I recently took a trip to the Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock to see Tom Lightbody’s stunning mural of Lady Kilmarnock on the gable of a wall on St Marnock Square. Lady Kilmarnock, Lady Anne Livingston Boyd was married to the 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, a Jacobite, who was captured, taken to the Tower of London and beheaded. During his imprisonment and after his execution, Lady Anne would take long walks in her garden, now named Howard Park and the area of her strolls is called The Lady’s Walk. Tom’s fine line work is used to full effect in the lace of her clothes and umbrella, reflecting the area’s thriving lace-making in the 19th Century. A mural that is well worth the trip in my opinion.
Whilst in the area, I wandered along to nearby John Dickie Street to see Michael Corr’s magnificent mural depicting Robbert Burns on the end gable of the building housing The Robert Burns World Federation. This bright colourful portrait has Rabbie as a younger man than that shown in Naysmith’s portrait. I think it is a wonderful addition to the town and is sure to attract people to visit it, just don’t look at the Facebook posts from the locals, the thread I spotted descended into comments about potholes, dog poo, and the Station clock.
Whilst travelling around the coastal area to go to some meetings, I ended up in Greenock where I came across Smug’s striking mural designed to promote breastfeeding in the Inverclyde area.
This artwork, which has transformed the gable end of a block of flats on Nicolson Street in Greenock, is another example of Sam’s photorealistic style.
I had a nice morning taking part in the Govan Mural Trail as an assistant tour guide. About 18 people joined Angie and I for a stroll around the area to see the murals that make up the trail. The murals are part of the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District (a.k.a. GRID) by the team at SWG3. On the tour leaflet, there are QR codes which link to songs created by the Glasgow Barons to accompany each of the murals, I will add a link to them here.
Mural #1
Firstly we visited Smug’s gable end mural on Govan Road at the Riverside Gardens, this mural depicts a small girl picking up a daffodil, with scenes of Govan’s industrial heritage behind her, including an image of the great ocean liner, Empress of Britain, which was built in Govan by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and launched in 1905.
The next stop on our route was Crossloan Road where the next 3 murals are close to each other. KMG’s The Flock is built around the themes of migration and new families arriving in Glasgow and depicts two birds cradling their young.
A short stroll to the next corner found us in front of a mural depicting one of Govan’s famous sons, Sir Alex Ferguson, created by the Artisan Artistworks team of Frank and Mandy Carty also shown on this mural are 4 women wartime munitions workers inspired by a photo kindly donated by a former Govan resident.
We didn’t have far to go to see the next mural on the trail, it is on the adjacent wall of the shop. This mural features Isabella Elder and Mary Barbour near where Mary lived during the 1915 Rent Strikes and the Elder Park gifted to the people of Govan by Isabella.
Although not part of the tour the next mural on Paisley Road West is worth adding to the trail, this piece by Glasgow artist Tragic O’Hara is a bit of a mystery as all of its elements reference something from the Cessnock, Ibrox and Govan area. Gavin Paterson’s song which accompanies the mural apparently tells the story of all the items painted on the wall.
I have been quite busy over the past few weeks, my son Graeme and his wife Briony arrived from Australia for a short break, so I spent some time with them, including a trip to the Banksy ‘Cut and Run’ exhibition in Glasgow’s GOMA, something I enjoyed and would highly recommend.
Due to the school holidays, my mate Jim asked me to help him with some childcare duties, so Jim, Jack, Dylan, and I headed off to Lanark to see the stunning murals depicting William Wallace painted by Rogue One, followed by a wander around the town to find the twenty huge dinosaur sculptures are in place in the town centre and the nearby Castlebank Park, despite the rainy weather we all had a great day.
We stopped off on the way home to visit some more murals, this time at the Glasgow Distillery on Moffat Street, it was good to see the work of Rogue One alongside Molly Hankinson, Michael Corr, and Ellie Mills on a set of tanks.
On Saturday, we visited Phillies in Shawlands for a farewell party for my son and daughter-in-law where I ‘discovered’ ‘Cecile the Lion’ painted by DZIA in 2015 when he was invited by the Heverlee brewery when they were setting up a pop-up Belgian beer bar. On the way home via Giffnock I then came across a fine mural on the wall of El Jefes restaurant painted by one of my favourite Glasgow guys, Frodrik.
Once I had created this post, I discovered that I had neglected the site for a while, so with a bit of time on my hands, I set about adding the stuff I had missed lately. The pages I have added to, or appended are as follows:
For those who don’t know, Aye Write is an annual book festival held in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow where I normally volunteer. This year, due to various things I’ve been involved in, I could only be at 3 sessions in the Royal Concert Hall, the Mitchell is being refurbished, for 2 of them I was stationed at the green room and didn’t get a chance to take in any of the events, however, I was able to sit in on Stuart Coscrove‘s talk about his latest book Hey America!, The epic story of black music and the White House, it was a very interesting discussion with loads of humour as Stuart reminisced about his discovery and love of soul music.
The highlight of the festival, for me, and many other volunteers is Wee Write, the part of the festival for children and young people, six days of inspiring, fun-packed events for little people with big imaginations. I managed to fit in a few sessions for this. The first one, on Monday, was at the Mitchell Library with Alan Windram, highlighting his latest book “One Button Benny and the Dinosaur Dilemma”. This was a fun-packed session, the group of first-year primary kids had great fun joining Alan as he sang, danced and joked his way through the story, it was wonderful to see them all so enthusiastic about the One Button Benny books.
The afternoon saw me heading along Sauchiehall Street to the Royal Concert Hall to help out there while Brighton based author and illustrator, Steven Lenton brought the latest of his “Genie and Teeny” books to life. the primary 3 kids had a ball of a time as he took them through the story with loads of jokes, then held a drawing class with them to create their own version of Teeny, it was great fun., and all of their drawings were very good, but I think they like the little jokes best, especially the naughty ones.
I was scheduled to volunteer at a session today (Wednesday), by Tom Palmer, another children’s author, but unfortunately, the session was moved out to a school and there was no need for volunteers, I was a wee bit disappointed as I had great fun at the previous sessions. I can’t wait until next year.
I paid a visit to the inaugural Storytellers exhibition at The Glue Factory in Farnell Street on Saturday 23rd June.
This exhibition showcases Glasgow’s street culture and creatives, providing a space and a platform for artists to present their work.
There was a wide range of mediums on show, with something for everyone across the entire ground floor of the Glue Factory, from graffiti and paintings to sculptures and videos, there even was a wall where kids, of all ages, could express themselves.
I will admit that I took the wrong camera with me to the event, however, I still managed to get some good shots of works fromMack Colours, Ejek, Priest!, Chelsea Frew, Barry the Cat, Micheal Corr, and Ross MacRae. I loved the area Conzo & Glöbel had set up, this displayed their typical sense of humour, and I was mightily impressed by Mark Worst’s display wall. Saving the best to last, up high on the back wall of the space is a tremendous piece by GazMac, which highlights his status in Glasgow’s Street Art community.
I’ve been very busy lately, hence the lack of recent input to my blog. It all started with Yardworks, followed by volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, and this past weekend I was volunteering at Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, more information on each of these follows:
Yardworks
One of my favourite events is Yardworks, held at SWG3, this annual street art festival is one of my favourite weekends in Glasgow. The event, held on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th June, is one of Europe’s biggest dedicated to street art and graffiti – with artists and writers from across Glasgow, the UK and Europe coming together to paint and draw, creating an explosion of colour.
On the nearby railway arches, wall spaces and boards in the yard, the highly skilled artists including Smug, Ejek, Rogue One and many others worked side by side with some of the most celebrated names from around the globe – including Zurik, Bublegum, and Balstroem.
Smug + Bublegum + The Guzler
I was there on the Saturday with my mate Jim and his 10 year old grandson Jack and It was so good to be able to meet and chat with friends old and new, Jack was enthralled by the talent on display and expressed an interest in trying out some spray painting himself in the future.
Jack and his favourite mural
Sunday saw me back again, this time with my friends Gary and Jan Gammage, it was great to see the works develop and to see the eventual finished articles. Gary & Jan were interested in the many different techniques used, spray paint, palette, brush and the use of stencils in the development of the pieces.
It was a brilliant weekend, great art, good food and fun in the company of friends, what more could you ask for.
Sunday the 26th found me in Kelvingrove park volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, an annual multicultural music and dance festival. The Mela began in 1990 as part of Glasgow’s year as the European City of Culture and has grown from being an indoor event at the Tramway to an outdoor extravaganza, with something for all the family.
I was assigned as the Artist Liaison for the Navras (main) stage, which kept me busy for the whole day. At this stage, we had a variety of acts, dance, music and performance arts. Amongst the acts that entertained me and the crowds were Deesh Sandhu, Hunterz and the headliner Jaz Dhami and his band.
Being busy for most of the day I missed out on some of the other activities on offer but did manage to grab a nice lamb curry for lunch from one of the many food outlets on site.
Doune The Rabbit Hole
Doune the Rabbit Hole is an intimate, independent music & arts festival located amidst the glorious ancient oak trees of the Cardross Estate, near the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire. Starting in 2010, at a site near the town of Doune (hence the name!) they have been celebrating the very best of Scotland’s independent arts scene alongside amazing international guests. This year’s line-up included main stage headliners like the legendary Patti Smith and Band, multi-million selling Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald, homegrown, world-famous talent Belle & Sebastian, English post-punk duo Sleaford Mods and Bellshill natives and superstars Teenage Fanclub, one of my son Graeme’s favourites (the video below is for him). I really enjoyed the set by Esperanza, a Glasgow Ska band, they took me back to my youth.
I was the artist Liaison on the Bandersnatch stage which had a sort of folkie and blues vibes, and thanks to Chris Blackmore, the Stage Manager and Phil the Sound Engineer, the atmosphere there was pretty chilled and relaxing and we had some really entertaining artists on stage including The Mary Wallopers, Rachel Sermanni and John Francis Flynn, it was good to see and listen to Erin Bradley-Scott perform, Erin is one of my favourite art groups, The Cobolt Collective, she certainly is a talented lady. It seems like I can never get away from street art and artists, I even came across a nice piece by Ross MacRae next to the Jabberwocky stage, I really like his work.
There was also some exceptional food on offer, although there was a crew canteen I gave it a miss at times to sample the fare from Barnacles & Bones, Shawarmarama, and the Pizza Geeks.
As this was a weekend camping festival and I didn’t feel like camping, I decided to book a room in Willow Court, one of Stirling University’s halls of residence, overall this was a great choice. Another great weekend and I’m looking forward to heading back again next year
I ventured out today to find something new and was pleasantly surprised that a couple of old favourites are still there and looking fairly good.
My first stop was in Govanhill where Conzo Throb & Ciaran Glöbel created ‘A Postcard from Govanhill‘, the first mural in the Govanhill Open Museum art trail. The mural, which contains patterns from Middle Eastern tiles, Romanian fabric, Scottish tartan and ‘wally close’ tiles, represents a different aspect of the diverse local community and is very reminiscent of a similar one created by them in Dennistoun.
Maryhill was my next stop, where I went looking for a new(ish) mural by Mack Colours and Frodrik on Stockline Plastic’s building on Hopehill Street, it really is well worth a visit to see it, the company are delighted with it and In their opinion, it makes a wonderful addition to the impressive collection of murals around the city.
Mack Colours & Frodrik
Whilst in the area, I popped along Maryhill Road where I photographed a piece by Ohpanda in theBraeside Community Gardens, a nice big fish from Frodrik on the front of a building near the corner of Cowal Road. At the end of the building, you will find the little Scottie Dog and Bumble Bee and across the road, there is the Glasgow Panther, both created by Rogue One and Ejek way back in 2014.
Never mind the Birdman of Alcatraz, we have our own talented Birdman here in the southside of Glasgow. While out shopping the other day I came across some fine pieces on the soon to be demolished Shawbridge Arcade in Pollokshaws, which apart from a lonely bookies shop, is almost derelict. The pieces, mainly by Mack Colours and Frodrik, certainly brighten up the area. I spoke to one old lady resident who stated that “that boy sure knows his burds, he shoud’a done this years ago“. With some other pieces from Glasgow’s TapendTef and Mul-Draws, who is on a visit to the city from Newcastle, the murals are now drawing people to it and the area. It’s a shame they will disappear when the arcade is gone. UPDATE The murals also attracted the attention of the local newspaper, you can read their article here
A couple of days earlier whilst in Glasgow I spotted a couple of nice pieces by Frodrik in the Trongate area, showing his new ‘Blue Period’, one of a dog on Trongate and one of his stunning monochrome portraits on Hutcheson Street, both are up to his usual very high standard and are well worth a look. What I did like to see was a piece by Mul-Draws, who I met at Prefab77’s exhibition at Yard Life last week, it’s good to see these collaborations, I believe Frodrik and Mack Colours reciprocated by visiting Newcastle, recently.
Frodrik on TrongateFrodrik & Mul-Draws on Hutcheson Street
I took a trip into Yard Life at SWG3 last night to see the new exhibition by Prefab77 (AKA Peter Manning). A Slice of Life, which is Peter’s first solo Scottish show, is a stunning series of portraits in a mixture of print, acrylic, spray paint, wheatpaste and varnish which creates a dark world of Gangs, Goddesses and Groupies, woven into pure, rock and rebellion. I had a good blether with Peter, a thoroughly nice guy, who stated that he loves Glasgow and is looking forward to returning in June for Yardworks 2022, I would love to see him in action then.
Prefab77Native Love IIKiller QueenBlame SocietyRiot HeistPower to the People
It was really good to see many of the Glasgow based artists visiting last night and to catch up with them, I look forward to seeing the many new pieces they were discussing when they appear.
On my way to the gallery, I walked down Haugh Street and on hearing some good music coming from a doorway, I peeked in to be surprised by some really good paintings of well-known chefs, by the style it looks like the work of Rogue One. It turned out to be the Dockyard Social, who state that they are the best street food traders Scotland has to offer, providing a taste of global comfort food, it certainly looks like a place I will return to.
I have been quite busy recently volunteering at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, I was based in the City Chambers in George Square in a Protocol role, this basically was a meet and greet role at the many Civic Receptions being held there. It was good to see the reaction of many of the delegates to the mosaic of the city’s coat of arms at the entrance to the building, and the many other mosaics found throughout the building, on the ceilings and domes, with an estimated 1.5 million individual tiles used and laid by hand. However, the greatest surprise was shown by many delegates when confronted by the marble staircase, made entirely from imported Italian Carrara marble, they were stunned to hear that it’s the biggest of its kind in Western Europe, meaning it’s one storey taller than the one in the Vatican City.
City Chambers entrance
Marble staircase
Marble staircase
City Chambers
COP26 gave some of our artists a chance to put up some new related works with some on the arches at SWG3 facing towards the SEC Campus. Although I was disappointed to see Guido Van Helten’s badminton player disappear from Wilson Street, I was pleased to see a new mural by the Fearless Collective showing the faces of indigenous leaders who have been at the forefront of the COP26 conference. If you look closely at the top of the mural you can see the top edge of the shuttlecock, a little bit of Guido’s legacy left behind.
Fearless Collective Wilson Street
Govan
YTardworks Arches
YTardworks Arches
YTardworks Arches
YTardworks Arches
While travelling around the city during the conference, I did manage to catch some good street art, with an especially nice piece by Frodrik at the side of CASS Art on Queen Street, a good mural about youth homelessness in Midland Street opposite James Kling’s portraits, but what really pleased me was a little charcoal type drawing of a figure in a doorway on Candleriggs, I noticed that as I made my way down the street after having a rather good pizza in Nonna Said with it’s ghood artwork by Conzothrob, he also pooped up in the St Enoch Centre with a funadvert for the new cinema there. I’ve also included a mural from Mikaku on Queen Street painted by Rogue One.
Frodrik Cambridge Stret
Frodrik Queen Street
Rebel Bear Sauchiehall Street
Nonna said Candleriggs
Nonna said Candleriggs
Nonna said Candleriggs
Unknown Candleriggs
Molly Hankingson St Enochs
Conzothrob St Enochs
Rogue One Mikaku Queen Street
End youth homelessness by GWMcLaughli midland Street
Jim's travels 