Celebrations for centenary of Macintosh building - people gathering for the projections on three sides of the building


Professor Roger Wilson, Head of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art in his studio

View from the staircase

The Loggia, better known as "the hen run".

Attended the centenary celebrations of the Macintosh building yesterday. Place heaving with celebrities, politicians, and the movers and shakers from the international art world including Tony Jones , former Head of GSA and now with The School of the Art Insitute, Chicago.


Met the new Head of Fine Art, Professor Roger Wilson in his studio where he was painting and chatting to visitors ( nice touch!). He comes to Glasgow from Chelsea College of Art and Design.

I graduated in 2001 and it was good to be back in the Macintosh building. It reminded me again that the building is a "feast for the eyes", not surprising since Charles Rennie Macintosh, a part-time student, knew what art students wanted.

Amateurs versus professional artists

Iphone art: "dancing"


That hoary old chestnut "amateur versus professional artists" has reared its head again as the debate over Open Studios begins.

Pointed out to a professional artist friend that participants will have to pay only to be told:"they can afford it because they have jobs and paint part-time".
Oh dear!.... why can't everyone accept that there different strands of art and many different kinds of art and artists.


Let the public decide!

Forth Valley Artist Open Studios

I am still reeling from the shock of discovering at yesterday's meeting of Forth Valley Artists that no data base exists of artists in the area! I would have thought it would have been the first job of any Visual Arts Officer to make certain that he/she had an up-to-date list of all artists.

This accounts for the poor response to our first meeting - 10 plus our two guest speakers. I had assumed ( wrongly as it turned out) that the Changing Room gallery, a local funded gallery by the council, had a list. It was only discovered half way through the meeting that most of the people attending had not received an email from the Changing Room informing them of the meeting.


Later discovered a "glitsch". Sure enough the new Visual Arts Officer confirmed that such a list does not exist. Unless artists have approached them for grants or signed their Visitors Book then they have no record of their existence.

Now Perthshire artists have a very active art scene . They have a flourishing Visual Arts Forum which provided a data base for the Perthshire Open Studios to work from.

We have to start from scratch.....