Night on a Bare Mountain, 21 years ago

  ‘Have you been anywhere interesting? Please upload your photos!’…This is what the Wikipedia page says and so this is what I am doing. This is a rather unusual photo and I am including it on my largely unattended ‘blog’ in commemoration of an event that happened exactly 21 years ago today. This is  the tailplane of an aircraft that crashed into a mountain and it is indeed a striking image. I know because I went to the crash site several months later. It looked very much like this, except the initials of Pakistan International Airlines had been painted out, leaving something resembling what an offspring of Rothko might have done in a literacy test. I was told that this was the first thing that had been done when people reached the scene of the crash site, because apparently, it is not good PR to leave your company logo on a wreckage sticking out of a mountain. I wouldn’t know. Somewhere I have some drawings that are quite similar to this image, surprisingly so, as I did them before I visited the site. The image of part of a plane sticking out of a mountain is not something you imagine, or forget, in a hurry. Especially if  your mother was on that plane. There are no hard feelings, or memories come to that. Nothing at all. Except a date, 21 years ago today. That’s all.

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‘Standing To’: in print

 III

 II

  I

I. Etching on Hahnemuhle each 107 x 78cm

II. Etching with collage 107 x 78cm

III. Etching with collage & hand colouring, final state 107 x 78cm

‘Standing To’: the etching plate

 In the acid bath

 The etched plate

 On the press

Standing To:

 The first sketch.

 3 sample designs 100 x 70cm

 Drawn and etched versions of the final work

War Horse: Only Remembered

  Artwork for ‘War Horse: Only Remembered’. Charcoal, collage, ink and wash, 1000 x 700mm. The work was commissioned by Michael Morpurgo as a poster for the concert performance, a reading of War Horse with songs composed by John Tams for the National Theatre Production, performed live by John Tams and Barry Coope. Touring various venues around the UK from September 2013. The posters, A1 & A2 size, are available for sale at the concerts.

The image is also available as a fine art quality Archival Pigmented Print, the first time Olivia has had her work reproduced in this way. For more information please go to: http://www.alisoneldred.com/imageOliviaLomenechGill-Prints-0-1727.html

Lampedusa: Human Cargo

 Lampedusa, named after the small island and southernmost point of Europe. Drypoint & oil on aluminium with mixed media and miniature boats, 60 x 60″. Exhibited at Allanbank Open Studio 2013.

The Art Room at Allanton

A montage of the beautiful new ‘Art Room’ built by Charlie Poulsen over four months prior to the show and a marvellous addition to all the existing spaces at Allanbank Mill Steading. On the left are ‘Patrick’ and ‘Lampedusa’ followed by two large drawings by Charlie and at the right hand end, Pauline’s magnificent ‘Applecross’ quilt.
Charlie & Pauline’s Open Studio next year is from 1st-4th August 2014.
For more information visit: www.charlespoulsen-sculpture.com or www.paulineburbidge-quilts.com

‘And Came the Horses’ with some of Charlie’s smaller sculptures on shelves in The Byre

Breaking Down in France

  heading up to 2000m and black smoke starts coming out of the bonnet and things feel risky. You stop in a handy layby on a big hill, and you meet these guys…

  Never mind the 80mph traffic coming up and down the mountain, they paint a very neat line down the middle, no bother! I can think of a few artists who might want to get their hands on one of these gadgets, but it was the superbly Gallic approach to driving a miniature Heath Robinson machine up the middle of the Alpine equivalent of the M62 with large containers of flammable liquid and lit cigarettes, to a man, that impressed me. I got an empty paint tin as a souvenir, handy for the laundry for the rest of the trip.

They even offered to try and fix our radiator, (by means of a secret hoover attachment on said Heath Robinson machine), but we declined. These guys were just way too overqualified, (ie. cool, French and sexy), for that.

Merci Encore!