Flights Of Fancy At Mansfield Park Gallery

Time For Some Fun

Last weekend was a busy one, as the Flights Of Fancy exhibition opened at Mansfield Park Gallery on the sunday and on the saturday I was at the Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair - non stop art!

The afternoon was great fun, long chats with many artists surrounded by beautiful painted birds. If you weren't lucky enough to be there the show is on till the 16th of May and I very much recommend taking the time to go see it - it really is a delightful mix of work by many of the best artists working in the area (and me).

Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair

Miss Dotty

Miss Dotty is going on show along with a selection of my other work, both figurative and still lifes (and one cat), at Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair with Art Exposure Gallery next weekend - it promises to be a really exciting event, with a huge variety of work from many galleries and I am really excited about going along to see all the work.

The Uncharted Butterfly

The same weekend but on the Sunday, Mansfield Park Gallery opens its Flights of Fancy themed exhibition - the private view invite card is fab and this is another show I'm really looking forward to seeing the other artists work - it is going to be an art filled weekend next weekend, can't wait - and hopefully see you there.

Christmas Shows 2014

Fourteen of my paintings have been delivered to four galleries in preparation for their Christmas shows.
First up is Mansfield Park Gallery, who will be having a changing show, as buyers will be able to take their paintings with them, rather than waiting for the show to end - my contribution is two paintings of tea-cakes as well as one of a magic wand and a tiny 10 cm painting.
Leiper Fine Art have also started hanging their Christmas show but won't be having the opening until the 4th. It will be my first time showing with them - although not the first time at one of their openings - and it will be interesting to see The Beauty and The Innocent in among other painter's work.
Art Exposure Gallery is now on Great Western Road, a couple of doors down from Dominoes and across from the underground, and will be having their opening on Friday the 28th. They will have the upstairs area all finished by then so I expect it will be a great night to see a good range of work - along with Peek-a-boo (above), The Crest , Metamorphosis and two of the clown drawings.
Finally there is The Glasgow Art Club with their exhibition open to the general public from the 24 th. This one is particularly not to be missed, as it includes work from past as well as present members so provides a bit of a survey of painting in Glasgow since it opened - there is a watercolour painting of roses by Mackintosh, an oil by his teacher Fra Newbery, a couple of Muirhead Bone's prints, several luscious David Donaldsons and John Cunningham's fab Garden Festival painting, for example. Hanging the show, getting a close up look at these, was a real pleasure, and I do feel honoured to be hanging on the same walls as them - The Fool and the The Queen are both near the bar, while The Fall is in the newly restored big hall.
See you there?

Glasgow Art Club Autumn Show 2014

The show at Mansfield Park Gallery is over and some of the paintings have come back to me, to be sent out to new places.

The first of these new places is the Glasgow Art Club Autumn show, opening this Saturday afternoon and the painting I'm sending is The Coins. The rest will stay with me for the time being.

If you want to come along and see how my painting looks in amongst other works from the Art Club members either let me know or just come along between 3 and 5 on Saturday. Otherwise the place is open most days and the show will be on for around a month.

Last Chance To See The Performance

The Reader was the last painting in the show to be finished, but in many ways is my favourite as there is more of me in her than any of the others - always reading, always dreaming.

What I'm dreaming about now is drawing, new paintings, developing some of the themes that have arisen during making this show - it is time for me to take stock and move on. The show closes Sunday afternoon and I get some of the paintings back next week - but they will never all be together again. But some of them will be mixing with other paintings by other artists in new shows, which is quite exciting.

As for what book she is holding? I left it blank in the painting but in reality it was Alice In Wonderland.

The White Witch

The White Witch was the very first painting painted for the show, after Fran was nice enough to pose for me. She also worked as a sounding board for all the ideas I had and in many ways I felt as if the portrait was keeping an eye on us the whole time, making sure I was at least trying to do all the things I said I wanted to do.

She also brought a fair bit of her own taxidermy with her, but sadly I have not yet been able to incorporate any of them - except this little mouse.

But the show finishes this Sunday so sadly The White Witch won't have her little group of unruly women to watch over much longer, as they all go their separate ways.

Mansfield Park Gallery -

A few folk have asked me about shots of the paintings hung in the gallery - so here they are.

Falling In Hyndland

Today I went back to Mansfield Park Gallery and found that The Fall had been put in the window.

So now she can look out onto Hyndland Road. Before I've always though of her falling backwards down through the air or maybe the sea and indeed the reflections add to the feeling she is under water but for the first time it has occurred to me that rather than falling down she may be falling up.

Whichever direction she is going in though I feel she's not quite sure but she is resolute and she will make a go of it wherever she ends up.

Superwoman and The Teenager

The Superwoman came first and was a joy to paint - the model hand such capable hands I really felt it was important to paint them, along with the wedding ring and the very practical jeans.

Later I noticed that another model was standing in a very similar pose, but communicating defiance and uncertainty rather than capability and confidence. It seemed natural to explore the differences through colour, with a orange/green rather than blue/yellow pairing, as well as making the second painting much darker overall.

It has occurred to me that this particular stance may be much more common to women than men - I've certainly been both at some point - what do you folks think? And do you prefer one painting to the other?

Performance - Jane Gardiner's Solo Show

Today I am recovering after the day before, as yesterday was the private viewing of my first ever solo show, at Mansfield Park Gallery. . If you missed it, the paintings will be there for another three weeks.

And I am knackered, both from the drink, the talk and the relief of my part being done.

So I'm having a couple of days off, today drinking tea, lounging with the cat, thinking of all the lovely things people said about my paintings yesterday and maybe drawing the flowers that Fran Hanley gave me later.

Tomorow I go to Edinburgh for the festival and to see what artists are up to over there - particularly looking forward to John Byrne's two exhibitions.

But I thought that now would be a good time to remind folks of where you can find me elsewherre on the internet.

At facebook I am Glasgow Painter , Jane Gardiner is the webpage, with a listing of exhibitions, a bio, and a link to my mailing list as well as my email address. Flickr is mainly paintings and I'm not around there as much as I used to be. Pinterest is full of ideas but I know some people worry about how easy it is to share pictures and that attribution can be lost. Finally, there is twitter.

The Romantic

This lady I had hoped to have on the card for the show, but unfortunately she took too long to paint and then caused the poor photographer no end of trouble. Still, here she is now.

She is another big painting at four feet high. If I hadn't been doing the show and trying to make sure I filled the walls I'm not sure I would ever have attempted anything like this - but I'm so glad I did. There is just so much more you can do with more space, with including clothing and hands and little hearts and wild hair, that you just can't do with closely cropped head and shoulders.

Maybe there is a fair bit of romantic in me, too - I'm certainly looking forward to the future, meeting you folks at the opening, just as she is looking towards whatever is next - although we do both have a fair bit of trepidation.

The Classic

Another painting from the show, another back view, another beautiful lady.

This time I very much wanted to contrast the warm colours of her skin and the background with the cool, reserved pose. The most detail in the painting is in the ear, an area of the body that is entirely receptive and very individual. It was this balance between control/lack of control, natural/done, warm/cool that I found fascinating. Her hair and make-up is very classic, hence the name of the painting, and of course bare skin is the most classical garment of all - especially when worn with poise.

The Clown Princess

The Turn was interesting to paint - not least because it is my biggest painting so far, and the only whole body one - but didn't explore the challenge Donna had set me by wearing whiteface to the modelling session.

This particular pose stood out for me as she looked so regal - almost like Queen Elizabeth the First - despite wearing clowns make up. While she was there we did talk about how the same piece of clothing has different meanings and associations depending on what the are combined with, and one of the things I like about Donna's costume is that each individual item has so many possible associations - the tiara is mine, from my wedding, but is very similar to what debutantes would have worn, as well as the plastic variety each little princess has somewhere. The white make-up has a long association with clownery, but originally was used by court ladies (and some men). Ruffs have also a long tradition, especially in art, that they really deserve their own post. Kohl is of course as old as the hills . . . whereas denim is relatively new but has gathered many associations. Dungarees are workwear, but are also often worn by young children - like those in E.T. Oh, and stripey tops do also have a tradition all of their own.

And those are just some of the more obvious clues - I'm sure each of you will think of your own associations.

Altogether, along with Donna's marvelous eyes and hint of a smile, you get a clown that is ready to rule.

Metamorphosis

Everyone loves butterflies, don't they? Caterpillars not so much.

Which is clearly a wee bit of a shame, as most of us spend an awful lot of time as caterpillars, struggling to grow and change into something beautiful.

Painting The Queen

As soon as I knew I was going to have a solo show I asked Moira Buchanan to be the star of the show.

She was the first person ever to be pose for me, back in the days when I didn't know what I doing and needed at least three hours at a time. Since then I have moved into a studio downstairs from hers, making it awfully easy for me to say "There is this idea I've had, would you mind . . . ?". To her ever lasting credit she has been incredibly patient, being willing to lie on the floor with coins in her eyes, have butterflies pinned to her hair and to wear a paper crown, to list just the successful paintings.

This particular painting was an idea I had after I finished The Fool, as I felt every fool needed someone to serve. I also very much wanted a portrait that felt very Moira, with a sense of her mischievousnous. So I was giving myself a bit of a challenge but thankfully everything worked. So much so, in many ways this is the turning point painting of the exhibition, the portrait that made sense of all the rest, to the point I went back and repainted several of them, including The Fool.

So thank you, Moira!

The Turn

As some of you will know by now, the date has been set for my solo show at Mansfield Park Gallery . It opens after the private viewing on the 26th of August and will be open for three weeks - if you want to come along to the opening, email me at jane@janegardiner.co.uk. The gallery is now much further up Hyndland Road, being next to Peckhams and near the junction with Clarence Drive - so lots of good eateries and bars nearby and in one of the parts of Glasgow I remember from when I was very very little.

In this wee bit of Hyndland not much has changed in the thirty or so years since - new openings in the area is rare, so I am very honoured to be the first solo show the gallery is holding in the new premises - when I was there the place looked smashing so I am very confidant that the owner make my work look it's best.

One of the works will be The Turn, pictured above, which is my biggest painting so far. It should be a good size for the window so hopefully the denizens of Hyndland shan't disrupt her dream of reason.

There is also a portrait of Donna, The Clown Princess, which I will show later on when I have a good photograph to show you - the above painting was photographed by the very talented Ian Marshall . All my paintings from now own will be photographed by him, unless I specifically mention I did it myself (in which case it is likely to be a wip or just a duff photograph!).

Red

This is the other painting on display at Mansfield Park Gallery, where she is hung above one of Fiona Wilson's lovely paintings.
The opening went well, despite rubbish weather, and there are mutterings about having an annual dinner . . .

Friday Life Drawing

Most fridays I go and draw naked people with a bunch of other strange clothed folks -and this exhibition is the result!
There is a big range of reasons for people attending and everyone is at a different stage of progress. Without the group being welcoming, I doubt very much that I would have got together the courage to progress as much as I have, to the stage of being a professional artist (boy, does that sound wierd).
One of the oddest thing about it is that I can spend three hours of frustration, producing nonsense that goes straight in the bin, but the next day manage to really move on in a painting that I thought was stalled.
So, life drawing is much recommended, and if you happen to be in Glasgow, please come along.
(We don't know exactly what is going to be hung until the day, so it's all very exciting)