore corners of Perthshire which you might not see otherwise (I’m hidden down a quiet little single track road outside Dunning).

So look out for posters, banners, bunting and arrows around Perthshire, and keep an eye on my social media for updates and photos!

Hope to see you then

Cal

Northern Lights

Hooperhart

Our unusually long heatwave seems to have come to end today – for the first time in about a month I did the dog walk wearing a cagoule this morning! However, the fact that it’s grey and cloudy outside means it’s perfect blog-writing conditions, and I really want to tell you about my recent trip to Aberdeen 🙂 Back in January I was invited by a lovely wee establishment called Teasel and Tweed to be their June Maker of the Month; an absolute treasure trove stocking a huge variety of beautiful art and craft (all made in Scotland), Teasel and Tweed seemed like a good place to showcase my work so I jumped at the chance.

All my dioramas feel like my ‘babies’ and a lot of time and care goes into making each one, which makes me nervous about sending them out in the wild indefinitely on a sale or return basis! This is why the Maker of the Month is the perfect concept for someone like me who has a relatively small output of limited edition work – it’s like having a mini solo exhibition, and it gave me something to work towards especially at a quieter time of year when it can be easy to lose focus a little bit. Check out the Teasel and Tweed website and blog for more pictures and info here

It’s been a long time (20 years!) since I visited Aberdeen; I actually lived there for a couple of years once upon a time between school and college (for the first couple of months in a caravan park on the outskirts of the city which was fun as it was the summertime – we moved into a flat before the North East winter hit). My dad came from Aberdeen and my sister attended art school there so there were always connections. Having grown up in bang in the middle of Central Scotland it was a novelty living in a city by the sea, and I remember one summer evening a group of us decided to go to the beach to watch the sun come up…turned out not to be like in the movies as being on the North Sea coast we near froze to death!

While there recently I took a walk along the beach, stopped at one of the beach cafés for lunch, and continued on to Footdee at the south end of beach by the harbour.

If you’ve never been to Footdee (Fittie to the locals) it’s a very cute little enclave made up of squares of terraced houses with quirky sheds and huts in the middle of each square. Originally a fishing village, it gained conservation status in the 1960s and it has now become one of the most expensive areas of Aberdeen to buy property – changed days from when I lived in the city in the 1990s! Nestled beside the busy and very industrial working harbour, it wasn’t seen as hugely desirable back then, but then you could buy a flat in Aberdeen for about £20,000 so…anyway, definitely worth a visit.

Well it’s now lunchtime and the sun has come out (yay!), which means it’s time to round up the terriers for their walk round the park. Thanks for reading and remember to check out Teasel and Tweed online and in the flesh if you can!