Summer Sounds of Nova Scotia

Last night I went to the deCoste Centre in Pictou to catch the first show in the season of Summer Sounds in Nova Scotia. John 'Spyder' MacDonald hosted the show and was joined by fiddler Fleur Mainville, guitarist Ross MacVicar and multi-instrumentalist Mark Haines. In this ceilidh style presentation all the musicians stay on stage throughout the show and often join in with each other's tunes. I had a terrific evening, and it was enjoyed by visitors from as far afield as the USA, Alberta and Scotland.

You can catch this show every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening throughout July and August. It's a must see if you are in the area this summer and an experience not to be missed. Every week there is a different line-up of musicians, and I will be going back at every chance I get. Next week the line up is Jimmy Sweeney, Alycia Putnam & family, and Ardyth & Jennifer.

See you there.


Technorati Tags: pictou, nova scotia, deCoste centre, music

Art in a Flash

I just watched a program on CBC TV about an artist book featuring Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. They have set up a webpage with links to several wonderful Flash presentations: Artist Book

I found this interesting on many levels. First of all there is the art aspect of the book itself, a collaboration between three artists. Then there is the interactive presentations created for this website. They are wonderful examples of what can be done with Flash. They include graphics, video and audio.

Before getting broadband I was anti-Flash. Maybe because I had seen very few good presentations, and definitely because of the long downloads! Now everything has changed:) I'd be interested to know if any of you on dialup find these useable? I think that this style could provide a very persuasive sales pitch. Who wants to go to Gros Morne on vacation this year?

Technorati Tags: art, Flash, artist book, Gros Morne, Newfoundland

Found art

Every now and then an artist finds a new way to present their art to the public. In April of 2005 Margaret Nicholson placed 100 pieces of her clay sculpture at spots around the coastline of Nova Scotia. Each one carries a tag directing the finder to the website where they can contact Margaret and tell her about their find. Forty six are still unaccounted for.

For those who don't want to search the whole coast, Margaret has created a CD with pictures of the sculptures and a treasure map showing their locations. The CD will be launched on Thursday at the St. FX Art Gallery in Antigonish.


Technorati Tags: art, sculpture, clay, Nova Scotia

A private viewing

I am just back from a trip home to England where I had the chance to see some recent works of my friend Margaret Micklewright. Working in acrylics and inks, the works I had seen before were largely atmospheric seascapes inspired by her childhood home on the island of Arran.

Since then Margaret's work has broadened in style and subject. Perhaps her boldest new direction is the very colourful harbour scenes, such as Mousehole, a small village in Cornwall. Margaret has had an liking of horses for most of her life, so it was no surprise that she recently started painting them. White Horse is a beautifully dreamy painting in acrylic.

Having settled now in Somerset, there are many West Country influences in Margaret's work. Glastonbury Abbey - Study in Gold is one such subject in ink, one of many strong images of architectural subjects. Also in ink is Summer Wood, inspired by sketches and photos taken near my home town of Wells.

There are many more pictures of Margaret Micklewright's work at on her website. I was in awe at the diverse directions her work has taken since I last saw her work, and pleased to learn that her work is sought after in gallerys and at her website. I look forward to my next visit.

CBC Freestyle tag cloud

I have tried my best to get to like CBC Radio 1's new afternoon show Freestyle. Admittedly it does give me few chuckles, but nothing worth having to listen to nearly two hours of this inane drivel.

So here my tribute to Freestyle in the form of a Tag Cloud:

i don't like it latest travesties unacceptable
terribleness crap Freestyle Foolish yapping
bad idea inane babble awful

Technorati tags: cbc freestyle

Carnival of the Creators #2

Welcome to the second edition of Carnival of the Creators, a weekly round-up of blog posts from the arts and crafts community. Each week the carnival is hosted on a different blog. If you missed last week's edition you will find it at The ChipShop, my studio blog. Next week it will be hosted by Wendy Van Camp on Indigoskye Bead Fashions.

I'm going to start this week with a request for help from Alyson Stanfield from ArtBizBlog.com. Alyson is writing a book and is looking for artists who either have a terrific newsletter or have a press release that needs a makeover. This seems like a great opportunity to get some print publicity.

There is another opportunity for a bit of publicity at Thinking About Art which hosts Artists Interview Artists. Interested artists have to provide questions that will be answered by another artist. In return they have to answer questions from someone else. This week's interview was with Roz Leibowitz.

Last week's carnival mentioned Edward Winkleman's suggestion that more art collectors should keep a blog. I'm pleased to report that Christopher has accepted the challenge and started a new blog, The Destitute Collector. I look forward to seeing more of his collection and learning about this collector.

John T. Unger works in many media using a wide variety of materials. "Odysseus: Scrapyard Abstract No. 6" is an abstract scuplture made in welded steel. I like John's use of his blog to promote works that are for sale in another gallery. It is very easy to sit back and let a gallery take all responsibility for selling one's work, but John's pro-active approach is a win-win situation for both parties. Maybe the gallery will see the benefits of internet marketing and blogging.

ArtMoCo points us to a more web-savvy gallery. "Hanging Puddles" is a series created by artist Al Taylor who currently has an exhibition at Haunch of Venison in Zurich. This gallery not only has a website, but also features select works from the exhibition and pages from the catalogue.

To round off this weeks Carnival of the Creators, let's stop at a few blogs that have some advice for artists.

Alisha Vincent blogs at Art or Craft and has some advice about seeking honest feedback about your work. Meanwhile Paul Dorrell offers some advice about making sure collectors don't assume they have any rights to publish images of the works they buy. I wonder how that applies to the The Destitute Collector I mentioned earlier?

Britt Parrott writes about Taking a Day Out as a defense against creative blocks. One idea is that "the less you pack, the more you experience". Similar advice "Consume experiences, not things" is found in Karimanifesto, which reports on Karim Rashid's fifty-point manifesto, a guide to life and design. (If you have time to play, take a look at Karim Rashid's website and point your mouse at the graphics at the bottom of the page. I don't normally like website gizmos's, but I do find this one quite engaging.)

That's it folks for another week. Next week's Carnival of the Creators will be hosted by Wendy Van Camp on Indigoskye Bead Fashions. If you have read or written a recent blog post about art, craft or any other form of creativity please tell tell us about it using the form at BlogCarnival.com.

See you all at the carnival next week.



Technorati Tags: art, artists, Carnival of the Creators, carnival, publicity, art collector, gallery, internet marketing, blogging, Wendy Van Camp, Indigoskye Bead Fashions