In 1953 the Picture Post featured these photos from the Glasgow School of Art’s annual charity fashion show. Check out the tartan shorts suit created 15 years before Mary Quant designed ‘Hot Pant’s in the late 60s. The iconic Mackintosh Building can be seen in some shots. If you want to find out more about Charles Rennie Mackintosh the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has a exhibition in London until
So what do we think of this then? Methil-born David Mach’s long awaited driftwood-and-tacks sculpture Phantom has been lowered into place in Kirkcaldy at a cost of £35k. The artist, who was commissioned by supermarket Morrisons, said in an interview with The Courier last week that the sculpture was an ‘ugly hard ass brute’, ‘direct in the same way Fifers are’. He also said ‘it is what it is – it’s
Thankfully this has nothing to do with red rooms. This clever idea is from Scottish illustrator, Emily MacKenzie. There are two prints that you can buy from her Etsy shop; 50 Shades of Scotland and, in the best non-partisan spirit, 50 Shades of England. Interesting to speculate what colours represent a nation; perhaps you’d expect Scotland to be the colours of hills, heather and thistles. Her other illustrations are cute
Only a couple of weeks left to catch this exhibition of legendary Glasgow-born photographer of the stars David Eustace. The exhibition is at the Scottish Gallery and comes highly recommended as ‘inspiring’ by photographer and Avocado Sweet reader Kevin McCollum.
The work of legendary photographer Diane Arbus (1923- 1971) can be seen at Kirkcaldy Galleries from 14 February until 31 May. Arbus challenged concepts of identity, beauty and normality. Her photography revealed the complexities of human nature and relationships, making the ordinary extraordinary and the misunderstood familiar. Featuring twenty of her seminal pieces, this exhibition explores how her work reflected the social, political and economic changes taking place throughout the United
Edinburgh-based Joanna Kessel, one of the UK’s foremost mosaic artists, is running a residential mosaic course in Italy from 6 – 13 June. The course teaches you how to design a mosaic, select the appropriate Venetian glass smalti and create your own contemporary piece. Inspiration will be close at hand in nearby Ravenna whose early Christian churches and mosaics have been designated a UNESCO world heritage site. You will be able
Instead of leaving paintbrushes sitting in jars of white spirit for weeks only to end up chucking them in the bin, San Francisco-based artist, Rebecca Szeto has transformed paintbrushes into beautiful renaissance ladies. Dried up paint brushes never looked so good.
Fantastic to see the great Joan Didion, at 80, appearing as the face of Celine. She has however modelled before. Back in 1989 she was pictured with her now sadly deceased daughter Quintana for Gap. Didion’s memoir about the loss of Quintana – Blue Nights – was published in 2011. Just a couple of years earlier Didion had published the incredible Year of Magical Thinking about the death of her
Very taken with this perky self portrait by Eleanor Allen Moore one of Scotland’s many overlooked woman artists of the early 20th century. Eleanor Allen Moore was originally born in County Antrim. A minister’s daughter, she attended Kilmarnock Academy in 1902 and later went to the Glasgow School of Art. After graduating she couldn’t afford a model so posed for herself in her early paintings. For the oil painting above,
While the world is renouncing alcohol today spare a thought for this little penguin whose best friend is a bottle of red wine. Artist Oleg Borodin initially created the penguin as an idea for a children’s book but realised the penguin looked a bit sad and lonely. He decided to give the character a best friend and the illustrator happened to like red wine.