Is it July already?

As we get into the month of July the thoughts of the massive challenge of painting 100 paintings in one day is foremost in my mind. There has never been a doubt in my mind the physical challenge is achievable, but the support of others will be pivotal making the event a success.
The Beatson team, the Art Exposure Gallery are pulling together to build up the momentum for the day. The event has already published with Events Glasgow, submitted to the Merchant City Festival online programme, and circulated to the existing Beatson Pebble Appeal supporters via newsletter. In the last few weeks we seek to gain as much publicity to guarantee a great day and the sale of all of the 100 pieces to make the £2000 total. Lets look forward to a fine day for the final day of the Merchant City Festival.

As mentioned previously, Millers Art shop are to supply the paint.
We are still need to raise the £150 for the stretched canvas from local and national companies, with the possible support from a major art materials supplier I am hopefully that we can finalise something in the next week.

Last week I was called my Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden to lend his support to the challenge, who as a major figure in art and commerce in Scotland is greatly appreciated. A very big thanks for the support!

There have been a few offers to purchase a painting before the event so it would be good to have a few guaranteed sales before kick off at the end of the month. I am sure I will be leaning on a few people to dig deep in their pockets for the charity.


The event is not without its critics, my cats Rufus and Barnaby continue to provide advice, usually telling me that cat pictures are much more fun than seascapes. I'm sure we can look forward to a future event called 100 paw prints if they get their way.

Since it's Canada Day today I am reminded of an artist in Quebec, Marcel Gagnon whose arts centre sits next to the the Saint Lawrence river.

This picture was taken on typically frozen day in January this year, the centre closed up , but Gagnon's sculptures hauntingly standing like sentinels over the landscape. The wooden figures continue out in the river, or here the ice. The centre out in the Gaspesie National park of Quebec at Sainte Flavie is easily missed, and the artist learned the limitation of snow tyres in rural Quebec in the winter sliding across the road after sharply applying the brakes to capture a few pictures of Marcel's work in the snow and ice. The things you do for a photograph! Well worth it I think, although I missed a few heart beats as we slid to a stop.
The light is always special in Gaspesie, being lucky to have good friends who live in the Forillion National Park we have been lucky to spend quality time in one of the most beautiful and relatively undiscovered parts of Canada. The blue eastern light is so much like Scotland, thick dark forests, mountains rolling down to the sea. A land of Black bear and blue whale. A very special place indeed.

A special mention for the artist Olivia Irvine whose lovely work is to be found in the Union Gallery in the last few days of their "Now we are Two" exhibition.

I was particularly taken by the beauty of this work, her technique produces a stunning luminosity to the colours which are rich and intense even though the image has ethereal dream like quality to it.
Check her work out if you can. The painting here is called Clearance, I'm sure she won't mind me publishing the image of such lovely work.





That's all for now, anyone interesting in reserving for purchase one of the the 100 Pebble paintings in advance of the event, please contact me my email address rawnsleyart@gmail.com where I can pass on the details of the Beatson fundraising team.
Remember its only £20 for an original artwork, that doesn't happen every day. The last blog featured 2 paintings that typified the style of work if needed to know what you might get.

Bye for now.

Ian
Glasgow - Scotland