Jim's travels

Due to a bit of a head cold and some wet and windy weather, I decided to stay indoors and finish off adding images etc to the site.  I’ve eventually got around to adding photographs to the Hong Kong street art section and I’ve added a new trail route, this time for a trail I completed in the summer just before my holiday.  This trail really should have been one of the earlier ones as it took me to the supposed home of Glasgow’s Street Art scene, SWG3 near Partick.  The trail can be followed here.

A Happy New Year to you all

As it was a quiet day today and feeling a wee bit under the weather with the start of a cold, I decided to do a bit more work on the site by adding more photographs.

The pages updated are:

• Street Art in the South Island,
• Street Art in Christchurch
• Street Art in Greymouth
• Street Art in Arran

Seeing all these great places really brightened me up ready to start again tomorrow, I’ve had a tip-off on some great murals in nearby Paisley, watch this space!

To finish off a year of finding and photographing murals in Glasgow and beyond, I thought I would visit the east end of Glasgow to capture the Shettleston Giraffe. As usual, after this trail I finished off in the excellent West Brewery on Glasgow Green.

You can follow the trail here.

I was in Glasgow yesterday and was a wee bit disappointed to see that Rogue One’s Hip-Hop Marionettes has disappeared, the building on John Street, where the mural was added in 2016, has been demolished. I was happy to see it every time I was in the area, I wonder if the new building will have some art added when it’s completed.

This week was quite busy, after my visit to the Barn in the Gorbals on Monday, I decided to update a mural trail I had previously taken, I went back and revisited it taking new photographs, this trail, Trail #5, around 3km started in George Square and took me to Tennents Brewery on Duke Street and Glasgow’s famous Barras Market, as usual, I finished in a pub, this time I had pre-arranged to meet my pal Jim in the West Brewery, and over lunch and a few beers we decided to visit Iceland in February to photograph the Northern Lights.  Leaving West, we took a stroll back into the city to show Jim the Billy Connolly murals and Smug’s Honey I shrunk the kids mural in Mitchell Street.

There was a local power cut that evening which put my computer out of action so I eventually got us all booked up on Thursday.

During the week I was quite excited to be selected to volunteer in both Celtic Connections 2019 and the European Indoor Athletics Championships in the new year, I’m not sure what my roles at each will be, but I’m really looking forward to them.

To complete the week’s work I finished the New Zealand section of my Trips Away area of the website, it can be seen here.  The last section covers my time from Queenstown to Christchurch, and my trip to Greymouth, and finally my departure to Fiji.

Today I popped into the Crossroads at the Barn youth centre in Abbotsford Place, where I had previously taken some photographs of work by EJEK (Danny McDermott).

I had noticed this new work, a portrait of Stan Lee, with his character creations, as I passed on a bus which had been diverted due to roadworks.  Seeing it up close, it really is a great piece of work, Danny’s skill as an artist is exceptional.

While I chatting to Katy and the staff at the centre, I managed to solve a riddle that had been puzzling me for some years.  All around the Gorbals and Southside, I noticed a symbol painted on walls, shop fronts and on the Gorbals Men’s Shed gates, it turned out that it called The Glasgow Venus, which is a cultural artefact in design, created by Luis MaGill an over 60s Scotish artist, residing in Glasgow’s Southside, I found a set of his work on Laurieston Road, behind the Brazen Head public-house, which unfortunately has been tagged over leaving only little bits visible.

Stan Lee, Crossroads at the Barn

Glasgow Venus

I have added these photographs onto the Mural Trail #4 Page

I also recently added a gallery of outstanding figurative paintings by James Klinge in East Kilbride, they can be seen here.  I’ve also added a page showing the cheerful and bright mural at Rutherglen Station, clicking on the links will take you there.

A fairly busy week gone by, last Wednesday I took delivery of a new camera before heading to my first Christmas dinner of the year, this time it was with my friends from the Rutherglen Library heritage group, it was good to meet up and have a nice meal together.

My friend and neighbour Iain Carrie offered me the chance to visit his lodge in the Auchrannie Resort on Arran for a few days, so I headed off on Thursday, with my new camera, to catch the early morning ferry from Ardrossan.  It was good to revisit many of my favourite places such as the Machrie Moor Standing Stones, Kings Cave and Glen Sannox, retaking photographs.  Meals in the Drift Inn in Lamlash, the Douglas Hotel and a musical evening in the Crofters listening and chatting to Cams Campbell, a gifted musician, all made for a special trip, I even got some Street art photographs!

Drift Inn, Lamlash, Arran

Shelter painted by David Aitchison

Cormorant at Blackwaterfoot

Machrie Moor Standing Stones

Shelter painted by David Aitchison

Shelter painted by David Aitchison

Shelter painted by David Aitchison

Glen Sannox, Arran

Machrie Moor Standing Stones

Christmas shopping beckoned so a visit to Glasgow’s shops was the order of the day on Sunday, I finished off in the Merchant Square craft market where I met up with Andy Hurst, a really friendly and gifted Glasgow artist, I had purchased some of Andy’s work before I left for my travels and Andy was keen to hear about my trip.

Still wanting to test my new camera, on Tuesday I headed to Leith to take photographs of the street art in the area, I found a wide selection by some new artists and one surprising piece by an old favourite, Guido Van Helten. (I’ll post these in the Glasgow Street Art Section)

I’ve also added another mural trail to the Glasgow’s Street Art section, this one was taken around the Gorbals area.

My mural trail #3

I’ve now completed documenting the 5km trail I took around the West End, where I found a wide and varied selection of street art, statues dedicated one of Glasgow’s heroes, a work by a celebrated Glasgow writer and artist and pieces by Smug, EJEK and the slightly politically biased Pink Bear.  As usual, the trail ended in a pub, this time in Òran Mór.

For those of you who took the journey through the North Island of New Zealand with me, and anyone else interested in the journey,  I think I’m finished that section of the website, you can check it out here, please let me know if I’ve missed anything or offended anyone.

https://theholmestead.com/