Lindsey Gallacher

 Another cancelled boat trip over to Stroma this weekend, I guess that’s to be expected at this time of year but I was hoping for a break in the weather having had tropical weather only a few weeks ago. I headed over to the east side to visit my favourite spot with friends instead. Berriedale has everything you’d want for a Sunday day out, a nice cafe, beautiful, quiet, sheltered scenery and a nice selection of stones to choose from. I took a few photos and went home to sketch them. I am trying to take real notice of what it is I like about my art and keep coming back to high contrast and monochromatic imagery. I want to add more colour into my work but having not taken art as a subject at school and had little formal tuition at Edinburgh College of Art before joining the jewellery department, I still have a lot to learn. In the meantime, drawing with small elements of colour will suffice. Another favourite image is this view, the approach to my house. My friend calls it ‘Ferm-core-nur

 I recently started the 8 day free taster course by Louise Fletcher and it’s been a revelation for me. I don’t say this lightly, I’ve been experimenting with different medium for years now to balance the pernickety scratchboard work that I do. And what I’ve noticed is I do something, like it, don’t do it again, and then try another material. I’ve been doing this for years and not really moving forward. What Louise said yesterday in the Q&A’s was that she feels insulted that people get annoyed at themselves when they can’t do a good painting they like after a week; does that mean they think successful artists find it easy, that they don’t put the work in; would you expect a doctor to be a good doctor after studying one term? From my point of view, I think I’ve been hard on myself for not making the new art that I want, using new medium finding it tricky and just put it off until I feel the inspiration. (That hasn’t come back since before lockdown 2019!) But today, I got up before wo