 'Coastal #4'. Part of an original mixed media artwork. 15cm x 15cm. Framed A new chapter Spring finally arrived last week, with some real warmth and the cuckoo calling in the glen. Two of them have been swooping and diving around the house over the past few days. The swallows are here too, so it feels as though spring and summer have appeared together! At last it's warm enough to spend some time planting things and sowing seeds in our growing dome. Since I wrote this, the haar has rolled in from the sea and it's decidedly chilly again! On the art front, I'm enjoying having the space at our art cafe in Poolewe to display my artwork, alongside Ailsa's textiles and art, and Iain's photography. It has all come together very well and we've had lots of appreciative comments (and quite a few sales), which has been lovely. There are also some new greetings card, mug and coaster designs, from some of the work I made at Bridge House Art portfolio course over the winter. That time feels almost like a dream now!
'Easterlies #8' and 'Easterlies #2'. Original mixed media artworks. Bridge Cottage Art Cafe The cafe is going well, so some of my time each week is set aside for different creative endeavours, namely baking! Family favourites such as date slice and Victoria sponge have been going down well. And Ailsa's rocky road and triple chocolate brownies, along with Iain's cheese scones and haggis sausage rolls (invented by Ailsa) are getting rave reviews. If you're ever passing through Poolewe, do pop by and say hello! We've had a few old friends do that recently, it was so lovely to see them. We're now open Friday - Tuesday, 10am - 4pm. Closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Press Gang exhibition - all over now I was delighted to have some original prints in the 'Press Gang' exhibition, alongside 48 other printmakers, at An Talla Solais gallery on Market Street in Ullapool, earlier this month. There was a wonderful range of work on show. A few of my printed pieces will be making their way into the Bridge Cottage Art Cafe gallery very soon.
'Edge #1' and 'Edge #9'. Original mixed media artworks, both 15cm x 15cm. Currently on show at Loch Torridon Community Centre gallery. Loch Torridon Community Centre gallery The other week I made a long overdue trip to Torridon to restock the lovely gallery there with some new original artwork, greetings cards and sketchbooks and notebooks. It was a beautiful sunny day, so it turned into a grand day out. We enjoyed lunch at the Wee Whistlestop cafe in the community centre - always good to see what others have to offer! The gallery is open Monday - Friday and Sunday, 10am - 4pm. Closed on Saturdays.
Loch Torridon in the spring sunshine 2025 art calendars Next year's calendars have just arrived - see some of the pages above. It's a slimline, postcard version again, with new work produced at the portfolio course over the winter. Mixed media and print/collage. Now available to purchase from Bridge Cottage Art Cafe or from my website shop. Thank you for your interest in my work, it is greatly appreciated.
all the best Jennifer
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 Time to go home (nearly) This is the last week of the art portfolio course with Bridge House Art in Ullapool. All ten of us on the course are busy finishing off artworks, cropping and curating in readiness for the end of course exhibition, which opens with a Private View this Saturday, 24th February. Thereafter it is open daily 10am till 4pm, from Sunday 25th February until Sunday 3rd March. I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity to develop my art practice. Learning how to work in a real studio setting has been a wonderful experience; it has stretched me in ways I could not have imagined. Being able to set aside the time to focus on being creative has been fantastic. Our tutors, Eleanor White and Kittie Jones, are excellent at keeping us on track, with a finely balanced mixture of firmness, good humour and huge helpings of support and encouragement. I'm very much looking forward to being home again. I'll be hanging some of my new work in the cafe gallery after I've had a wee break to recover.  I've really enjoyed experimenting with acrylic paint and printmaking during the second term of the course. Below are a few examples of some of this new work. A selection of my small acrylic/mixed media works and print assemblies will be on show at the exhibition. Bridge Cottage Art Cafe
The cafe and gallery continue to go from strength to strength, in the capable hands of Ailsa and Iain. We're getting wonderful feedback from locals and visitors alike, which is very welcome and keeps them going when things get hectic! We'll be taking a break in March, so will be closed from Thursday 14th March until Sunday 17th March inclusive. The cafe will reopen on Friday 22nd March, with our new spring opening hours : Friday - Tuesday, 10am - 4pm. Looking forward to seeing you there sometime soon! all the best Jennifer  Those of you who have been following the blog for a while know that I like trying out new things. I was booked on a lino cutting workshop recently, which was unfortunately postponed at the last minute (due to adverse weather conditions). Undeterred, I took myself off out to the studio and dug out the starter lino cutting kit which I bought last autumn. I read the instructions ( a first for me!) and even watched couple of Youtube videos (again, not something I do that often - this one with James Green in Sheffield especially appealed to me). And then I just had a go. To start with, I made some different marks in the lino, using the cutting tools; some thin and some thick. This was on a very small piece of soft lino, about 5cm x 10cm.  I was quite happy with the results. I wasn't aiming for a particular pattern or shapes. I used one colour, then turned the lino round and added another layer using a different colour. It was fun to just play! I then moved on to creating a picture. As is often the case, I didn't quite have the right tools for the job. I didn't have tracing paper, so made do with greaseproof paper from the kitchen drawer instead. Shame it was the brown stuff, as it made it hard to see through. I only had black printing ink (it came in the kit); I wanted to try out other colours, so had a go with some gouache (applied to the lino with a brush, so brush marks appeared in the print - might be a good effect, if that's what you're after). I also tried acrylic paint, applied with a roller (or brayer), which was the right sort of consistency, but too sticky for the paper I was using - the top layer of paper came away and stuck to the lino.
I carried on experimenting. Test prints were done on old magazine pages (see the first image) and subsequent ones on good quality printing paper with poor quality monoprints on the back (my own ones from a screenprinting workshop I attended a while ago). The plan is to do a series of prints of Aberdeen buildings - so far the Old Town House and King's College have made it into print. It's certainly a work in progress - quite a bit of refining is needed - I'll keep you posted!
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