Re-awakening

Er-hm. Hi. Hello. Um, is this on? Ah. Right. So… art. Right.

I started a painting this week. No, seriously, I did. It wasn't exactly what I had planned, nonetheless I made art and that is to be celebrated (I'm told). Yes? Yes. Good.

Elsewhere are is out in the real world, where it ought to be.

Never better
Mixed media on postcard, 10x15cm

A few days ago, The Rock Trust's 2013 postcard exhibition opened, which has two pieces by me in it. All the proceeds from the event, which is an auction, go to the charity and with the very central location of the gallery in Edinburgh, there is no excuse for missing it. You don't want to miss seeing the only two new paintings I've finished this year (so far)!

Tomorrow night, far away across the Atlantic and over half of the North American continent, Megan Chapman and my joint paintings will be going on show at the lovely Boswell Mourot Fine Arts in Little Rock. The show is titled Arkansas artists and their works, which worryingly seems to imply that I have become adopted by that arboreal state. (Eek!) I'd very much like to be there to see it, especially since some of the pieces will be having their commercial gallery debut! If you're out and about in central Arkansas this month, please stop by and let me know how it looks.

Lastly, a week from today, I will be joining Megan at the opening of our two-person show Through time and distance at Cross Street Arts in Greater Manchester (which is confusingly Up North, while being down south from where I live). Megan is hard at work putting the finishing touches to her new pieces, while I am going to be bringing most of my Worlds Apart series out of storage for a whole new audience! I can't wait to see how they look together. I hope to see you there!

Philadelphia, Little Rock, Edinburgh

Don't let them rob you of the only thing you know
and You know your problems ain't exactly new
at 110 Church Gallery in Philadelphia
 © 2013 Heavy Bubble

This week, I have seen photos from the two exhibitions my work is currently featured in. On the west side of the Atlantic, the lovely people from Philadelphia's 110 Church Gallery are very good at documenting their shows. I've borrowed one of their photos from their current show Natural Selection for this post. It is really nice to see my paintings in their space, as well as the people attending the exhibition opening. You can see more here – including my name on the window!

Below the surface at
SSA Annual Open
© 2013 Pat Bremner

On the east side of the Atlantic, my mum visited the Society of Scottish Artists Annual Open Exhibition 2013 – apparently their 116th such exhibition – and sneakily grabbed a couple of photos of my piece, 'Below the surface' on the wall there (thanks mum!). Quite why the SSA and the RSA before them both think that my work looks best next to the floor is a something of a mystery to me. Not that this strange coincidence matters, because I'm thrilled to have been selected from among what I believe have been record high numbers of entrants, to be shown in two such prestigious exhibitions. I can't wait to soon see this one with my own eyes!

We took the quiet roads
Mixed media on canvas, 76x101cm
© 2013 Megan Chapman & Stewart Bremner

Also this week, Megan Chapman and went on a two hundred mile journey to deliver all of our remaining joint paintings (and three more of Megan's) to Boswell Mourot Fine Art, a lovely gallery in an upmarket area of Arkansas' state capital, Little Rock. There are only eight of our joint paintings remaining for sale in the world and, as hard as this is to believe, this will be their first time in a commercial gallery! We've got high hopes for their future! (I think, possibly, this also means that I am maybe, sort of, kind of, represented by a gallery in the US – however I might be over egging the pudding now!)

East Davidson
Cyanotype on paper, 6x6cm

I've been in Arkansas for two months on this trip, two months that have flown by. When I arrived here, I intended to take it easy, after a very full and busy year and I absolutely managed to do this: not only have I not so much as lifted a paint brush, I hardly even posted here. I did, however, manage to fit in some analogue photography experiments, shooting on film every day of my visit, hoping to document the typical American town that I once again found myself in. I even tried making some tintypes and a series of cyanotype prints, including the one here.

In the middle of next week, I will be returning to Edinburgh and, once I do, I suspect that I had better knuckle down. It may well be time to get serious (again)!