Dancing lights in the rain

Gutted; wrote this whole post before setting out to Glasgow this morning (Thursday, because I forgot to post it yesterday) and then realised when I got back that it was sitting as a draft. Somehow....managed not to save it and posted nothing. Back to the start, although it may be a little briefer this time around, my heart's not in a day old blog post.

The day was earmarked for taking Stu's mum out for a late birthday outing as our cashflow and lack of days off together had made it impossible on the day over two weeks ago. Naturally the day dawned hidden by a sheet of rain and it continued to chuck it down for most of the rest of the day, but we were undeterred as I am of the humble opinion that the Borders can look just as lovely in the wet, and the Tweed is great when it is really dashing. I managed to work in an artistic endevour so we kicked off with a visit to the Dancing Lights gallery near Lamancha, on the road to Peebles. The gallery is in a new (year old) complex that also houses an organic farm shop and cafe, all of which were very shiny, jolly and friendly; shall definately return for some of their fine looking produce, all the meat and veg being from the farm itself; on a less challenging day we could have wandered the 'duck walk' around the grounds and farmland.

The gallery is owned by Helen Bell, a chartered accountant who has come to curating via appreciation of art and has done a fine job gathering some accessible and attractive work in a very light, airy space. Ludmilla Kosmina's ceramics are in evidence, (she is part of the show with Ritchie and myself in November) alongside fellow potters Mark Haillay, Vanessa Bullick and Alison Ogden. Of the painters I was drawn to Gill Shreeve, whose work I have seen at the SSA show and which fitted perfectly here as her near-abstract forms always speak to me of a very organic, earthy theme. There were more of her pictures in the restaurant, which again suited them beautifully. Stephanie Tristram also had some great work up and a few others who I failed to record; no insult meant, I was in networking mode to a degree and so not concentrating as much as I should. Helen's mum was in gallery sittting and was more than happy to pass on details to her daughter; I must admit I would love to show here as it is much more interesting and directional than many of the Lothian galleries I have bumped into. Fingers crossed.
We continued on to Peebles but I failed in my aim to track down more galleries of interest; it is always hard on a day like that to get enthused about any more than holing up in a good pub for lunch, so we did the decent thing and didn't resist.