Three portraits of Billy Connolly

Back in May 2017, three portraits of the Big Yin - Billy Connolly - or Sir Billy Connolly as he is now designated - were unveiled as giant 50 ft/15m high murals in Glasgow as a tribute to his 75th birthday. (see Billy Connolly murals in Glasgow – the city’s birthday gift to the Big Yin at 75).

The portraits are by the Scottish artists - Jack Vettriano, Rachel Maclean and John Byrne.

Crops of the portraits of Billy Connolly by Jack Vettriano, Rachel McLean and John Byrne

The process of creating the portraits was filmed by the BBC and can be seen on iPlayer as Billy Connolly - Portrait of a Lifetime. 

The programme involves him talking about his life with each of the artists and is worth watching if only to see how each artists addresses the conundrum of how to portray Billy Connolly.

Jack Vettriano

The self-taught artist who paints from photographs - who portrayed Billy from a still from the Billy's television programme World Tour of Scotland series in 1994. It features a very windblown Billy on a storm-lashed coast near John O’Groats

Personally I think the Vettriano portrait is absolutely awful. He dislocated his shoulder in 2015 and announced at the time that he could no longer paint.  Whether or not he is back to fine fettle as an artist, the fact remains it just doesn't look like Billy Connolly!

His mural can be seen on a wall end in in Dixon Street near St Enoch Square.

Rachel McLean

Rachel represented Scotland this year at the Venice Biennale. She was born in 1987 in Edinburgh and lives and works in Glasgow. Her first degree, a BA Honours Drawing and Painting was at the Edinburgh College of Art, followed by a stint at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA


She works predominantly with videos and digital prints. She created a special costume based on his jokes. This came

replete with motifs from his career such as ‘mini bike parked in bum’ epaulettes, a sporran with an ‘aged’ nose sprouting hair, and make-up reflecting his famous ‘pale blue Scotsman’ joke, with representations of Glasgow life past and present in the background

I thought Rachel Mclean's approach to making a portrait was both ingenious and very in keeping with the sort of man Billy Connolly is. I'm not so sure I like the very dark digital print which was chosen for the mural.  The video below shows the extract from the BBC programme where Billy is shown the costume he's going to wear.

Her printed mural is on the Gallowgate near Barrowland Park.

John Byrne 

John Byrne is an old friend of Billy who attended Glasgow College of Art. He's unique in being both a prominent portrait artist and a playright. He has paintings in the collection of paintings hang in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, the Museum of Modern Art and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. He chose to create a drawing rather than a painting of Billy.

John Byrne is obviously the most accomplished draughtsman and I was very interested watching him draw Billy as he is now. However I thought it was a preliminary study for a painting and I was rather disappointed to find it wasn't going to be converted into a painting.

His mural can be found on a wall end in Osborne Street, Glasgow.

Best of the Drawing Year 2017

Students of the Royal Drawing School’s postgraduate programme - the Drawing Year - are having exhibitions of their work this month.

• The Best of The Drawing Year 2016-17 is displaying over 90 drawings, prints and works on paper at Christie’s King Street 10–15 November 2017 Monday to Friday 9am–4.30pm, (Wed 15 Nov 9am–2pm)
• An expanded show of over 300 drawings in  The Drawing Year End of Year Exhibition 2016-17 at the Royal Drawing School Shoreditch 29 November 2017 to 16 January 2018.

The works are by artists graduating from the School’s intensive postgraduate programme who have spent the last year exploring their practice through drawing from observation.

The Best of the Drawing Year 2017 Exhibition at Christies Ground Floor Gallery

The Drawing Year

The Drawing Year was founded in 2000 as the School’s flagship programme. It offers:

• a year of intensive study, research and practice in drawing from life
• high-quality teaching from a distinguished faculty. 
• Every student is given a full scholarship and free studio space, allowing artists of all backgrounds to develop their artistic professions and careers in the creative industries

The scope to study for free is particularly relevant and helpful at a time of rising fees for education and the high cost of living in London.

Past graduates of The Drawing Year have gone on to work as fine artists, or have professional
practices in illustration, animation, architecture, film and theatre design.

Recent success stories include:

• Clara Drummond, First Prize winner of the BP Portrait Award 2016
• Kathryn Maples, winner of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2014 and 2016
• Alice Shirley, acclaimed designer of Hermès silk scarves. 

Alumni have also exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, and their work is included in major collections, such as Tate, the Royal Collection, British Museum and the V&A Museum.

The Drawing Year 2016-17

Graduates of the most recent Drawing Year include the first ever graduate who started out on the Drawing School's Young Artists courses who has then gone on to complete The Drawing Year.

• Londoner Gideon Summerfield age 22 was part of the Young Artists programme between the ages of 12-17. Since then he has graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design with a First Class Honours Degree in Illustration, and credits the School with much of his success. I first highlighted him on this blog in Drawings of Holocaust Survivors.
• He displays two of his portraits in this exhibition, including a pencil portrait of British immunologist Dr William Frankland MBE, which won first prize in the Hermione Hammond Drawing Award 2017. 
• An expanded selection of his work displayed at Shoreditch, will feature his reportage illustration documenting the refugee crisis, entitled ‘Love the Stranger as Yourself, which recently captured the attention of the media including the BBC.
• Lee Cutter’s ink drawings of Japanese gardens symbolise the presence of harmony and balance. This metaphor of finding peace is important to Cutter – he led a difficult childhood, facing challenges in his education, a lack of support networks, and some bad decisions, which led to spending time in prison. Upon discovering drawing, it ‘gave him a new life’; he went to study fine art at university, and now works at the Koestler Trust, helping others transform their lives through the power of art.

drawings by Christabel McCreevy

• Christabel MacGreevy came to The Drawing Year from Central St Martins, with a background in fashion and commercial textiles, looking to expand her practice. Christabel took up drawing and illustration to create the designs for her fashion brand launched in May 2017, Itchy Scratchy Patchy, featured in Vogue, NY Times Style and Financial Times Fashion
• Richard Ayodeji Ikhide has used drawing to develop his textile designs into fine art.
• Jack Fawdry Tatham’s interest in aquatint etchings (pictured above), has led to plans to reopen the printing press under Pollock’s Toy Museum, a Victoriana museum in Fitzrovia owned by his Grandmother. 

All the drawings in this exhibition are for sale; prices for a small print, study, or a large-scale drawing range between £150 - £2000.

The commission goes towards funding the School’s scholarship and bursaries programmes so that high-quality drawing tuition is available to all regardless of background or circumstance.

Exhibiting Artists

• Joshua Bristow, 
• Rosie Chamberlain, 
• Jessica Jane Charleston, 
• Ben Westley Clarke, 
• Becca Collins, 
• Mark Connolly, 
• Laurie Crean, 
• Somaya Critchlow, 
• Lee Cutter, 
• Joana Galego,
• Alexander Gilmour, 
• Judith Hagan, 
• Nancy Haslam-Chance, 
• Emily Hill, 
• Richard Ayodeji Ikhide, 
• Charlotte Johnston, 
• Alice Macdonald, 
• Christabel MacGreevy, 
• Isaac Nugent, 
• Jackson Rees, 
• Tom Scotcher, 
• Dorry Spikes, 
• Jamie Stenhouse, 
• Gideon Summerfield, 
• Jack Fawdry Tatham, 
• Stefan Tiburcio, 
• Catherine Watson, 
• Peter Wenman

Queuing to visit Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art!

Last night was the Private View for the four new art exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

We were told that some 8,500 people had visited the Gallery last week and that at the weekend people were queuing to get in!

Rebecca Louise Law: Life in Death

The number of visitors and queues will be in no small part related to the Rebecca Louise Law: Life in Death exhibition which is quite unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's an experience!

Rebecca Louise Law with her exhibition Life in Death at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens

Her exhibition is an installation within the large central space within the Gallery and promotes her passion - the use of preserved plant material as art material.

Plants and flowers that she has collected over a ten year period, have been dried and strung on very thin copper wire garlands suspended from grids attached to the ceiling. There are 350,000 specimens strung on c.1,000 garlands spaced at intervals of around 12 inches.

Rebecca Louise Law: Life in Death #1

It seems as if the entire room is completely full of dried flowers and pods. However a wavy path cut through the middle allows visitors to start on one side and move through to an exit via a diagonal which takes you through an amazing range of plant material.

I'd seen the exhibition previously and kept feeling the need to spin round to look at the exhibit from every angle. Looking at the plant material and the disorientating effect of spinning around in part explains why people take quite a bit of time moving through....

Rebecca Louise Law: Life in Death #2

What was interesting yesterday was that there was a distinct aroma in the air which I hadn;t noticed previously. Almost like being in the centre of a giant pot-pourri.

This exhibition is supported by a separate exhibition (in Gallery 4) of the ancient Egyptian preserved funeral garlands of Ramesses II in Kew's own collection - which date back to 1300BC.  This is a very rare public display of the fragile and beautiful ancient Egyptian wreaths, which, draped over mummies and coffins, accompanied the dead to the afterlife.

Lindsay Sekulowicz: Plantae Amazonicae

This exhibition forms a portrait of the Brazilian Amazon, resulting from collaboration between the artist Lindsay Sekulowicz and Kew’s Science team.

Lindsay Sekulowicz: Plantae Amazonicae combines new artworks by Lindsay with items from the economic botany collection maintained by Kew.

International Watercolour Masters Exhibition at Weston Park in 2018

In recent years, I've been very interested in following the travels of a small number of watercolour artists to top watercolour competitions across the world which have attracted international submissions by the Masters of Watercolour Painting.

Now it seems it's the UK's turn - or rather it will be in 2018!

Never before has the UK staged such a prestigious exhibition featuring contemporary world Masters in watercolour painting - until now...

Next April, there is to be an exhibition I'd hoped we'd see in England but had rather lost hope of ever seeing. I'm sure it's an event which will warm the collective hearts of many a watercolour and art society member up and down the UK!

Here are the details

International Watercolour Masters Exhibition
Venue: Weston Park, Granary Gallery, Weston Park, TF11 8LE ENGLAND View Map
Dates: April 28-May 31 2018.
Admission: FREE
Eventbrite Page

J.M.W.Turner, David Cox, Walter Langley RI, George Sandby & other English Master artists of the 18th & 19th Centuries took water colour painting to the world. Now on 28 April 2018 to May 28 2018 the worlds leading water colour Masters come to England , for the first time, for a unique contemporary exhibition at historic Weston Park.

Never before has the UK staged such a prestigious exhibition featuring contemporary world Masters in watercolour painting. During the show several of the artists will lead guided tours, and also demonstrate their techniques. Watercolour workshops will also be arranged.

The exhibition has been organised by David Poxon (England) - who is one of the artists who has been travelling the world and picking up prizes as he did!

(He's also an artist whose work is much copied in terms of subject matter and technique - but never bettered. I keep seeing the work of those who try to emulate him and Angus McEwen at many exhibitions which include watercolour paintings!)

The special guest artists are listed below.

I'm very sure that some of the names will be recognised by those who follow the international watercolour competitions.

• Janine Gallizia (Australia) 
• John Salminen (USA) 
• Mark Mehaffey (USA) 
• Dean Mitchell (USA) 
• Konstantin Sterkhov (Russia) 
• Jasmine Huang (Taiwan) 
• Chien Chung-Wei (Taiwan) 
• Pasqualino Fracasso Watercolour (Italy) 
• Marvin Chew (Singapore) 
• Jayson Yeoh (Malaysia) 
• Ali Abbas Syed (Pakistan) 
• Liu Yi (China) 
• Alvaro Castagnet (Uruguay)

During the show

• Several of the artists will lead guided tours, and also demonstrate their techniques. 
• Watercolour workshops will also be arranged.

David Poxon (centre) with one of his paintings
and (left) Alvaro Castagnet (Uruguay) and (right) Liu Yi (China)

The exhibition started life as a solo show for David Poxon RI. David is very well known and appreciated around the world for his pure watercolour paintings. He travels extensively to exhibitions abroad. I'm forever seeing photos of him on Facebook at yet another one of the major competitions!

He is also an elected member of the prestigious R.I. (Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours) and the NWS (National Watercolour Society of America)

During David’s International travels he has exhibited with many of the worlds leading
water colour artists who have become close associates and friends. Having discussed his 2018 Weston Park show with Janine Gallizia (Australia) the concept of a larger structured exhibition was conceived. David extended his invitation, and after receiving an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response, the International Watercolour Masters exhibition was born.

I suggest watercolour painters make a note of the dates in their diaries!

(Note: This exhibition is not formally associated with or organised by any of the watercolour societies or competitions in the UK as I understand)

Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing

I posted a link on Facebook this morning about the links between art and health - and it obviously was something that lots of people identified with.

Why GPs prescribing arts activities to some patients could lead to a dramatic fall in hospital admissions and save the NHS money

So here is the link - plus

• the report which triggered this 
• other articles 
• some more links about how art interfaces with health and how arts activities arts can lead to better health

The Report

The report which triggered the articles is Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing | All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing

You can Download it

You can View online

Articles about Art and Health

The Guardian Articles

• Arts can help recovery from illness and keep people well, report says - All-party inquiry demonstrates benefits to health and wellbeing of the arts, leading to fall in hospital admissions
• 'It's time to recognise the contribution arts can make to health and wellbeing' - The arts help meet challenges in health and social care associated with ageing, loneliness, long-term conditions and mental health
• 'Creativity improves wellbeing': art transforms mental health ward - A psychiatric ward in London has been given a makeover, with work donated by artists and workshops for patients

Organisations about Art and Health

In the UK

• London Arts in Health Forum (LAHF) - a membership organisation which aims to develop the role of culture in wellbeing and to promote and support arts in health activity across London and nationally (Twitter account: Arts in Health Forum @LAHFArtsHealth )
• National Alliance for Arts Health and Wellbeing: a voice and resource for arts and health activity.
• The All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Interestingly I could fine very little about art and health outside the UK - and wnhat I found was on the Resources Page of the LAHF