The Alternative Degree Show Festival

Hard to believe - about to leave Glasgow School of Art after 5 years of painting, printmaking, sculpture, and film about things that interest me - stories, hidden histories and highland culture - my community. Next year I will be doing an MA in Contemporary Art and Archaeology at University of the Highlands and Islands, but still being able to keep up my painting practice in Glasgow.

The Alternative Degree Show Festival is on from 5th - 20th July at several venues across Glasgow and will exhibit works from over 100 final year and 2020 graduates from the School of Fine Art.

Back in the UK

I came back in January to Glasgow School of Art - Third Year - and immediately started tackling a large etching plate - 1m by 70 cm. The themes of cattle, history and the people who traded these animals has proved a source of images. I had the opportunity to research the archive of the Inverness Courier going back to 1817, to read accounts of pedigreed sales and mind boggling prices in today’s terms. Photographs of my grandfather - a cattle dealer- crashing his car on Skye provide a personal link to this world, now passing.

Our year held a successful exhibition at the Glue Factory in Glasgow just before the virus shut everything down. 59 artists working together to create an amazingly varied show, with added gin.

So, I like everyone else, am home in lockdown. I have some big canvases, some paint and some ideas - so will keep this blog going about what happens

Interest

I’m currently in Canada having just completed a semester at Ontario College of Art and Design. This has been very useful for my practice. I’ve expanded into abstraction and watercolour as media, as well as experimenting with strip cartoons and video for specific works.

I also researched the impact of the Scots coming to Canada in the 17th Century. Not many Torontonians know who Henry Dundas Lord Melville was, yet Dundas Street is a major thoroughfare. The fact that he never came to Canada, held up the abolition of slavery in the UK by about 30 years and stole large sums of money when Minister of War from public coffers is unknown here. We also robbed the First Nations of assets and pride, made our second sons of minor aristocracy “ Barons of Nova Scotia “ and did little to be proud of.

All interesting veins to mine when I return home