City of blue loons

Oh yikes, it always does that to me. Festival has descended on the city like a collective madness and it is no longer an acceptable commute across town to galleries, friends, framers etc; it is a journey to the centre of the communal creative ego. Saw a very sparkly blue person on the way in and kids running about in vintage pyjamas and realised that there was no going back - I was headed for the middle of the monster...

Having said that, driving through a culturally frenzied city full of men in kilts is preferable by many degrees to serving food to people attending said cultural events. Looooads better.

Spent a very pleasant and productive day in Leith after I navigated the mads, in fact I am reeling a little from the unexpected but welcome dose of cultural inspiration and artistic cameraderie! Intended to spend the afternoon in a little light painting in Ritchie's gallery, which I really enjoy as it always throws up new techniques, ideas and people to look at both artistic and musical. I had been working on a big one of Mme Tabere and some of her angels on a mosaic background, which took me a lot of yesterday and this morning, so decided to branch out and start a new one; a double portrait of Mme T and 'Greta' another Swedish forest angel. She is wearing a winged helmet pinched from Don Giovanni in 'Amadeus' and the idea for the double portrait came from seeing a couple of visitors taking an 'arms length' picture by the castle. Lo and behold I then watched 'Thelma and Louise', with possibly the most famous 'arms length' self portrait known to celluloid. Also noticed that Louise's scarf is tied like my Swedish forest angels' hair - so I'm now left wondering if this is another weird and wonderful subconscious inspiration.

Painted up a storm on the start of that one - I do enjoy a little company of the fellow painter variety - and also fun to watch Ritchie on a deadline to finish and photograph a painting for a catalogue by the end of the day. Talk about pressure; that would be guaranteed to send me into a knot of nerves from which no recognisable art would emerge.

And so on to the other major event of the day; Coburg Studios open day, which was on today and tomorrow. Realising that cross-city driving on the day of the Cavalcade tomorrow would be worse than stupid, I whizzed over for the last hour and a half of the day's open-ness. Fab.

I don't have the space to list the painters and makers that attracted me, so I shall confine myself to a couple who stood out for their input to my creative thoughts for the day and list the rest below!

Love-love-loved Stephanie Rew's amazing figurative studies, which I have seen somewhere and thought were stunning - so great already to meet the artist herself. She uses a lot of kimonos and patterned textiles so I am a big fan of the idea, without adding into the mix the fact that she paints in what is to me a really instinctive and non-academic way. They don't come across as studies for the sake of it, but wonderfully tactile, decorative pieces put together with a real eye for colour and composition. Then I found out that she is a mum of two and manages to put that together with creating these wonderful things; then I find out that I know her husband, who handily walks in - he is a wine merchant who supplies the restaurant I used to manage. So we had one of those "I didn't know you painted" moments. Her contribution to my store of wisdom was regarding the discipline of painting and drawing. I have noticed how much mine has improved this year and her comment was that it is amazing how much you come on once you work every day. Her quote "you have to work every day" is now added to my mantra list; I know it is true and I shall continue to push myself on this one. Who knows what I can achieve.

My other inspirational meeting was with Joanna Kessel, who is a mosaic maker (is there a word for it? 'mosaicist?') which I have always been interested in a lot. I didn't share the story, but long ago before I left London I nearly committed myself to making a conservatory floor sized mosaic with no former training or skills. Luckily I got cold feet and called off the blagging before I got in some seriously hot water. It is still something I would love to have a pop at though and I am still very drawn to 'making' as well as painting; woodwork, glasswork, mosaic, cement - bring 'em on. Her work is truly beautiful in terms of craft, colour and understanding what works well and why in terms of line, design etc. Respect.

To rattle the others I met in a list is not a show of indifference or disinterest; I am just showing off because I was so pleased to meet loads of artists on an equal footing and talk art! It helped that I had been working, so the paint covered jeans kind of did away with any mistaking my occupation and helped me avoid building up the courage to announce it. Mental note; go to open studios covered in paint to speed introductions and lessen stress.

So the others I met, in no particular order: Maria Vigers, Melanie Williamson, Rosemary Walker (interesting monoprint techniques), C P Campbell (didn't meet but loved boats and swallows), Astrid Trugg, Karen Warner, Lynn Hanley (self publishes prints, so hope I am doing the right thing by trusting someone else!), Stephen Mangan (saw his in Glasgow art fair and admired technical skills and great greens). I feel guilty for missing loads, but the late hour demanded it; I hope that serendipity threw the most useful ones in my path in terms of inspiration and future contacts. My mind is a-buzz.