'In Search of a New World' Exhibition Award

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Very pleased to announce that my assemblage piece, ‘Emigrants - Wake’, has been awarded the second place prize at the Southhampton City Art Gallery Biennial Open Exhibition, ‘In Search of a New World’.

It is such an honour to receive this award, which was completely unexpected. After working as an artist for the last thirty-two years, this is my first award for my work and I am very pleased to receive the recognition.

‘This work fully embodies the themes of Journey, Migration and The Sea. The interplay between the painted surface and the relief make this a visually captivating piece.

The use of the word ‘wake’ to contemplate not only the wake of the boat in the water but the wake of its journey, the individuals on-board and the dangerous nature of the voyage is thought provoking and moving.’

Judges Comments

You can view this work, and the other superb pieces in the exhibition by clicking on this link.

Emigrants - Wake     Carved and painted wood on board

Emigrants - Wake Carved and painted wood on board

Imaginary Travels - Journeys in Lockdown 1

Hut of Shadows, Lochmaddy, North Uist

Hut of Shadows, Lochmaddy, North Uist

After four months of lockdown things are just starting to get moving again. As an artist, it has been particularly difficult not being able to travel to experience culture, landscapes and to research the subject matter needed to develop new works.

 

To try to help with this, I’m going to take a look back into the sketchbooks and create a series of virtual journeys to some of the places that have had a significant affect on my work as an artist.

 

For the first one, I’ve been looking back to a recent trip I made to the Hebridean islands of North and South Uist, and Benbecula. I have spent the last twenty-five years traveling around the Scottish islands, and I am still as excited planning a new visit as I was my first time.

This trip tied in with an exhibition of the drawings and poems from Birdfall, my collaboration with my friend Donald S Murray, and our talk as part of the Uist Book Festival and Scottish Book Week.

St Kilda Viewpoint, North Uist

St Kilda Viewpoint, North Uist

One advantage to the traveller visiting the Uists is that you can travel between four islands, North Uist, Grimsay, Benbecula and South Uist by a series of wonderful causeways. 

 

As an artist, the Scottish islands are a wealth of fantastic material and ideas to get the imagination and sketchbooks working, and the Uists do not disappoint. From superb land and seascapes, to incredible wildlife experiences, there is so much to sketch and photograph and take back to the studio. 

 

One evening walk, north along the road from Clachan, on the west side of North Uist produced some fantastic views of the island’s spectacular raptors. The first encounter was with a pair of Golden Eagles, seen first perched on top of a small hill creating a pair of strange silhouettes on the skyline. It wasn’t until they took to the air that the effect of their presences was really witnessed. As the flew over the machair, thousands of other birds took to the air in alarm. From geese and ducks to waders and other seabirds, the sky was filled with the worried calls of the resident population, while the eagles flew along languidly as if they too were just out for an evening stroll, oblivious to the chaos ensuing all around them!

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Further up the road, it was the behaviour and alarm calls of Redshanks and Lapwings that alerted me to the presence of another bird of prey (there are no foxes on the islands, so alarms usually mean a passing raptor). Scanning the hillside to see what was causing the commotion, I came across an adult White-tailed Eagle, perched on top of a rock and paying no attention to the attentions for the divebombing waders, now joined by Oystercatchers.

 

On the return journey, I saw what is one of my favourite birds of prey, and a real speciality of the islands, the Hen Harrier. The first was a female, or Ringtail, flying over the machair towards the hills, followed closely by the beautiful grey male quartering slowly over the fields and shore edges. Interesting to observe that these fairly large birds of prey caused very little disturbance to the local bird population, being mobbed only by Meadow Pipits, Twites and Wheatears.

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Sitting here in the isolation of the studio, I can look over the sketchbooks and notes from the trips, with fantastic visual memories of our wonderful islands.  

In Search of a New World - Southampton City Art Gallery Open Exhibition 2020

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Southampton City Art Gallery will still host its 2020 biennial Open Exhibition ‘In Search of a New World’, now in a new digital format to ensure the exhibition goes ahead despite the uncertainties of reopening the gallery, and so all potential visitors can still engage and explore the art while remaining safe at home

For the Open Exhibition, artists were invited to respond to the themes of journey, migration and the sea in any way. These themes are the heart of our Mayflower 400 programme, encouraging communities and our cultural leaders to creatively explore Southampton’s unique position as Gateway to the World.

I am pleased to say that three of my assemblage pieces have been chosen as part of the virtual exhibition as part of the Mayflower celebrations.

The theme of this exhibition has run through much of my work for the last twenty-five years, and it was wonderful to be given the opportunity to show these work, albeit virtually, here in my home on the south coast. Migration and emigration has been a shared theme throughout many cultures, and I am pleased to share my vision of the story of emigration for many people from Scotland who set sail for the New World.

Watch out for the link to the exhibition on The Net Mender, which goes live on the 15th of August.

Emigrants - Departure

Emigrants - Departure


'Les Animots - A Human Bestiary' website now online.

Screenshot of the ‘Les Animots - A Human Bestiary’ website.

Screenshot of the ‘Les Animots - A Human Bestiary’ website.

Hope you can take some time to browse through the website for the book collaboration,  Les Animots - A Human Bestiary’, with my friend and poet Gordon Meade.

The website contains the four galleries of images and poems, plus reviews and more information on Gordon’s excellent poetry. Click on the title link above to view the galleries, or access through the main menu of the website.

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'This remarkable collaboration between seasoned poet and artist is a considerable achievement and a joy to read.'

Norman Bissell, poet and director of the
Scottish Centre for Geopoetics


'There is a lot of wisdom in this book, often masked in gentle absurdity or wry observation. A coming together of two mature talents'.

Christine De Luca, Edinburgh Makar and
Shetland poet


'I’m always intrigued when artists cross genre boundaries to collaborate with one another in order to create a fusion of meaning. You won’t find another book quite like this one'.

Brian Turner, author of My Life as a
Foreign Country and Here, Bullet

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Douglas Robertson at the Wild Art Gallery

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I am pleased to announce that a selection of my drawings will be exhibited and for sale at the Wild Art Gallery in Wickham, Hampshire.

I have also created an online shopping link to the gallery on my website, where there will be regular updates of new works for sale. This is a new venture for me, all part of the ‘new normal’, and will possibly lead to other online exhibiting opportunities.

Follow the menu bar on my website to the Shop Online button, and follow the link to the gallery shop.

A Peek In The Sketchbooks - Seascapes

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I’m currently working on a series of sea sketches which will, hopefully, form part of the backgrounds for a sequence of assemblages I am creating to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Fishermen’s Mission charity.

 

It has been a while since I worked on any sea themed works, but as with anything that is in your blood, it’s been easy to get my head and imagination back on to the subject. Working on a sketchbook of seascapes and coastal images helps me get into the correct mind set for the project, and I’m drawing from the many years of sketchbook notes I have in my studio (incredibly, some dating back to 1988!) and working with the best forms to suit the themes.

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As the project continues, I’ll post more sketchbook notes and work in progress images, giving a taste of what is to come in the 2021 Fishermen’s Mission celebrations. 


Hebridean Thrush - from Ealta/Birdfall

‘Hebridean’ Thrush  - study from Carinish, North Uist

‘Hebridean’ Thrush - study from Carinish, North Uist

Last two days of the exhibition at One Tree Bookshop in Petersfield, Hampshire. Hope you can pop along and see a selection of the drawings from recent publications and collaborations with Donald S Murray and Isobel Dixon.

Island Hopping - Hebridean Journey

North Uist in November

North Uist in November

One of the most important things I find I need as an artist is to regularly ‘feed’ my imagination and visual vocabulary, and one of the best ways to do this is by visiting the areas of the country that have an influence on the current and potential work I am producing. During 2018 I was fortunate enough to do this, having two visits to the Outer Hebride. Based at Taigh Chearsabhagh in Lochmaddy, I spent the weeks visiting my favourite sites on North Uist, and travelling to the neighbouring islands of South Uist and Benbecula, and to the Isle of Skye.

The Scottish islands can not fail to inspire an artist’s creativity, with endless layers of stunning landscapes, history and fascinating wildlife. This is where you realise that on such a short visit you can only scratch the surface. My sketchbooks are filled with notes, sketches and ideas for potential new works, and collecting references and images for work in progress, such as the ‘Birdfall’ collaboration with my dear friend Donald S Murray.

Turnstones

Turnstones

A perfect example of this was on several visits I made in June to the RSPB nature reserve at Balranald, on the west coast of North Uist. The Uists are an excellent venue in the between the spring and summer months to watch the migration of bird species heading to their breeding grounds in the Arctic regions.

The beach at Traigh Iar that day was teeming with migrant wader species feeding and refuelling on their epic journey north, with hundreds of Turnstones and Sanderlings in their striking summer plumages, darting to and fro timing their runs against the breaking of the waves. having the opportunity to see these wonderful birds and observing their behaviour and moments helps me to depict them more naturally in the images I am creating, the beautiful details of the bright summer plumages and the way the birds dance and move on the sands. This working knowledge and insight is invaluable to me as an artist in making my work and trying to share the experience of seeing these birds with the visitors to the exhibitions or readers of the books.

Looking towards South Uist from the St Kilda Viewpoint.

Looking towards South Uist from the St Kilda Viewpoint.

From the viewpoint on Cleitreabhal a Deas, I could see across Sound of Monach to the Islands of St. Kilda, the remote Atlantic islands that have had a major role to play in my recent working life, allowing me to pay my own respects to Hirta, Boreray, and the long departed people and natural beauty of these wonderful islands which have fuelled so many ideas and images over the last ten years.

And the trips too gave me a chance to visit new areas and explore more aspects of these wonderful Hebridean islands. November’s visit allowed me the opportunity for my first proper visit to South Uist (I’d passed through briefly in the past) and again a wealth of ideas and images flooded in to my imagination and sketchbooks. One trip with Donald to the remote old steamer pier at Loch Sgioport was breathtaking, with the stunning landscape and sea views enhanced by being accompanied on our journey by close fly-bys of Hen Harriers and Merlins, making this even more evocative and inspiring.

The old steamer pier at Loch Sgioport, South Uist

The old steamer pier at Loch Sgioport, South Uist

I’m currently back in my studio in Hampshire, working with the notes and stories collected in the sketchbooks, and dreaming of my next trip to the Hebrides. Not too long I hope!

Museums And Researching 'The Beasties' - with Isobel Dixon

Blue Whale skeleton ‘Hope’ at the Natural History Museum, London

Blue Whale skeleton ‘Hope’ at the Natural History Museum, London

For the first time in a very long time, I had a trip to the capital to do one of my favourite things, visiting museums and researching new work with one of my dear friends and collaborators, poet Isobel Dixon.

Next year, 2020, will be the one hundredth anniversary of D H Lawrence writing the poems that were to become the collection ‘Birds, Beasts and Flowers!’  These poems include some of Lawrence's finest reflections on the 'otherness' of the non-human world. Lawrence started the poems in this collection during a stay in San Gervasio near Florence in September 1920. He continued working on individual poems in Taormina (Sicily), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Australia before completing the book in February 1923 while staying in New Mexico. Many of his most famous and much-anthologised poems like ‘Bats’, ‘Snake’ and ‘Mosquito’ come from this collection.

D H Lawrence’s original painted cover

D H Lawrence’s original painted cover

 In the course of this long-term project Isobel and I are responding to Lawrence’s poems in various ways, and to each other’s work as a result of this contemplation and ‘conversation’ with the themes of travel, encounters with nature, our identity, mortality, sexuality and otherness. There are elements of response, renewal and rebuttal to Lawrence’s work in their approach.

‘Basking Shark’ for Birds, Beast and Flowers

‘Basking Shark’ for Birds, Beast and Flowers

Looking around such a wonderful resource such as the Natural History Museum can help, not sparking new ideas, but can often help resolve images and poems that have been sitting in the notebooks for a long period. Many artists and writers through the years have drawn inspirations from the fantastic collections of art and artefacts we have at our disposal in our nations thousands of museums and galleries. 

 Over the next few months we’ll be developing ideas and collection our own selection of written and visual treasures to be viewed, and hopefully move and inspire, audiences around the country. 

 Watch out for future post featuring the work from our Lawrencian collaboration.