Step 1 - Select Your Gin
Step 2 - Find Out More About The Artists
Neil Ghani
Who are you, where are you based, and what do you do?
Neil Ghani: Mathematician, Professor, Anarchist and Gambler. I live in Biggar and the West Coast of Scotland. I try to be kind to people.
Why do you make this type of art?
It just comes out of me. I'm interested in colour and shape and energy and how they combine to produce beauty. I want my paintings to have impact. I want you to look at them over again. For this reason, I paint on big canvases. I like oranges, yellows and reds as they give my paintings warmth and energy. I like black for the darkness it brings, blue for the calmness and white for its purity. And all the mixes one can get from these.
What inspires you?
Beauty inspires me. As a mathematician, I love it when I learn something that takes my breath away and the same is true of my taste in art be it my own or others work. When it all comes together, it really is inspiring.
How do you make it?
I’m greatly influenced by the modernists and, in particular, the abstract expressionists. Like them I’m a strong believer in expressive mark making. Not for me the slow, the delicate and the tentative. Boldness in technique leaves energy on the canvas reflecting the life force bearing within all of us.
What does your art mean to you?
Life is to be lived in joy and my art is an expression of that. I want to share that joy so others can be inspired to live in joy and live life to the full.
Rebecca Hindson
Who are you, where are you based, and what do you do?
My name is Rebecca Hindson (nee Scott). I'm originally from Biggar and currently live near Inverness. I’m a self-taught artist who enjoys working with a variety of media to create vibrant and contemporary portraits.
Why do you make this type of art?
I love to capture the natural world in an alternative and engaging form.
What inspires you?
It's not always easy to say exactly where the inspiration comes from for any particular piece...many things inspire me from photography, other artists, emotions, my environment, memories and playing with colour and material combinations. My ideas often come out of the blue!
How do you make it?
I first feel drawn to a particular subject and then have fun working out the composition of the piece and adding some quirks and twists. I love colour and my favourite part of creating a new artwork is choosing a colour palette that suits the mood and character of the piece.
What does your art mean to you?
Making art is a process of continuous experimenting, learning, frustrations and rewards. I love it and the best thing is getting to share my artwork with others.
Gavin Mitchell
Who are you, where are you based, and what do you do?
I love this question. To be honest I do not know who I am and any body that said they knew them self I would regard as not having thought deeply enough about it or some kind of wise master. My art is often helpful in helping me discover who I am. I am based in Skirling. I paint and draw a lot of the time and I also run a gardening business (greenman gardening). I teach bushcraft-wilderness awareness skills in relationship to self development life coaching.
Why do you make this type of art?
I do it because I believe looking at art can be healing. part of the healing processes can be understood through developing an inspired connection between the spiritual and the physical world. This connection can enable one to see the truth of life. even why it is difficult
What inspires you?
Enabling human freedom including my own.
How do you make it?
I write and mediate on the ideal or idea and let the painting happen intuitively. I also paint using many other methods another one is when I am working with plants and animals I will sometimes paint the feeling gesture of the being of the physical being.
What does your art mean to you?
It it give me a way of working with the feeling quality of colour. which embody the secrets of life its self. It means a door way for me to understand my self the spiritual and the physical world.
Ken Russell
Who are you, where are you based, and what do you do?
My name is Ken Russell, I live in Biggar and I am a painter and print maker.
Why do you make this type of art?
Painting allows me to break free of the the constraints of my other passion - making complicated clocks.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by strange things - a broken cup in the gutter ( how did it get there?). A pile of rubble on a building site. Once inspired I can change things - add colour, shape and perspective.
How do you make it?
My method of defeating the LARGE white sheet of paper or canvas board is to apply collage, ink, charcoal and paint making a variety of marks then see what happens!!
What does your art mean to you?
There are times when you wonder why you paint especially when things are not going well, then suddenly the magic happens. Then you know why you do it!!
Liz Steele
Who are you, where are you based, and what do you do?
Hi. I’m Liz Steele from Drakelaw Pottery near Crawfordjohn. I make a range of functional and decorative stoneware pottery that is good enough to use everyday.
Why do you make this type of art?
I have been a potter since leaving college 36 years ago. I enjoy using stoneware clay and glazes as the high firing temperature allows the pots to be oven, microwave and dishwasher proof, so very practical for use.
What inspires you?
I’m inspired by the design and function of other potter's work as well as creating new designs for a specific function.
How do you make it?
Making a pot from start to finish is a lengthy process. Once the pot is thrown I leave it to dry slightly before imprinting a pattern on the rim. The piece then dries further before I turn a foot on the bottom. Once the piece is bone dry I decorate with a liquid coloured slip before the 1st 'bisc' firing to 1000 degrees. The pot is then dipped in glaze which I mix from a recipe and then goes through 2 glaze firings, the last to a temperature of 1260 degrees. The firings take 6 days. I then rub the bottom with a grinding stone and it’s ready to be sold.
What does your art mean to you?
My workshop is my sanctuary and my pots a pleasing result from time spent making. I enjoy the added bonus of myself and other people finding pleasure in using the pieces I make.
Carol Taylor
Who are you, where are you based, and what do you do?
My name is Carol Taylor. I am a graduate of Edinburgh College and The Royal College of Art, London. I am a painter who uses photography as a research tool. I lectured in Sculpture, in Art Colleges, for 23 years but gave up teaching 8 years ago to work full-time as an artist. I paint full time in my Studio & Gallery beside the Scribtree Coffee Shop, 4 Colliers Court, Douglas. ML11 0RX.
Why do you make this type of art?
Having graduated in both Sculpture and Painting, I am happy to explore across the whole Fine Art spectrum. I find the natural world, the plant kingdom, landscape and seascape awe inspiring. I adore colour; the seasons; time of day/night, the weather; extremes of scale excites me, from the minuscule, microscopic detail to the infinite expanse of the macrocosm in our universe.
What inspires you?
Nature inspires me because it is full of unknown quantities. It changes from season to season, from day to day. There is so much that our naked eye cannot see. It allows me to explore infinite amounts of unknown territory. The sea moves; light and storm, or the moon, or the sun or the wind changes everything. It is magical and enables me to aim for an ethereal quality in my paintings.
How do you make it?
I take photographs, gathering information on plants or the landscape. I am a gardener, my hands in the soil and my love of growing plants informs my work. I do not copy, it holds zero interest for me. I believe in each artist's unique voice to develop our own visual language. I paint on canvas, wood panels or cotton rag paper, in oil, acrylic or watercolour. I also use mixed media and create assemblages, frequently including soil, grasses, feathers, moss, shells, sand etc gathered on walks from the landscape I am painting.
What does your art mean to you?
Painting has been my whole life, it is who I am to my very core. I wouldn’t know how to live without it.
