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| Ruth Slater - Chicken |
Not only did I go and visit the Glasgow Boys Exhibition last week (more of which in another post) but at the end of this month, there is a very ambitious, sprawling artists weekend taking place throughout the Cowal peninsula of Argyll.
If you can imagine a picture of Scotland in your mind's eye. The Argyll peninsula looks like a non-viagra'ed willie....well Cowal and Bute (my lovely island home) make up part of the scrotum. Not a pretty analogy, but unforgettable, don't you think?
Anyway, from the 24th to the 27th of September, all manner of wonderful artists and craftspeople will be opening their studios as part of the Cowal Open Studios weekend to let the heaving masses in to see their work - and buy it too!
Two island artists are taking part, Ruth Slater and Ray Beverley.
I hold my hands up here and say that I am very biased - they're both friends of mine and several of Ruth's paintings hang in my hallway. But really, if they weren't good at what they do (Ruth's an artist, Ray's a bespoke furniture-maker), I wouldn't be pontificating here about them.
The Cowal Open Studios Project has been running for a couple of years now and if you are a fan of bijou artisan loveliness, Cowal is the place for you in the last weekend in September!
There will be stained glass, paintings, jewellery, ceramics, furniture, sculpture, photography, textiles....and CAKE at the various little workshops and village halls from Colintraive in the north to Dunoon in the south.
I will, of course, be going and cramming in as many studio visits as humanly possible :-)
If you are looking for something to do that weekend, why not book an overnight somewhere beautiful in Cowal. Yes, I know I compared it to a scrotum but really, it's beautiful. There's a lot of this:
And loads of this
So, if you are at a loose end and in the area, please come along and see the gorgeous knick-knackery! Remember, there's only a few *cough* weeks left until CHRISTMAS! Check out the Cowal website for an index of this year's artists - most of them have got websites and will happily post stuff.
See you Monday ;-)
What a fine looking scrotum it is, too! I love art, too and those two are amazingly talented.
ReplyDeleteWe've been meaning to take a trip up to Scotland but our love of vintage motors make such a long drive impractical. Maybe next year when we've got a new engine. x
Ah,you live in a lovely area.We stayed at the Creganns Inn on Loch Fyne a couple of years ago and explored a lot of the are,drove to Tignabruich and round to Dunoon.
ReplyDeleteQuite fancy one of those hen paintings!
Dear Ali, I love your analagy...
ReplyDeleteWhere you live is very beautiful... but it doesn't have a Waitrose! Only joking! You and Ruth's comments about that made me laugh. Hope you've had a good weekend xx
I've never made it over to Bute, but i feel as if I know it from the stories of Para Handy, one of my greatest role models as a young man. I still read the stories every year or so. They are chust sublim.
ReplyDeleteLegend - yes, if Dougie was here he would tell you (spoken with Highlands lilt)
ReplyDeleteChristina - I'm not actually part of Cowal, but we ARE beautiful!
NS - Ruth posts out stuff and she's excellent at farmyard stuff - and pet portraits!
VV - we have vintage road runs up here too. Mainly tractors lol!
Ali x