A day at the Eco House

This was my first experience in the Eco House and i must say i thourghly enjoyed it. The calm and relaxing atmosphere was perfect to focus but still enjoyable to create a painting or drawing. i met some very nice people during my day including Judith, Jenneth and Tom and many more. They were all very nice and made me feel welcome. One of the high lights today was when the door bell rang with a little tune Alan would get up and dance about like a ballet dancer! A secret ambition? I am not sure but what i am sure about is Alan is going to kill me after he reads this!

Alan's groovey glasses!

During the day Jenneth gave Alan some advice:

"Follow your dreams, your a darn good artist!"

i think this is very good advise which Alan should take on board. 

Jenneth then said:

"You need a good slap round the ear!" 

I also think this is good advise and i would be happy to do this for Jenneth! Haha!

Over all the day has been great and i have learned alot of things including that inspiration for art does not always have to be visual, it can be through a conversation as well. i think this is what the art classes are good for.I would like to say thank you to everyone at the Eco House for making my day enjoyable! 

Rosie xxx 

Tom's Poem

DUNFERMLINE LINEN

In a mean abode, doon the Limekilns Road 

Lived a man called Charlie Groat

And he had a wife, the plague o' his life

Wha continually got on his goat.

Till one day at morn, wi' her nightgoon on

He slit her skinny throat.

Wi' a razor gash he settled her hash.

Ha, ha, ha, never was crime sae quick.

But the steady drip o the pilly slip

O' her life blood made him sick, 

While the pool o' gore on the bedroom floor

Grew cauld and clotted and thick. 

Well, he was glad that he'd done what he had

as his wife lay there sae still. 

So to finish the fun, sae weel begun

He decided himself to kill.

So he's taken the sheet fae room her cauld feet

And he's knotted it into a rope.

And he's hanged himself frae the lobby shelf

T'was an easy death, let's hope.

While wi' his last breath, in the grip o' death

He 's offered a prayer to the Pope.

Noo, the funniest turn o' the hale concern 

It's only just beginning'

Ye see, Charlie went to Hell

But his wife's noo well and still alive and sinning'

For the razr blade was JAPANESE MADE

But the sheet was DUNFERMLINE LINEN.   

JAY'S DRAWING

Jay decided draw one of Tom's watercolour studies.(above)

JOHN'S ROSYTH EXHIBITION

Rosyth Garden City Association and Rosyth Parish Church are currently hosting an exhibition of 'Shopping through the ages in Rosyth'. The church hall is the venue for this interesting collection of artefacts and imagery from the 50's onwards. John from our classes was asked to provide some backdrop material for the butcher's installation. See above for local butcher, Jimmy, standing in front of John's excellent beef carcass. Well done, John!

Below are some of the other interesting sights from the show.

TRONDHEIM PARKWAY - THE ROAD TO DULOCH PARK

Morag's drawing of Trondheim Parkway (above) as it once was and a photo of the iconic buildings on the way out. Trondheim Parkway is now the gateway to the massive housing development, Duloch Park. Tom's watercolour (below) shows the now depopulated area, a far cry from hustle and bustle of the once celebrated flats. Some say for the better, others not..

Duloch Park develpment, in all its vastness, has it's own infrastructure, including a Tesco superstore. Art room regular, Ray provided the photo below, showing the area pre-development.

JOHN'S EXHIBITION IN ROSYTH

Last week's post featured John painting a side of beef for the above exhibition. Memories of shopping in the 1950's, an unrecognisable world for today's Red Bull Pot Noodle yoof.

TRAINERS

The young team started some trainer designs..
Liam did a watercolour study of a beer mat..

TUESDAY 20 APRIL

PORTRAITS..

Judith completed her portrait of Natalie, which I will be passing on to Natalie herself as part of my Nine Trades of Dundee Project. I'm sure Natalie will be well chuffed with this painting.

Harris Grieve, budding artist, takes time out from drawing Wall.E to show how photogenic he is - i'm biased, of course. Good to see the younger children enjoying the space as much as the more senior members of the class.

Check out John with his beef carcass. John offered to provide some illustrations for an exhibition in Rosyth about the 1950's. He thought this bold image might give the younger folks in the class a lesson in where their foodstuffs actually come from!

 

Busy Busy.

BUSY FRIDAY AFTERNOON

After a quiet morning, a small posse turned up and got down to some picture-making in the afternoon. Judith and Jenneth worked on their watercolours, Ray carried on with his pencil study of Tom's grand-children and the young team (jay, sanjey, mark and nathan) got down to designing some trainers.

Ray very kindly gifted his portrait to proud grandfather, Tom. Top bloke.

FRIDAY 9 APRIL

A quieter morning at the Eco-House, with just Robert in the art room. An opportunity to update the blog and various mundane tasks.

 Robert kindly brought one of his many 'how to draw' books. This one was specifically about portraiture, so he felt it might be useful for Tom, who's currently tackling a portrait of his two grand-daughters.

RAY'S WORK IN PROGRESS

Working on a slightly smaller scale than his Masonic Lodge Fresco, Ray is sending me his work on the Abbey as it progresses for some online advice, rather than carrying it into the eco-house every day. A few of the students have been tackling portraiture recently, so Ray emailed me one of his efforts.(see below.)

JUST ANOTHER TUESDAY

School holidays.
Kyle, Sanjey and Jay arrived to do some drawing. They're in Primary six at Linburn School and said they do a wee bit drawing, but would like to do more. Seems like they enjoy the class ok, in spite of being the youngest participants(apart from when my son, Harris comes in for a bit of doodling.) Highlight of my day was hearing their conversation with the oldest member of the class, Robert(85).
'Were you in the war, Robert?' asked Kyle.
'Yup, I was in the Second World War.' answered the octogenarian.
'What were the trenches like?' queried Kyle.

'Wrong war son.' retorted the elder statesman of the art room.

This anachronism aside, the boys were well captivated by Robert's details of really large guns and his ability to evade questions about killings. Boys, eh?

Judy arrived at the class with a tupperware box full of cupcakes by way of saying thanks to Tom for giving her some ready-stretched paper. Oh, the cameraderie of it all..

Tom tackled a portrait of his two grand-daughters.

Ray popped by, looking like he might again avoid starting a drawing, but was soon attempting to capture Tom's grand-daughters - in pencil, not literally.

Ray's brother Ian dropped in with a canvas and a promise that next visit he'd begin a Van Gogh-esque portrait. I arranged to pop by his house on Don Road to see some of the work he has on his walls.(see below.)

Brilliant stuff from Ian. I particularly like the two Coyotes and the Hubble Telescope image in the kitchen. I had a cup of tea, courtesy of Anne-Marie, Ian's partner and we discussed setting up a Flickr site for Ian's work.

RAY AND IAN

Local brothers, Ray and Ian,  are both self-taught artists who produce a prolific amount of work. The pair of them are going to start attending the classes. Below are examples of their work. Ray's painting of Dunfermline Abbey makes a brilliant mural down at the Masonic Lodge in Rosyth. Ian's copy of  a Hieronymus Bosch painting makes its wicked way from Don Road to its new owner.

Masonic Lodge Mural.

Hieronymus Bosch leaving Don Road

FRIDAY 26 MARCH

Gary Philp popped round first thing this morning. Ex-Inchkeith Drive resident Gary, discusses the finer points of artmaking current Inchkeith Drive man, Robert. (see below.)

Next in was Graham Jordan.(above) Graham lives in Almond Road an is a self confessed computer nerd. He popped round to chat about assisting me with the construction of my new website.

Lots of lively chat in the afternoon with a full classroom, looking through old Woodmill High School magazines and trying to remember names and faces from back in the day..

FRED

Fred Strachan, who began life in Bute Crescent, is a willing model for portrait drawing classes. With his George Clooney good looks, he proves a popular model with the ladies. Anne from the Eco-House has asked if she can take him home for some extra curricular modelling.

DANNUAL DIOR

Alec Birrell told us about a chap he met while he was down working on his boat at Limekilns.. I have to question the validity of this purveyor of  "fabulous garments and treasures from around the globe"

WOODMILL HIGH SCHOOL PUBLIC ART PROJECT

I've now received the photographs from the Woodmill Pupils. Our aim is to use these photos as a starting point for the Public Art Project. There are many varied and interesting images to work with, a few of which are featured below: