My First Solo Exhibition

At The Birch Tree Gallery 23A Dundas Street Edinburgh Midlothian, EH3 6QQ

‘Under Celestial Skies’, from February 2nd - 26th 2022.
Opening times: Tuesdays to Saturdays 11am - 4pm.

Gallery owner, Jurgita Galbraith, approached me at the end of Printfest 2018. For several reasons it wasn’t until late 2021 that I could follow up her interest, at which point Jurgita offered me the chance to exhibit in February 2022.

It’s been quite a daunting undertaking, partly because this is the first time I’ve had the chance for my work to be the sole focus of any exhibition and partly because it’s Edinburgh, a city renowned for high quality in all things especially art!

With Jurgita’s encouragement though that I embarked on working on a much larger scale. I began moving from the square format I use for all my work during the first lockdown to (mainly) a long narrow landscape format that uses half a full size A1 sheet of paper. When I felt I’d mastered that format successfully, I took my courage in both hands and began using a whole sheet of A1.

It’s been a challenge. It involves creating collagraph plates to the maximum size my etching press will take. Inking up any new plate takes a while at the best of times. Any new plate has to be ‘broken in’. It has to be inked up in one colour first to obtain a ‘proof’. The proof tells me how well the plate prints, what areas I need to pay special attention to and make decisions on what adjustments need to be made to get the best results. It is time consuming but a process I enjoy even if it is physically demanding. Seeing those prints framed has been very satisfying.

At Jurgita’s request, I painted the frames in the consignment a pale grey. This was a BIG undertaking but the end result was, I believe, worth doing. It meant that some prints, which were already framed had to be unframed, the frames painted with Annie Sloan chalk paint, then waxed (for additional protection) and then reframed. Twenty four frames in total received this treatment. Do let me know what you think?

I delivered the work last Thursday. If you keep an eye on Jurgita’s Facebook page and/or her Instagram page, she will be posting various videos we made together about the inspiration behind some of the work. I’m also going to be sending her a couple of other videos that show how some of the work was created.