“Since change is inevitable, we should direct the change
rather than simply continue to go through the change…” – Gil Scott-Heron

This is now the closing moments of 2014 and I look back on the year, the art I produced and the exhibitions I took part in, with the low November sun streaming in through the window.
The year has flown by really fast. It does not seem like a whole year ago that I just arrived in Bilbao to represent Scottish Craft at the 18th Euskal Denda Show and was taking a midnight walk around deserted streets in the crisp cold air by the city’s river.

So what has happened this year?
January was good, I was pretty tired after Bilbao but had spent a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas & was feeling positive after the surprise trip in December. I had in mind a plan for the year and launched straight into it.

A house exhibition in March of Sumi Ink drawings. Working on pine branches and some leafy tree impressions. I put together around 7 works for this produced over Jan/Feb.
The exhibit was really fun, and a bit odd opening up my house for the purposes of an exhibition, but it went well. I was really charged with the creative buzz from the ink drawings.

Photography by Michelle Hynes – Branch Open House Exhibition March 3rd 2014

In the final 2 weeks before the show, I also stumbled into producing a set of 8 waterfall paintings. That really changed everything and more than the ink drawings I think shaped the year to come. Although I have some plans in mind still to investigate further Sumi Ink painting.

April was spent in front of a computer organizing the Art Exhibition “Art On The Hill” which was to be held during the Southside Fringe Festival. It was a full-on operation and I am not quite sure how I got through that one. But it all came together and the show opened in May. 100 artists. Around 470 artworks.

During June I was mentally & physically exhausted. Nothing got done, in July also. After the total full output of everything I had to put that show together, I was totally shattered.

August I got phoned up by a restoration studio that needed extra hands. The weather was beautiful, and the commonwealth games and the build-up to the year’s big event of the Referendum. It was nice getting back into proper leading-up church windows after several years out of it.

October and November I worked on a collection of 10 nighttime paintings and am now in preparation for my only winter exhibit taking place at The Ceilidh Place in Ullapool opening on the 5th of December.

I am at something of a professional and life crossroads.
The last 6yrs have been completely & intensely art-focused and I am reviewing this time.
Creatively I feel I am producing great work, this year has seen the most work I have ever completed since I decided to make Art my full-time occupation in 2005.

I did focus a lot of time on an effort to make things happen on the wider Glasgow art scene this year, although I produced my greatest amount of work I did feel it could have been more and my commitments to external events took time away from creating.
In the next year I am looking to get my work into more commercial galleries to get my work seen by a wider audience, simply put at this stage in order to continue my progression artistically I have to match and surpass the level of the last few years.
So that is my goal for 2015.

My previous post about my Limited Edition Print Box has been adapted into no longer being “limited edition” as I have never really liked the idea of limits and I do want to make my work available to everyone. The price structure has also changed with my work divided into 7 sets containing 5 prints each. I will add further sets as I produce new work. I’m looking forward to having these on show in Ullapool.

SO that’s all my news, looking forward to 2015 and a couple of days up North!!! As there has been far too little of that this year.