Art Sunday; Grace Slick

Art Sunday; Grace Slick

This is how most of us think of Grace Slick,

And now she looks more like this

I used to think she was one of the best female vocalists, in the same league as Janis Joplin.

And now she also paints.

There is loads of information about her and her paintings here.

Web site

http://www.limelightagency.com/Grace-Slick/Press/grace-slick-press.html

Weird I know but watching this video and listening to her made me feel a whole lot better about myself. If Grace Slick can go grey, put on a few pounds and still come across like this, there may be hope for the rest of us lesser beings.

Interview

Couldn’t finish without just one of her songs….. sighhhh oh my she was gooood.

Singing

Lunan Cemetery

This is the tiny village cemetery from the village of Lunan. The church is no longer in use but the cemetery is well maintained and visited regularly. The war memorial is very sad, this is such a small village that these 14 names probably represent half of the village school.

Usan, a derelict fishing station

I ended up here a couple of weeks ago. I knew about this place but had never actually managed to get here. I didn't know the actual history but from the look of it I would say it was deliberately demolished rather than deserted and let to become derelict. There is very little slate left on any of the roofs and there is a lot of building rubble and stone left lying in the small cove. I suspect it became unprofitable and this is the result. How sad.

Feeling a little blue

I've just found out another of my daughters is about to move away. This is the daughter with the two children I have spent most of the summer with. It all seems to be happening very quickly, she plans to actually leave next weekend. I know its for the best for her and the children but ................I will miss them. I took this picture one day while I was on the  the beach with the children

 

 

Song Saturday; Commitment

Not a song I would usually think to post but this morning I woke up to this on the radio and its been in my head ever sinse, and now I'm growing quite fond of it.

Afghan interpreter urgently needed; re Farkhunda Zahra Naderi speech

September 18th is named as the date for the next elections to the Afghan parliament. A record number of women are running in this election despite death threats, bullying, intimidation and general hassle that we, in our wildest dreams would not associate with election time.  To read more of the obstacles these women have to overcome just to do what we take for granted, go here;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/24/record-women-candidates-afghan-election
One of the candidates in these elections is a lady called Farkhunda Zahra Naderi.
Her website is here;
http://www.chadari.af/

Farkhunda Zahra Naderi
Born into an influential Ismaili family and partly educated in London, Naderi is running a highly unusual campaign, she allows no photographs of herself, and instead her campaign and posters are dominated by a pear – the symbol she chose from a random selection of three pictures each candidate puts on the ballot paper to help the largely illiterate electorate vote. Her website, chadari.af, is entitled "Burka: The Window of Power", through which she hopes women will turn their lack of equal rights to their advantage.
My real reason for posting this is this video. This is a video of Farkhunda giving a speech and from her reception, the sound of her voice and her general presence I for one would like to know more about her.

What I would like, is an Afghan interpreter, I want to know what she is saying. Come on….. there has to be an Afghan speaking person out there somewhere who can tell me what she is saying and why she is so well received by her audience.

 

 

Dolphins out at sea.... wish I had a better camera

While walking along the cliff tops,

 I could hear the dolphins.


The sound of dolphins hitting the water is very distinctive, its a sound that travels over the water for miles and sometimes, when the dolphins are playing a long way out, you hear them before you see them.

Anyway.............my camera is not particularly powerful; and the dolphins were a long way off, there were about six of them in the pod and they kept pairing up and then separating.

They are fast, they can dive and resurface out of view. I sat on the cliff top watching them and lost track of time.

All of this means  my efforts to photograph them was pretty abysmal but this is the result...........not very impressive as photographs, you'll need to click and enlarge to see anything, but a wonderful way to spend an hour or so. 

early evening august 16th

This was my first day back at work after the summer holidays. It was a warm evening, the sea was clam and the wind was low, I decided to go for a walk. Soon the weather will change and these cliffs will be out of bounds to me again for another year and I thought I should make the most of the opportunity.

oh dear................I put the computer on ages ago, then sat down and promptly fell asleep..........now its way past bed time. I must be getting very old, what can I say.... will try again tomorrow, night all :-)

Art Sunday; Cathness Glass

Cathness Glass is a Scottish Glass Company specializing in decorative paperweights mostly inspired by the colours and landscapes of Scotland. This is the company site

http://www.caithnessglass.co.uk/about/designers/

The main product of cathness Glass is the distinctive paperweights, but they do also make a selection of small vases and other fancy table ware.


A little background history and from here.

http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14:caithness-glass-co-ltd&catid=22:caithness-glass-co-ltd&Itemid=9

In 1961 Caithness Glass was set up in Wick in the county of Caithness. The traditional industries of fishing and farming were declining and a local landowner, recognising the need for new jobs, set up a glass company to take advantage of the abundant supply of sand in Caithness. This glass has an exceptionally high iron content and will tirn gren in the right conditions. 

As there was no tradition of glassmaking in the area, experienced glassmakers from Austria, Germany and Italy were brought in to train the locals. By 1962 the factory employed 40 people.
During the 1950s and 60s the leading designs in glass were Scandinavian influenced which is the style adopted by Cathness glass. The made ranges of vases, bowls and tableware. Caithness Glass specialised in coloured glass, inspired by the soft colours of the Scottish landscape. Many of the company’s products won design awards and in 1968 the company was granted a Royal Warrant by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

In 1968 the company established engraving studios when experienced engraver Colin Terris joined the company. At that time the company’s training officer was Paul Ysart, a Spanish glassmaker internationally recognized. This turned out to be a truly inspired partnership and the two of them participated in many secretive paperweight making sessions outside factory hours, Paul imparted many techniques to Colin and Colin began developing his own style of paperweights, choosing a modern, abstract route rather than the traditional styles favoured by Paul.
In 1969 Caithness Glass launched its first paperweights. Because of the incredible interest in space at the time, Colin chose ‘The Planets’ as his first subject. The initial set of four featured interpretations of Mars, Mercury, Venus and Saturn. Limited to editions of 500 each the paperweights proved to be a huge success and, once the problem of actually making the weights was overcome through the re-training of glass blowers, new designs quickly followed. In 1976, as the popularity of these objects aas collectors peoces grew, the Collectors’ Society was established. This Society is one of the longest running Societies in the industry and boasts members from around the world.

Paperweight production expanded and newfacilities were opened in Perth in 1979 to cope with the increased demand. In 1981 they bought the name of ‘’Whitefriars’’, a name famous since the 17th Century for their artglass and millefiori paperweights. These old pieces  are now very much sought after by collectors of antique paperweights. Caithness Glass continue to produce lampwork paperweights under the Whitefriars brand.

Helen MacDonald is a firm favourite with collectors and is well known for her floral inspired paperweights. She began life at Caithness as an engraver over 30 years ago and then developed her skills under Colin Terris and the  Italian master Franco Toffolo. Helen is now  Lead Designer of cathness Glass and works on both artglass and paperweights.

Gordon Hendry, another of the Cathness designers, began as an engraver and but developed his skills and is now a sought after glass designr.
Allan Scott began in lampworking before joining Caithness Glass in 1983. Lampwork is a highly skilled and challenging technique and Allan’s skills are respected within the paperweight industry. His in-depth knowledge of lampworking ensures that new designs are innovative and exciting.

Linda Campbell joined Caithness in 2000 and, under the tutelage of Allan Scott her skills as a lampworker have developed at a significant rate. Linda’s first designs were launched in 2001 and since then she has regularly contributed to the Whitefriars range, she also designes  more modern styles such as the Tian di Ren collection.

Colin Terris is now internationally recognised as ‘the father of modern paperweights’. He revolutionised the world of paperweights in the late 1960’s and has become known as the face of Caithness Glass.


These are some of the tiny peices that are cut and blown and end up inside the cathness glass paperweights to give them their special and distinctive style.

Song Saturday; Sailing Ships, Whitesnake

I spent some time at Montrose today,
the sun was shining and the boats were out,

it made me think of this song.

Kids at play

This wasn't a particularly sunny day but the kids seemed to enjoy it
Sighhhhhhh........ back to school tomorow

On the way to the beach

standing guard

I can't believe the school holidays are over already. I feel as if it has rained for the last month but I guess we must have had some good days. these were taken while walking to the beach with the grandchildren, on one of these rare sunny days this summer

Art Sunday; Auchmithy Arts Festival

This is an Art Sunday with a bit of a difference. I’ve written about the tiny cliff top village called Auchmithie before, it’s beautifully picturesque and 5 miles north along the coast from where I live. This weekend, for the first year, they held an Arts Festival. In the village hall there were home made cakes, biscuits and teas plus an exhibition of what they called the ‘amateur’ artists.

At 15 other venues through out the village different local artists displayed their work. These ‘venues’ were the villagers homes plus the village school house and church. I took a couple of pictures of my friend and her work but I couldn’t really go to all the different venues taking photographs so I’ve found as many of their we sites as I can.

This is Liz Watson who I go out painting with sometimes

 http://www.scottish-painting.co.uk/

local potter

http://www.franmarquis.co.uk/

local cartoonist and college lecturer (also pet portraits)

http://frankmcdiarmid.com/index.htm

Ross Bull Photographer and film maker

http://www.agitatorstudios.com/

Helen Macdonald, recycled jewelry

http://www.jollygoodstudio.co.uk/

These are just a few of the artists and craft makers exhibiting at Auchmithie this weekend.