Solo Exhibition at Strathearn Gallery Crieff Every Waking Moment - by Helen Glassford   Each landscape, has an atmosphere and climate of its own. As you turn the corner and face the sun, the wind now at your back, the ambience shifts. With you and you within it.   This is an exhibition, about these moments, the natural language of nature and the connections we have with it. Noting the shifts in air, light, wind, the fast and fleeting flurries, interspersed with slower, timeless pauses.  Light diamonds dance on the lochan, choreographed by the north wind. Disappearing as quickly ..read more

A small group of work tied together with thoughts around simplicities and complexities. The immediate response to a landscape needs to hold fast throughout the making of a painting yet giving allowances for the time away from a source to mould, build and add a greater depth of meaning. As though layering time and life together through the use of paint. Forms come and go, light is both certain yet fragile. I’m always sensitive to narrative of the weather, the stories it can tell. These paintings form a small group of work which will be available soon from my Open Studios event at the end of Apr ..read more

This last year has been one of experimentation and re-evaluation. It’s an interesting process to allow yourself to do this for such a lengthy period. One fraught with doubts and fears but liberating at the same time. There have been many eureka moments as I have pushed paint to the maximum and explored theory and new ideas to the full. From a more abstract expressionist approach to a finer distilled and thoughtful handling of paint. My intention, to find a place that gives me the greater freedom to explore the inner/narrative ideas, of the personification of landscape and life. Where there has ..read more

It is nature, not to describe or portray but to discover. Horizon lies come and go, appearing and disappearing as distance becomes momentarily tangible and land masses float. Simple terms; Coast, Sky, Cloud, Light, Ground, Air. Seeking the core of each becomes primal, almost. Thoughts of space, about space, beyond space sends you on a journey of discovery. Sea becomes Land, Light becomes mass. Expanding the realms. Sounds need air to be heard.      ..read more

“Awake!, arise! the hour is late! Angels are knocking at thy door! They are in haste and cannot wait, And once departed come no more. Awake! arise! the athlete’s arm Loses its strength by too much rest: The fallow land, the untilled farm Produces only weeds at best. ” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Seize the day! This last month has been a turning point for me, new ideas and renewed energy have led to a very active and productive month in the studio. Painterly decisions made, brave steps forward throwing off those lurking, invisible shackles. Several large paintings are on the go for forthcoming ..read more

The push and pull of a painting is a challenge I relish, finding the right marks and mood, balance and tone. Somedays the need is for a greater abstraction, others a simple narrative. Horizons come and they go again. Coupled with an inner narrative, freedom of speech and a little bravery thrown in paintings can arrive at their final resting place, with the desired intensity that has been a thread from the start. Other days they do not find this, then you start again. There’s no shame in deciding a painting is not ready, no frustration either just the knowledge that there will be another day to ..read more

‘……And They Danced.…’ - Edward Lear The Owl and The Pussy Cat My fascination for painting the night sky continues. This time with the influence of the poem by Lear, The Owl and The Pussy Cat. A joyful journey of non humans reflecting on togetherness. And They Danced Oil on Board 30x25cm Please email for details     ..read more

I write this on a Tay grey sodden mid January morning, it is beautiful. An eerie quietness fills the spaces. I walked this morning, meandering along the deer paths of my local wood. Heavy air, the drip, drip, drip of the over burdened Scots Pines. Light gently persuading, biding it’s own time. The wood is small, but with such variety that it feels much larger. It has everything, even in winter, including those hopeful sight lines to the fallow fields beyond. Like the boundaries of the wood January marks the end of a year but the start of many things, including new hope, new ideas and new adven ..read more

“...if any artist can ever be happy, I suppose it’s the same with composers and writers and sculptors. One never really feels one’s done what one could have done- you always feel, I could have done better. And of course, if you ever really feel ‘I’ve done it’, you’d become complacent, and there’d be nothing left to aim for. And it’s just this desire to do something better all of the time that keeps me going on’ ” — Sheila Fell     ..read more

“I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.” — Sylvia Plath Today I was asked inquisitively if this was finished. I replied ‘complete,’ As complete as I possibly could make a simple thing like the meaning of snowfall.     ..read more