Since I took a lease on the field next to my house in 2015, I have developed a couple of acres of rough pasture into something that gives endless pleasure and satisfaction. A veritable arboretum, the field is now home to over two hundred trees and woody shrubs. A block of silver birch runs theContinue reading “Sculptural influences in the garden”
Tag Archives: Art
Louisa Birdsall – illustrator and designer
In the early part of 2025 I had completed my first novel and the manuscript was in production with an independent publisher. For a story set in my home region of Dumfries and Galloway, in south west Scotland, I was keen to find a local designer or illustrator to create the cover. In my mindContinue reading “Louisa Birdsall – illustrator and designer”
Bedside vigil: from contemporary painting to palliative care
The painting is over two metres high, more than a metre wide, and from the end of the upper room, it’s radiating with bright colours and intriguing forms. I’m looking at a work by artist Gabriella Boyd, in Dumfriesshire’s Cample Line gallery. The image is unmissable, yet I seem drawn to it by contrary feelings.Continue reading “Bedside vigil: from contemporary painting to palliative care”
Denise Zygadlo: making art through lines, threads, prints and performance
I think I first spoke to Denise Zygadlo at a death cafe. An occasion where strangers meet together over coffee and cake, to talk about mortality in all its aspects. I was impressed by her clarity of thought and speech and her open-ness about her encounters with dying and death in her family. I alreadyContinue reading “Denise Zygadlo: making art through lines, threads, prints and performance”
Quotidian 