We were lucky to catch an exhibition of seminal early works by Sherman during the Edinburgh Art Festival.
Author: julia
Finishing our collaborative sculpture back at Basic Mountain Studio
Following our short residency at The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, we returned to Basic Mountain Studio to add the final details to the sculpture. The finished head!
Final work stages at ESW
We returned for a few more sessions at The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to complete work on our sculpture’s larger elements. We invited Edinburgh based maker, Rachel Timney Stewart, to join the brainstorm and give us a final push before we return to Basic Mountain Studio. Patrick and Franco working on the flower head: While some…
Bridget Riley Exhibition tour
It’s Time for Edinburgh’s Art Festival! We went to see Bridget Riley’s retrospective exhibition at The National Galleries.
Artlink and SEASONs at Lochend Secret Garden
We celebrated the beautiful weather and joined forces with SEASONs group and the team at Lochend Secret Garden, for an excellent day of walking, foraging, eating and listening to music together. We were joined by horticulturist and knowledgable forager, Chris Macefield who led us on a foraging walk around Lochend Park. In the meantime, Franco…
Work continues at ESW
When the base of the sculpture was ready, it was time to start working with colour and materials. Each group member was working on a different aspect, discussing decisions on the go and learning from each other. Maggie used her exquisite kniting skills to design and make the eyes for the flower’s head. We also…
Curious Routes @ Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
We were looking for a place where we can work on the new sculpture. In June, July and August 2019, our two-weekly sessions took place at The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, where we could get a lot work done using the metal workshop and education space. First, we did a day of metal work with technician…
New collaborative sculpture
We are excited to work on a new collaborative sculpture! It is based on a drawing by Yvonne and we are planning to use all the skills in the group to create a large scale sculpture for a future event. Watch this space for developments!
Experimenting with stencils
After a short break, we were back at Basic Mountain studio. Patrick introduced the group to a technique he was working with – using stencils and spray paint. We created individual works using this technique. It was fun to see how each person has a distinct personal language.
Design Exhibition Scotland
We ventured out to Lyon & Turnbull Edinburgh to meet with the curator of Design Exhibition Scotland, Susanna Beaumont, to discuss this show that blurred the limits between art and design. We were lucky to bump into James McLardy, who is working with Artlink regularly. James talked to us about his work featured in the…
A trip to Jupiter Artland, June 2019
We headed to the green hills of Jupiter Artland to enjoy a sunny day, impressive site specific works and a story telling session with SEASONS group members. We were accompanied by a local guide who led us to a comprehensive tour throughout the park. It’s always great to get out of the city and…
Life Drawing session with Sarah McWhinney
Artist and musician Sarah McWhinney led a life drawing session at Basic Mountain studio. We engaged in short and long exercises to capture shape and movement, experimenting with graphite, charcoal and ink as mediums.
Bookbinding session #2 with Cassandra Barron
We returned to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens Cottage for a second bookbinding session. Armed with our tools, and suppied with a tantalising array of materials, we learned some binding techniques to make custom sketchbooks and booklets.
Paper marbling and Monoprinting
To complement our bookbinding sessions, we tried our hand at paper marbling at Basic Mountain Studio. The prints are achieved by using oil based ink in a tray with water; the design floats on the water and covers the paper dipped in the tray. It was interesting to see how many different designs can come…
Felted portraits
Ellie introduced us to needle felting- and we thought it would be great to felt our own portraits with it!Franco proved to be a popular subject- he made his own portrait and another one was made with love by Yvonne- whisk and all. Felt-a-thon at Basic Mountain studio
A visit to Tramway
We travelled to Tramway in Glasgow to see Pia Camil and Robert Anton’s Exhibitions. While Camil’s show was an immersive installation inviting viewers to physically engage with it- Anton’s work was more enigmatic and intimate: Both exhibitions were interesting in terms of how the artists used ready made, disposed of material and up cycled it…
Fishing in Cramond 13 May 2019
We were out and about on a beautiful sunny day to try our luck fishing in Cramond. While some of us chose to stay on the shore-Others got their waders on and ventured into the river! Alex was in his element as usual. So was Franco who even managed a catch! We enjoyed the beautiful…
First Green Court event, 16th June 2019
Green Court was initiated by Luke Padfield and has been developed with support from Artlink, UN House Scotland and Scottish Environment Link. The Green Court is an improvised, interactive, moot environmental court. We discuss fictional examples of environmental issues based on real-life situations in a mock courtroom setting. This first session of the Green Court…
Bookbinding session #1 with Cassandra Barron
In Curious Routes, we always start a creative process by sharing ideas, having conversations and drawing inspiration from each member’s unique style and interests. having a go at bookbinding allowed us to experiment with different techniques we would like to utilise to engage in some self-publishing! We invited Cassandra Barron, an Edinburgh-based artist who arrived…
Crochet taster session
We were joined by designer Cyd from Needlemaker UK to get our hands around the basics of crochet. We are keen to use this technique to create a large collaborative sculpture. As we shared that we are interested in crochet as a sculpture technique, Cyd introduced us to the work of OLEK (Agata Oleksiak), a…
Eco Print Workshop at Bridgend Allotments
We joined forces with Eco Printer Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw to create dress and props for our “Green Court” event in Edinburgh. Eco printing refers to the act of directly applying plants to textiles to alter colour, apply colour and create interesting designs. “ Natural dyeing” is a component, as everything used is natural, such as…
Soul Food Sisters collaboration
As part of our women’s group; Yvonne, Adele, Vic, Chelley, Archane, Dorothy, Anna, Maggie, Fiona, Sue, Anne and Annabel wanted to come together around their shared interest in expanding their culinary knowledge, keenness to share skills and interesting stories in social and relaxed settings. We approached Soul Food Sisters in Glasgow as their ethos matched…
Macramé Making
Yvonne’s Granddad used to work as a fisherman at sea and she talks fondly of his incredibly weathered face and all the different knots and knot making skills that were necessary to his trade. She has always been interested in the various craft based textiles such as knitting, crochet, weaving and embroidery using more traditional…
New Collective Spaces
The Collective gallery have just opened it’s doors to it’s new home on Calton hill on Edinburgh’s iconic City Observatory site. A few of us brave enough to battle the horizontal rains and winds on top of the hill that day went to go check it out. We chattered to Katie Reynolds the learning producer and…
Thinking & Taking inspiration from others
We often like to take inspiration from practicing artists, going to see exhibitions, and discussing our ideas about the artwork and how it relates to things going on around us that we’re interested in. Here we are at Emma Hart’s current show BANGER at The Fruitmarket Gallery. Emma Hart BANGER The Fruitmarket Gallery 27 October 2018…
Outdoor Sketching & Meeting like-minded Folk
We like to frequently take ourselves out of the studio to sketch outdoors, meet others and chat ideas while on walks in the great outdoors. Here’s one day’s adventures on Blackford Hill, The Royal Observatory and Hermitage of Braid Local Nature Reserve. We came across The Lodge Coffee House whose owners were super friendly, gave…
Sketching at Drift
Ellie, Alex, Lee, Adele, Franco, Maggie and Vic love drawing and wanted to get outside to sketch in the elements. We’d heard of new cafe venue Drift in East Lothian with amazing views of the Bass Rock and out to sea so we went to check it out for ourselves…
Jupiter Artland
We take our inspiration from many things…here we are soaking up a bit of arts and culture at Jupiter Artland.
Women’s Group & PROCESSIONS
Women from Artlink’s Curious Routes and Artlink’s Glasshouses arts for mental health projects came together to design and make banners in celebration of 100 years of women voting in the UK in collaboration with Processions public art project. PROCESSIONS was a once-in-a-lifetime mass participation artwork which celebrated one hundred years of votes for women. Processions was…
Bangour Fishery
We’ve been sharing Chelley, Diane, Alex, Ian and Franco’s love of fishing with some newbees to fly fishing at Bangour Trout Fishery in West Lothian. Erm zero fish caught but what a beaut of a day!
Hidden Door Arts Festival
Ellie and Lee and Curious Routes are doing some research around video projection and thought we’d visit Hidden Door Festival for some inspiration. We’re deciding whether to make our own wooden screen for projecting onto… Hidden Door is an arts organisation which aims to open up urban spaces as a platform for new and emerging…
OFF THE GRID – Kitchen Sink Film Season
Ellie & Lee are passionate about film and wanted to showcase some of the films they love to a wider audience. They have called their film group OFF THE GRID and want to show a series of Kitchen sink dramas from the 1950’s and 1960’s. The first in OFF THE GRID’s film season is Tony…
Broxburn United Sports Club Collab
We wanted to take our Common interests on tour!.. so here we are at Broxburn United Sports Club with their over 50s group Alive and Kickin’. We shared our passions for birdwatching and walks with Franco & Alex, mono printing with Ellie, Songwriting with Lee & Peter, Cooking with Franco & Kevin, Textiles with Dorothy,…
Pasta Masta Making
Inspired by Franco’s culinary skills we had a go at making our own pasta from scratch, needless to say it was delizioso!
Birdwatching
There are some passionate birdwatchers among us, Franco and Alex are our chief twitches and like to share their knowledge. Here we are in Loch Leven Kinross RSPB to spot some of the beauties in the wild.
Songwriting in the Studio
The studio is our base to test out ideas. Here are Lee & Peter jamming and creating song writing ideas and performing their latest creation entitled East Marseilles.
Common Play with Seasons
Season’s Project, a mental health and support organisation came along to our Common Play Exhibition at Edinburgh College of Art and loved what we were doing. They share similar interests, so we asked them to join us in our studio to get a flavour of what we get up to. We experimented with cyanotype photography…
Ping-Ponging
Taking our hand crafted ping pong table on tour starts up unusual, unexpected conversations with curious folk…!
Making DJ Booth
We’re taking Lee and Ellie’s vinyl collection on tour. We’ve created a bespoke DJ booth for our up and coming Programme of events and exhibition launch of COMMON PLAY at Edinburgh College of Art’s Tent Gallery.
Vinyl Record Collections
Ellie, Lee, Peter, Alex and Richard are avid vinyl record collectors. Our musical tastes are eclectic; anything from Punk, Rock Country, Folk, Pop, Funk, Soul, Disco, Rhythm and Blues are spun on the decks. Our musical knowledge is immense and we like to share our tastes with each other. We have been visiting various remote…
Screen Printing Posters
Inspired by our interests in Birdwatching, film screening, Ping-Pong, fishing and Cycling; Ellie, Lee, Luke, Meg and Peter come up with a series of Illustrations inspired by their interests in collaboration with artist Bernie Reid in his screen printing studio in Leith. The prints will turn into posters to advertise our future events and happenings.
Printing onto Ping-Pong Table
Our beautifully crafted ping pong table is made! We’re now using Lee’s bespoke two colour ping-pong design to screen print directly onto the surface of the birch plywood ping-pong table, in collaboration with artist and screen printer Bernie Reid. Good to go!
Screen Printing Ping-Pong
Working alongside artist Bernie Reid in his print studio to create initial sketches and ideas for the screen printed ping pong surface design. The final design will be hand screen printed onto the birch plywood portable ping pong table.
Portable Ping-Pong Table Making
Franco and Alex are avid woodworkers and were super keen to work with furniture designer Susan Harper to design and make a bespoke ping ping table. The idea was inspired by Lee’s passion for the game and the idea of making it portable so we can share this passion with others.
Passion for Ping-Pong
Lee is absolutely passionate about ping pong. He loves it and plays like a pro. He took us to his favourite free outdoor space to play down at the concrete ping pong table in George IV Park on Eyre Place on Edinburgh’s New Town. We brought along a portable speaker to pump out people’s playlists…
My Dunfermline – Vic MacRae Exhibition
We have known Vic and her creative practice for many years. She’s a talented artist, designer and illustrator. Through Artlink, Vic first met with the artist Alan Grieve, when we visited him at his studio/gallery and hairdressing salon in Dunfermline. Vic’s now a local resident in Dumfermline, and has gotten to know Alan more and…
The Art of Being Civic
We like keeping up to speed with other interesting and inspiring projects from all over the world. So we attended a two day Symposium at The Tate Modern, in London called The Art of Being Civic with Public Works. We listened to speakers and had conversations around ethics of community engagement and alternative models of…
Film Screenings
Lee is an avid art film follower and has an archive of British Film Institute (BFI) art films and art documentaries and regularly screens films from his collection. Luke is part of Dalry Open Film (DOF), who meet weekly to create and make short films. They have screened for us: Invisible Edinburgh, people who have…
Archipelago Exhibition
Alex and Franco are cooking up a storm in exchange for creative talks with artist Alan Grieve about his current Archipelago Exhibition at Summerhall.