I’ll be back in Scotland for 6 weeks from next Monday for a few events I’m drawing/participating/co-organising. If you fancy something drawing based, alternative and involving, cast your eye over these.

First up - 3rd March, Sound Thought Festival, The Arches, Glasgow/7th March, Videolab, Edinburgh

Three Lines: Improvised Drawing/Music/Dance

Jenny Soep, Jer Reid, Monica de Ioanni

Two improvised drawing/music/dance performances I’m part of with experimental musician Jer Reid and the beautiful dancer Monica de Ioanni as part of Sound Thought in Glasgow, and Videolab in Edinburgh.  I’ll be creating projected drawings inspired by Monica de Ioanni’s dancing which will then inspire Jer Reid’s music which will then inspire my drawing.  A chain of influential actions.  Get tickets for the Arches performance here.

Second Up - 4th March, The Old Hairdressers, Renfield Lane, Glasgow 6pm until Midnight

Exhibition Launch - 28 Drawings Later

Glasgow based artist Victoria Evans is the brainchild behind this fantastic project to get anyone and everyone drawing. As it says on the poster, ‘What happens if 200 people draw everyday for a month?’

It’s been such a great project to be part of – confidence boosting, inspiring, enlightening, educational, frustrating, fun, and above all gratifying.

The exhibition of originals will be upstairs for one night only, with the copies downstairs being exhibited until the 7th.  The copies will become part of a recycled drawing workshop at the International Women’s Day event. (Info below!)

Third up - Thursday 8th March, The Old Hairdressers, Renfield Lane, Glasgow 12pm until Midnight

The Garterstitch all day event for International Women’s Day, which you might be interested in (it’s going to be pretty awesome by the way!!)  Following on from last year’s gloriously colourful celebration of the centenary of International Women’s Day, Loop|Garterstitch100 has organised a day of events in the Old Hairdressers to be enjoyed by the women, men and children of Glasgow. Browse the pop-up Glasgow Women’s Library, participate in a drawing workshop, watch and dance, try out some alternative crafting with the Garnethill Women’s Institute, eat some cake, listen to music, reflect on talks and information, participate in a sound project, browse and bid for the art works of illustrator Jenny Soep…

Check out more info on what exciting artists/musicians will be performing and what workshops you can participate in here.

Myself and Emma Hagen have a workshop in particular between 1-3pm. Details as follows -

WORKSHOP – DRAWING LIVING THEATRE with Emma Hagen and Jenny Soep

Think of a woman in your life. She could be you.

What’s your least favourite thing about her? What’s your favourite?

Drawing Living Theatre is an interactive workshop using drawing, drama and creative action methods to explore a chosen topic.  At this particular event, the 101st year of International Women’s Day, we look at one negative aspect of a woman in your life, the possibility to accept this, and celebrate the positive. There are always at least two sides, and it can be good to take a fresh look at the flip side.

Thursday 8th March, 1-3pm, upstairs at The Old Hairdressers (opposite Stereo) Renfield Lane.

Fourth up – 19th-25th March - 360 Narrative Residency with playwright Lynda Radley

I’m going to be part of a pretty cool residency in Stirling with the pretty fantastic playwright Lynda Radley. It’s going to be about a couple of sisters called Snow White and Rose Red who are midwives in a strange and alternative possibly post apocalyptic Earth.  Having been a fan of Lynda’s previous work (Birds and Other Things I Am Afraid Of, The Art of Swimming, Futureproof) it’s been a boon to get involved.  The project is part of the 360 Narrative initiative to find other platforms for theatre/playwrighting and there are 5 other groups/partnerships involved.  Have already looked at the itinerary for this intensive creative blowout week, and as much as I feel super privileged to be a part of it all, I’m super excited to get stuck in.  There’s also going to be a darts tournament!!!  Need I say more…

I’m also – completely separately from all of the above – going to be walking the Great Glen Way with my boyfriend. First every looooooong walk. Looking forward to it. Might be cold, but there shouldn’t be any midgies at this time of year.

Apart from all that, I’ll be creating my ‘documentary’ style drawings at various artsome and quality musicsome events as usual.  Keep updated on my Facebook page - Drawing The Experience.  Perhaps I’ll see you somewhere with your own sketchbook!

Lovely concert tonight, though it isn’t the First Aid Kit I had expected and hoped for. The sisters really create something magical when they harmonise together, hugely complementing each other. I do hope Johanna’s throat feels better soon.  Klara is valiant however, and holds the show together admirably, with some vocals by affable drummer Mattias Bergqvist. Favourite part is when Klara unplugs her guitar, on the stage by herself for a solitary version of Ghost Town, and the audience hushes immediately to join in with the ending of the song. My goodness you Swedes have some fine voices!!  Some of you filling in with the harmonies too. Beautiful moment.

Debaser Medis remains to be one of my favourite venues. Excellent acoustics, and since the stage is slightly curved in a room that is wider than it’s depth, all the audience get a great view and sonic experience.  Brilliant room to draw in anyway, I’ve so far drawn Florence + The Machine, Mogwai and RM Hubbert, who’s album was incidentally just launched last Friday. I really must get those drawings up.

Johanna is tricky to capture at the best of times as she really likes to hide behind those lovely blonde tresses of hers, and when she gets to head banging there’s just no chance.  Haven’t quite caught her lovely face yet. Next time. Happy with the image as a whole though.

Secondly I’m behind. I’ve been trying to get just a couple of drawings from my Nokia mobile phone into my computer, and can I do it? Not on your Nelly. I seem to have managed everything else but, including photos, videos, photos & videos from my pc computer which somehow my phone digested and regurgitated into my Mac, and I’ve also managed to do something very very odd, but hugely disruptive to said Mac, involving every single image that has ever been put on it EVER. Hence out of a few hundred GB, I only have 7 left. With over 10 000 images, I have a lot of sorting out to do tomorrow. How on earth I managed to extract some images from folders, and not others, I do not know. But it means I can’t simply delete the screed – I have to wade through and see what I’ve got/not got – on a computer that is now working as fast as a slug with a salad choice.

I am however, having fun with a lovely little drawing project called 28 days later, started by the marvellous Victoria Evans (it’s not too late, you can still join in with a squiggly thing x how many days you’ve missed.)  And yes, this year it’s 29 drawings, with a little expo at the end for those that have been particularly diligent.  Check it out, it’s an inspirer, from whatever background you have, and nice to be part of a creative community all having a deadline every day  This is my submission for the 2nd of Feb, underneath it is for the 1st.

Day 2, 28 Drawings Later – It’s been a rough day, topped by having my bag searched at Lidl – a new low. So I had a whisky and contemplated a radish.  On a high note, it’s been snowing lots. Loads of lovely sparkly snow, a heart warmer for sure.

Day 1, 28 Drawings Later – Was frickin’ tired and not in the mood for drawing, but the Saturn lamp was calling me with it’s rings and shadow rings caused by the variety of candles below it, also catching the coffee plant at the window, and the corner of our room.   Also glad I corrected myself after calling it the Jupiter lamp. What a doofus. Seriously, I need to go back to Primary School. Or Playgroup (kindergarten) for that matter.

Day 1 – Saturn Lamp Coffee Plant Candle Shadows

Finally, the drawings (paper ones) from the highly intriguing and creatively scientific Unravel project, currently being created by the art collective/band Found with Simon Kirby and poet/musician Aidan Moffat, along with a personable chat on the future of books and reading between Chris Meade of (his blog) bookfutures/if:book and the ladies from the Electric Bookshop, all drawn live from the rather lovely Inspace multimedia gallery based within Edinburgh University.  The digital drawings I did on my phone are the ones I mentioned earlier about trying and so far failing to retrieve onto my computer. I will figure it out though, so keep your eyes peeled.

Aidan Moffat reads for #Unravel, Inspace

Words from Aidan Moffat, the Found Collective, and Chris Meade

Also, still to come in the next blog post – RM Hubbert and Friends, with Tattie Toes who were supporting, last Friday 27th January 2012

Had a lovely rehearsal on Friday with Jer Reid and Monnica Deioanni for our trio piece at Sound Thought, The Arches. Tomorrow having a meeting about the fourth International Women’s Day event I’m involved in, plus meeting with the rather fantabulous digital/animatory whizzkid Dave Sapien too for some projected digital drawing chat. All looking real good, enough to get rather excited about.

It’s been a busy few days my friends. A good few things to upload so look again very very soon for pictures. Soon as I get back to my lovely Stockholm tomorrow night. xx

Also, our performance at the Sound Thought festival, The Arches, Glasgow, is Saturday 3rd March, 6pm.  See, hear, sense you there.

The lovely First Aid Kit promoting their new album The Lion’s Roar at the fantastic music store Bengans.  My appreciation for these girls is growing all the time. And to think I had never heard of them when they came on stage at last year’s Polar Music Prize, singing ‘Dancing Barefoot’ for Patti Smith. I was blown away by their version of her song, gorgeous voices and clear passion for it, naturally delightful and entertaining though they seem a little shy.  It’s amusing however, that I appeared to get a bit shy myself when queueing up to get my album signed by them. They live in the same area of Stockholm that we do, so Mattias had some good ‘craic’ with them, getting a high 5 from Klara.

They are playing Debaser Medis (great venue! Drew Florence + The Machine there, as well as Mogwai, RM Hubbert and the Sian Alice Group) on the 4th of February which is sold out already.  I would definitely recommend going to see them, so if you can bag a ticket from anywhere, do it. Maybe see you there.

But I was very glad that I caught a piece of Marina Rosenfeld, sinking into her music and the darkness and for once, not drawing. It felt odd to not draw, but very peaceful.  I felt she should have had some visuals, but then if she expected everyone (it was quite late at this point) to be sitting in the room with their eyes closed, and taking a rest from sensory overload, then she provided a magical and engaging sound scape that created visuals in the mind anyway.

I’ve now uploaded all the timelapse drawings of at least one act per venue at Södra Teatern. You can see them here at my page on Vimeo – look for Ikue Mori, Rolf Enström, Roll The Dice and Family Underground. I also drew Hans Appelqvist, but I prefer it as a still image.  See below.

Annoying that there were so many things on tonight – 4 different venues. But I got to experience each venue at least.  Though I didn’t draw her, I must mention that I really loved experiencing Marina Rosenfeld.  Beautiful, adept, magic, with the dust crackle of vinyl and the twinkle of celestial sounds in futuristic technicolour – and all without the aid of visuals. I felt her performance needed something else though, even if it was a close up video of what her hands were doing with all her gadgets. However, if Family Underground had not been on in Etablissemanget, I would have very happily stayed at the main stage/Stora Scen, to keep listening and watching.

Meanwhile, the drawings of Ikue Mori, Rolf Enström, Roll The Dice, Hans Appelqvist and Family Underground are up on my Facebook page. Check them out.  Will add more tomorrow – I mean – later today.

For those intrigued by the magic of last night’s Art’s Birthday Party, Stockholm’s fantastic electronic music and sound art festival.
Have a look here at Sweden’s Radio Website for clips and soundbites.

Great little news piece on the ‘greatest living artist’ David Hockney, the ‘opportunist’ who quite frankly, isn’t too bothered by the moniker. He’s one of my biggest inspirations folks, and a fervent believer in drawing every day.

Expo opening in London at the Royal Academy on 21st January -

David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture

Another reason to get to get to the Big Smoke, is  ‘London Drawing’ – especially this month, for many many drawing activities. Wish I was there. You never know though…

Finally, for some more drawing inspiration, I’ve just discovered the blog and website of Making A Mark, and look forward to discovering more on it.

Wow, what a fast year last year was, and Kaboom, here we are already. A new year. I’m excited – are you?

A few plans for this year – going to be drawing RM Hubbert‘s launch at Stereo, Glasgow on Friday the 27th January.  It’s going to be a beautiful gig, with a lot of musicians I hugely admire.  It’s already got a very nice review in Scotland’s The List.  But it is definitely Friday the 27th of January as opposed to what the List stated.

This coming weekend it’s Stockholm’s notoriously fab and alternative Art’s Birthday Party and I’ll be doing some drawing at that, iPad in hand. Here’s the drawings I did from last year’s.

At the beginning of March I will be one third of an experimental sound art piece as a development of innovative and experimental musician Jer Reid’s Wintercycle last year. It will feature as part of the Arches fascinating Sound Thought festival at 6pm, on Saturday 3rd March with Jer, myself and the beautiful dancer Monicca Deioanni.  The drawings I did with Jer as part of our Audio/Visual Duet featured myself doing an impromptu monologue and two separate drawings – the first with simultaneous thoughts and memories, the second describing process. You can see them here.

Last year at Sound Thought, I had the good fortune to be able to collaborate with Sound Designer and Engineer Gavin Fort. We did a piece that still hold’s fascination with me – an audio/visual duet with live drawing attached to sound, and live sound sampling/alteration. Really cool to do, and hopefully more developments in the future.

Regards fascinating artworks and items of intrigue around the world, you should check out www.thisiscolossal.com.  I found it via a post about an artist that carves books.  It’s lovely stuff, but I have to confess I was not as impressed as by the very beautiful, empathetic mystery artworks left hidden around libraries and other bookish places in Edinburgh.  The artist as yet remains unknown which is half the beauty of their work. You should read all there is to read about it at this link here.  And while you’re at it, support your local bookish location by utilising it more.  Spare a thought for the much loved Borders, not to mention all the lovely little independent shops that have had to close their doors.

I’ve been featured on the iPad Creative website - which is cool. If you want to see more iPad timelapse drawings you can Here.

My poster design for the Stockholm promoter ‘Mother’ is also featured in their 2011 ‘poster lineup’ showcasing some of the best gigs and artwork I’ve seen anywhere. If you want a little visual snatch of what the alternative music scene is here, check it out. It’s the one promoting Marisa Anderson, Bridget Hayden and Norberto Lobo. A welcome departure from the norm.  ’Mother’ has got a cracking line up to start off this year. Absolutely gutted to be missing Grouper on the 7th of April. If you’re around then, you should be there. No doubts whatsoever. Check out the other ‘Mother’ gigs Facebook page here for updates/gig listings.

Final note – Mattias has just forwarded me a link which looks fascinating about a folk music centre that began in New York and emigrated over here with it’s founder Izzy Young. It has moved since, but it used to be situated on the very street where I’ve now got my studio, and Bob Dylan has written a song about it. I’ll keep you updated on what I find.

Okay that’s all for now. Catch you at the Art’s Birthday Party tomorrow?