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Past Events - 2010
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 Christmas Members' Show
As the snow is starting to fall already, and Ullapool has been transformed in to a white scene, it is the time of year we are starting to think about our Festive Christmas Members' Show here at an talla solais.
The opening on Thursday the 2nd will kick off our Christmas show, and on the 9th of December at 7.30 pm we are going to host a talk from Eleanor White to accompany this exhibition. Eleanor, an Artist and Tutor of Bridge House Art courses will give an illustrated talk looking a Mixed Media, looking at examples in the show. The talk is free but space is limited so please contact us to book a place.
 In Response 2 : Norman MacCaig
Helen Denerley - Di Hope - Kittie Jones - Joanne B. Kaar 7 Artists respond to the work of Norman MacCaig
This exhibition, a tribute to Norman MacCaig, will be looking at and responding to the poet’s written observations of a Scottish landscape, specifically his writing about the Assynt area: landscape and fauna.
In Response 2 ; Norman MacCaig will be open 1 - 4 pm every day from the 6th to the 21st of November.Also showing at this time is Assynt Artists Respond to Norman MacCaig, an exhibition mounted by a group of Assynt based Artists. This exhibition will show in two parts: extending to the Lochinver Leisure Center (5th -13th November)
Visitor Comments:“Lovely exhibition and thanks to the artists for introducing me to some `Norman MacCaig poems I didn’t know too. Great mixture of atmospheric landscapes and others, ie creatures chiming with MacCaig’s Quirky sense of humor” “Interesting to see how well the works are coming together - there seems to be a distinct aesthetic arising from MacCaig’s inspirational words” “ most enjoyable, excellent work indeed” “lovely exhibition - beautiful way of illuminating such rich poetry, and vice versa... well done” “loved this exhibition” “ Excellent exhibition, a cultural mini feast!”
NB: Finishes on Sunday the 21st November
an talla solais Ullapool Visual Arts, Market Street, Ullapool, IV26 2XE
Charlotte Watters
The FRINGE project was born from Jan Kilpatrick's idea to enthuse and engage people to create artwork using textiles, hand made, manufactured, found and recycled. So, in the depths of the worst winter most of use can remember, we ran a number of textile ceilidhs, taking the meetings out to Elphin, Achitibuie and Badcaul, as well as the Macphail Centre in Ullapool. At these meetings, we discussed the ways in which living in the north west put us on the fringe, or edge of society, or on the edge for some completely different reason. Every interpretation of our theme was welcome and the project was open to all. We experimented with knitting, crochet, weaving, stitching and sculpting, using materials as diverse as grass and silk. The energy created by experimenting through such a mutually supportive textile community was invigorating. This project was as much about the meeting, sharing and progression of skills as it was about display, although over half have decided to exhibit. We hope that this exhibition will play its part in encouraging even more people to explore the creative potential of textiles and to value textiles as an important visual arts medium. Jan Kilpatrick : Fringe Lead Artist
Fran Harrison & Chris Brotherston : Macphail Centre
Thank You for the Drawing (Big Draw 9th October 2010)
Last Saturday you might have seen people walking round the village with brightly coloured fingers and a few splashes of paint on noses and clothes. They were the ones who had spent the morning taking part n the Big Draw on Ullapool Pier. The Big Draw is a national campaign to get people drawing (they believe that drawing has lots of benefits: it relaxes you, gets you to see the world in new ways, focuses your mind, and is fun). There were events happening across the country to get people drawing. Here in Ullapool an talla solais (Ullapool Visual Arts) ran a drop-in workshop at the harbour, inviting people to draw and paint pictures of the harbour and its surroundings, or to construct model boats with cardboard and paint. Over 140 people joined us on the day and we had lots of fun! There was a great mix of people: children whose eyes lit up when presented with scissors and silver paper, adults who told us with trepidation that they hadn't drawn a picture since schooldays, and people doing things for the first time, like doing collage or drawing with ink. They made some amazing creations.
The finished pictures will be compiled into a giant frieze which will be on display in Ullapool Ferry Terminal from Monday 18th October for a week, so please go along and see what we got up to. Over on Lewis, an Lanntair art centre was also running a workshop, and they will also put their pictures on display in the Stornoway ferry terminal. For anyone who wants to keep up their drawing (or any other kind of art), an talla solais hosts a DIY Art Group, a group of people who meet regularly to encourage each other in their art, including by drawing and painting together. If you are interested in finding out more about this group, or would like to come along, please contact Joanna at an talla solais on 01854 612310 (joanna@antallasolais.org").
Huge thanks to the Ullapool Harbour Trust who let us use their marquee on the pier for the event, and are welcoming the frieze in the ferry terminal. Thanks also to all of you who came along to take part on the day: we enjoyed drawing with you and hope to see you again soon!
The Big Draw
The Campaign for Drawing is an independent charity which raises the profile of drawing as a tool for thought, creativity, social and cultural engagement. It has developed two programmes to encourage the use of drawing by professionals and others: The Big Draw and Power Drawing. The Campaign has created a new regard for the value of drawing to help people see, think, invent and take action. Its long-term ambition is to change the way drawing is perceived by educationalists and the public. This has won support from leading practitioners in the creative industries and in art, architecture and design colleges, signalling an overdue realisation that drawing is fundamental to the training of students in these disciplines. The Campaign takes a wider view. It sees drawing as a basic human skill useful in all walks of life. The Campaign's work will finish when the words 'I can't draw' are dropped from our vocabulary.
an talla solais is teaming up with An Lanntair in Stornoway again this year to host big draw events on both sides of the Minch! A Drawing experience that reaches from Ullapool to Stornoway.
ULLAPOOL
STORNOWAY
Come for as short or as long as you like to help us stick / draw / write / make / and see pictures of the piers.
A DIY Art Group is bornan talla solais is now host to a new group of artists, the DIY Art Group. This is a handful of people who have agreed to gather together on a regular basis to support each other in their own art work. ATS will give them space in which to meet, and offer support to their ideas, but what the group does will be up to them. The group will be starting small, but we are interested to hear from anyone who would like to be involved, or put on a waiting list for when the group's activities are more established. Keep in touch with ATS members' mailings for more information!
Open Day
Sat 28th August 2010 12 – 4 pm
an talla solais is having an open day THIS SATURDAY!!
Come along to an talla solais and enjoy: ... A Free Workshop being held by Eleanor White, which will explore ECHO the current exhibition on in the galleries at the moment A last chance to see the current show ECHO by Peter White and Jon Miller ( closing at 5pm this Sunday) Open Artists Studios AND Tea Coffee Cakes in our impromptu ats Cafe! Admission Free. Donations welcome - 50% of donations will be given to the swimming pool roof fund. an talla solais is a registered charity no. SCO 40348
EchoAn exhibition of images and words by artist Peter White and Poet Jon MillerThe Exhibition runs from the 7th to the 29th of August with a series of events running along side to accompany the show. This collaborative exhibition grew out of a series of conversations which had as their starting point a particular object - bowl, word, book, garment, landscape. In the course of these conversations, clusters of ideas - memory, identity, presence - and images collected around the objects and these in turn instigated a series of explorations and investigations that eventually found their way back into the work. The intention is not to have the paintings and poems illustrate each other but rather to consider how techniques and approaches to painting and writing relate and influence each other in a series of complementary works which have culminated in this exhibition.
7th August, 6 - 8pm Opening of ECHO an talla solais
Echo EDA review by Estelle DanielYou wouldn't find anything better to rest your eyes on than the lovely nymph called Echo. So it runs in the Greek myth of the same name. Echo also had a way with poetry, but was punished (out of jealousy) for all this good stuff by the loss of her voice, and was only able to repeat the words of others. As if that wasn't enough she then fell for Narcissus, who was so full of himself he couldn't appreciate a good thing when he saw one. Echo pined away and the trace of her voice hangs on the wind in the glens and valleys. The message of this powerful voice on the wind haunts the new exhibition mounted by Peter White and Jon Miller at Ullapool's endlessly innovative An Talla Solais community gallery. White and Miller have collaborated on a series of ideas connected with Echo's meaning and produced two skeins of parallel work which explore not just the ideas but the nature of the two mediums. The two worlds connect, comment and intrigue in equal measure. White presents an onslaught of his theme of presence and absence. Echo is at once present but not real - or is she real but not present? In a series of exquisite and meticulous graphite drawings, the exhibition kicks off with a stark set of questions. The drawings come from a study White has made of prison ID photos, taken from Auschwitz prisoners as well as inmates of Russian and Cambodian prisons. The point is exacting. These are faces beautifully executed but androgenous and without personality. They are beautiful and yet they are nothing. They are sharply sad but so lovingly put to us. Each carries with it a blank but rich personality. We know nothing of their history but yet the question of who they are lingers and probes. The theme of present yet not there reverberates round the rooms to follow. In apparently stark contrast there are enormous works on board painted with acrylic, wax, oil, chalk, rivers of solvent. The colour is densely beautiful and disturbing, as if straight from the West Highland landscape. There are enormous bowls, a gigantic book and what seems to be a peasant smock but is a work from the imagination. Here the message questions urgently. The bowls are set in the middle of the composition and speak eloquently of their contents. In all cases they are empty but in some cases the glimpsed interior is a rich world,, in others we are not allowed to glimpse it. The chips and blemishes seem to draw us more deeply into their space. None of these are drawn from life. In all cases these vessels are profoundly physical and real in their detail but speak beyond reality to the subconscious and the placement of self within it. Some, I might feel. are "myself", some are certainly "another". White's great book is like a piece of organic landscape and drags with it another theme - the nature of history. Is it contained within the book "like a turf", just as it is contained in the earth in Miller's poetry? White plays with vessels in all the objects, it seems - everything has a beautiful skin - whether bowl, hat, book or smock. These are pale, vibrant and shocking husks with rich interiors that draw us in but elude us. Aged cotton and creamy vellum sit against rich ochres, red shades, hints of smoke-filled blues and greens. "Make no mistake you will be mistaken" says Miller later in the exhibition. Some of the objects hide behind prison grey triptych doors to be opened by us to reveal a world beyond or perhaps within. We are invited to enter into White's vessels and identify but find we can't, we are led beyond. Here and there we find a trail of wax inscribed tiles with fragments of words and half thoughts hovering round the central themes. The main body of poetry comes near the end, when we enter a dimly lit room and have our sight tested. The poems are mounted optician-like in black-rimmed light boxes of different shapes. The themes already in our heads from White's visuals start to erupt into multiple metaphor and walls of beautiful poetry. Miller describes "an endless falling into grace as you refill the vessel to the brim ..". His poems join White's artworks in "an archaeology of light and memory". He talks of "our clutch at memory" just as White seems to ask if we can ever anchor what we see and if we do will there be any reality to it. Miller points to meaning in his chosen objects and drags in history as he goes. The tombstones of the stonemason rest on an "earth full of meaning". He describes "a world uncurling on the iris" just as meaning hovers on the precise rims of White's vessels. We search and sift the poems, as Miller says, "hungry for echo" - which we are richly provided with. But can we pin it or ourselves down, he seems to ask "in our shallow occupation of the air, we vanish into what memory we inhabit." He goes on, "we wade waist deep in whatever fell through the riddle, whatever gathers and runs before us, whatever makes its shapes and mouths at us then vanishes." Or "memory is a storehouse, whose stores are nothing stored nowhere". Presence or absence? We think of White's vast bowls when Miller describing a clay pot, questions "As if a hole in the earth stares back at you". We hear the echo from inside the pot itself, as he writes "like your voice (or your life) it is mainly space". The pot, he says, gives us "a hold, a grip on here and now". We remember how the physicality of White's rimmed pots have earthed us in a contemplation of the other yet are so intensely present and physical. In one poem that seems exceptionally mature, "The Word Unspoken" Miller traces the creation of the word and its passage through body and brain to its final triumph and expression. It moves out "feathers shedding in the fall". Miller tells us it is "hungry for echo". The voice of the beautiful Echo hangs more clearly than elsewhere on the glens and valleys of North West Scotland. This intriguing exhibition and dense collaboration spell out a "dark grammar" (Miller) and capture the spirit of this elusive sound more than much of what is on offer. The journey through the richly decorated rooms yields a rare path of enjoyment, questioning and fertile thought that lingers like her voice on the wind. Estelle Daniel The exhibition will tour to An Lanntair, Stornoway in November 2010 and then to Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist and The kilmorack Gallery, Beauly in March/April 2011. Don't miss it.
 Keeping the Burners Lit
3rd to 25th July 2010 Ceramics exhibition
Exhibitors;Daniel Kavanagh, Lotte Glob, Nickolai Glob, Allison Weightman, Gavin Burnett, Ilona Morrice, Morag MaGee, Fergus Stewart, Tom Butcher, Veronica Newman, Jym Brammah, Steven Paterson, Patricia Shone Keeping the Burners Lit is an exhibition of the diverse work of 13 Scottish Ceramicists from the North of Scotland. Scottish based ceramic artists Allison Weightman, and Committee members of an talla solais, has prompted this exhibition to highlight the quality and skill in the tradition of Ceramics in Scotland and the demise of the subject in regard to education in the subject throughout the curriculum in both lower and higher education.
Weightman had been a self-taught ceramists in the years prior being accepted and graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in the last year of the Ceramics Department. "This was a strange time to be at the end of something, (which seemed as a subject and material to be as important and valid as it had always had been), " - Weightman. There are, however, studios in the Central belt, with enterprises like the Glasgow Ceramic Studios, based in the WASP studios. Edinburgh also has similar communal run studios, These spaces are occupied by those who have generally been through Art School and are trying to make a living from being a maker. Some of these makers offer short courses but it is difficult for these studios to be utilized as a permanent learning environment, (as space is always an issue), and if they are big enough, there is not funding for the teaching. an talla solais is looking at the moment to secure future funding to build ceramics provision onto the existing building: a purpose built space, to run courses and offer a working environment to students, and facilities for schools and visiting Ceramic Artists to use. an talla solais also intends to dedicate an exhibition per year to the subject, as part of the busy programme. It is hoped that gatherings such as this exhibition and its related events will maintain and develop a profile for the subject.
Weightman: "Maybe the subject needed to die the death that it has been sentenced to, so that new shoots will emerge that will be sustainable? Ceramics is a subject that takes a lifetime to master, and the experimental years offered to students attending Art College are invaluable. Without these years of foundation, it is difficult to imagine how a young person with a passion for clay will be able to find a facility that can compare to that offered by a Degree Course. We have to accept that Ceramic provision in Scotland as we knew it, has gone.
- Excerpt from Article Printed in The Ceramics Review Magazine issue 244 July / August 2010 written by Alison Weightman an talla solais (Ullapool Visual Arts), are staging a Ceramic Exhibition and month of events on the 2nd – 25th July 2010 which is to highlight the wealth of Ceramic practitioners in the North of Scotland and also, raise awareness of the current state of Ceramics, and the dire need to have some form of educational provision (in whatever way it will manifest itself), not only for current practitioner who want to further their knowledge, but also for the young talents of the future. We have all asked ourselves “Why?” signed petitions, and wrote endless amounts of letters to the ‘powers that be’ in protest with regards to the annihilation of Ceramics in Scotland, to little or no effect. Falling on deaf-ears, the subject has been slowly and methodically ‘witch hunted’ from Art Schools (not only in Scotland), and the burning question this implicates is “Where are the talents (with regards to Ceramics) from Scotland going to learn the fundamental basics that it takes, to start out on a successful career in the subject? It seems ironic that the strengths of the Scottish system that supported and nurtured the making of some of the best Contemporary Ceramic practitioners today, is the same power that crushes a subject to the point of it being virtually extinct, as easily as blowing a candle out, with no regard for the black hole it will inevitably produce in the coming decades in relation to high quality and innovative Ceramics. an talla solais are striving to secure funding to build such a provision onto the existing building they occupy, which will offer a purpose built space, to run courses and offer a working environment to students, schools and visiting Ceramic Artists to use. They have also dedicated an exhibition per year, as part of their busy programme, to the subject.
Who is out there?There is a healthy amount of Ceramic practitioners in Scotland… for now. The ‘Forest Fire’ effect of closures that has hit the subject, has yet to show its’ true, long-term damage, and it poses interesting times. These current practitioners are passionate about the subject and collectively agree that there is a huge gaping hole that is: “Clay in Education”, emerging, but getting the coverage this problem deserves is a difficult and timely battle and lets face it…”we all have to make a living” Networking in the Highlands and Islands is a difficult thing to do because of the huge area it covers. Potters seem to work in isolation and it is very rare that they are all ‘in the same place at the same time’. It is hoped that gatherings such as the one in An talla solais will maintain a profile for the subject and bring like-minded people together for the cause.
Current state of provisionGlasgow School of Art have two more years before the present and last, students graduate, and are intending to keep a provision. But if there are no specialist students will there be the infa-structure to support those that have an interest? I hate to be pessimistic, but I think NOT! Aberdeen still offer Ceramics as part of its design course, but has no dedicated course. That’s about it really. Shocking isn’t it? There are thriving studios in the Central belt, with enterprises like the Glasgow Ceramic Studios, based in the WASP studios, which have recently obtained a substantial grant from the Scottish Arts Council to replace tired kilns. Edinburgh also have similar communal run studios, but again, the problem posed here is that these spaces are all occupied by those that have generally been through Art school and are trying to make a living from being a maker. Some of these makers offer short courses but it is difficult for these studios to be utilised as a permanent learning environment, (as space is always an issue), and if they are big enough, who is going to pay for the facility and the teaching?
FutureDespite all the adversity, there is an under-lying confidence that something will change and Ceramics will survive. Fergus Stewart (one of the exhibitors in the show) is an International Teacher and Professional Artist, who has recently built a large wood-fire kiln near Lochinver. Fergus has strong links with Highland Stoneware and in April hosted a wood-fire week with the last of the Glasgow School of Art students, and is hosting a firing week with the Scottish Potters Association later this year. He is also a host for Ceramic students from abroad. Andrew Appleby runs the Fursbreck Pottery in Orkney and with Archaeologist Stephen Harrison has established a group called the Orkney Prehistoric Pottery Research Association. The aim of the group is to learn more about the prehistoric shards that are found in the Highlands around the ancient Broch’s , and use this information as a learning tool. Andrew is currently expanding his teaching facility to take more students on the courses he already runs. More importantly there are a lot of very young and talented people out there who appreciate the qualities of clay and are comfortable with the medium. Bridgehouse Art (Eleanor White’s Portfolio Course), which is run from An talla solais recently added ceramics to its programme and the intention is for it to stay and grow.
PossibilitiesThe University of the Highlands and Islands has recently obtained full University status and it will inevitably expand the courses offered to students in the coming years. Could they possibly pick up Ceramics? It would be interesting to see a brand new Ceramic Course that offered all aspects of the subject. From the rich and valuable historic angle of Archaeology…to its Contemporary uses in Art and Function and also to the advances in Ceramic Technology and its uses in engine components and industry. The subject is a rich and varied one and so full of potential it is bulging like an over worked pot! A modern ceramics department could be seen as a huge asset to any new building, as the heat waste from the kilns could potentially serve as a heating system for it. It is true that a lot of the old departments where in efficient, and costly to run. There is also the potential for the UHI to out-post Ceramic courses (it has a policy of doing this with its current courses) to dedicated practitioners and groups who are fighting for the survival of the subject and teach anyway! Maybe the subject needed to die the death that it has been sentenced to, so that new shoots will emerge that will be sustainable? Ceramics is a subject that takes a lifetime to master, and the experimental years offered to students attending Art College are invaluable. Without these years of foundation, it is difficult to imagine how a young person with a passion for clay will be able to find a facility that can compare to that offered by a Degree Course. We all have to accept that Ceramic provision in Scotland as we knew it, has gone. But what we don’t have to accept is that the subject is lost. As long as there is a passion, it will survive.
Keeping the Burners Lit ..
EVENTSHand - Building workshop with Allison Weightman Sunday 4th July 2010 - 10.30 - 4.30 pm Hand build a pot which will then be ‘Pit Fired’ in the village on the 24th July 2010 1 - 3 pm. Learn the basics of handbuilding vessels and experimentation with slips to then be fired in the ancient technique of Pit Firing. Cost: £18 adults £12 children (Prices cover the two days: materials and firing)
Throwing Day with Fergus StewartSatarday 17th July 2010 Come any time between 10am - 4pm. An opportunity to see a Master at the Potter’s wheel and... drop in and throw a pot yourself on the electric wheel ( which will then be Pit Fired on the 24th July) Cost: £7.50 adults £4.00 children ( Prices cover the two days, materials and firing)
Pit Firing Day with Allison WeightmanSaturday 24th July between 1 and 3 pm Day for firing work produced from the two construction workshops: The Hand - building Workshop and The Throwing Day - details for location for the pit firing will be given at the workshops, the firing will be in Ullapool.
To Book Call 01854 655310 Or 07767 447446Hand-building Workshop and Throwing Day both held at an talla solais Ullapool Visuall Arts, Market Street Ullapool, IV26 2XE, Beside the Village Hall
Pot PetitionDuring the course of the exhibition at an talla solais, there will be a chance to show your support for the provision of ceramic facilities by making a small hand built pinch pot of your own. These will grow in number in the gallery over the duration of the three week show creating an instillation as part of the show. At the end of the exhibition, these will be fired by Allison Weightman and presented as a body of work highlighting the support for the show, and the cause. There will be clay available in the gallery and anyone coming to see the exhibition is invited to take part.
 (A Brief Lesson in Caledonian Antisyzgy) Unsung Heroes and Overrated Zeros of Scotland
Gallery 4 an talla solais3rd - 25th July 2010 2- 5 pm, Every Day - Free Entry 3 An Exhibition of hand-made artists books from the Highland Print Studio Inverness, containing illustrations and text celebrating the stories of some of our most famous national icons, alongside others based on unsung heroes of the Highlands. “The term Caledonian Antisyzygy was coined to describe how we Scots are a nation of intense contradictions; a term described perfectly by Alasdair Gray as making us “wag back and forth between stark reality and far- fetched fantasy”. This project takes a light- hearted look at how we are infamous for remembering romantic heroes whose ultimate success has been to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, while largely ignoring the remarkable impact such a small nation has had on the world. Tragic icons such as Bonnie Prince Charlie and Mary Queen of Scots will share the limelight with unsung heroes such as Dr Lachlan Grant of the Ballachulish slate quarry and Bertram Mills’ elephant keeper...” Highland Print Studio Six Hand-made artists books will be on show, along side wall mounted panels with more images from the project.
Charlotte Watters
 End of Shoot Review(24/06/2010)Shoot 2010
This is the last week of Shoot 2010! an talla solais's first all - Photography exhibition, The show has been a great success It is a truly exiting and fresh exhibition. "Beautiful work, v. inspiring!" "very worthwhile exhibition" " Very refreshing - I do hope you put on an other similar exhibition" " a lovely range of photographs- enjoyed my visit very much(as someone who would rarely choose to go to see a photography exhibition!) well done" "a real treat. Very Glad to have seen this exhibition" "excellent exhibition, inspired to improve my photography! Thank you "Lovely to have such a focus on photography, and what a variety, really enjoyed it.
Showcase
Woody WondersAn exhibition of sculptures and drawing from the after school art club by P5- 6 and 7 pupils. Colourful and bold painted Sculptures made from branches, twigs and plaster and a big frieze circling the room.
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