August 08, 2013

Kirkcudbright Art & Craft trail & stories . . .

What a whirlwind of a few days Kirkcudbrights 10th art & craft trail was.
A wonderful weekend filled with perfect weather, the sun shining all the way. 
(me & some of my work at the Tolbooth)
 We loved our space upstairs in the Tolbooth, with its beautiful old stone walls,
plenty of light & the doves that serenaded us daily outside the window.
(Mom ~ Jean Redden & her paintings)

Mom & I spent Thursday setting up, I had 1corner of the room & she the other,
Mom paints wonderful landscapes of the surrounding countryside, flora & fauna.
The doors opened on Friday morning for 4 days of visitors and my did we have plenty of interested folk & interesting conversations.   I am ever fascinated by the stories my work evokes in the people who connect with it.  One lady stopped at my dandelion clock painting and shared a lovely story it reminded her of.  When she was small her Grandad told her  dandelions were called "bus clocks" he would tell her to blow the dandelion to see what time the faerie bus was coming along. How lovely!
(I did manage to persuade my Galloway Faeries to attend!)

 I had some fascinating conversations with children (such imagination) about making art & stories & creating.  One lovely sharing was the wee 4yr old who told me "I'm an artist you know".  When i asked her what she painted she replied "I paint things like this (with huge sweeps of her little arms) and then people have to decide what it looks like" ~ what a sweetie. 
( some of my woodland sculptures & a selkie)
 As we packed away at the end of the 4th day I decided I was happily exhausted in the nicest possible way, felt I could sleep for a week and was grinning from ear to ear from the loveliness of it all.
A huge thank you to each & every one of you who took the time to pop by the exhibition over the 4 days ~ you all helped make it a most amazing event. So many fascinating connections, conversations & new exciting possibilities have come from it.

 Now I have much catching up to do & blog reading & visiting so I'm off for a well earned rest.  Have a lovely rest of the week folks.