14th June 2011.

New commissioned work inspired by The Herring Road is being shown in an exhibition in The Peter Potter Gallery in Haddington at the moment.

The Preview is this Friday 5.30-7. Please come along for art, wine, music and readings.

Herring_Road_Invite_wFor the Herring Road commission, I was instantly drawn to the traditional outfits that the fishwives wore, in particular, their striped double-layered skirts, which are the focus of three paintings ‘A Fishwife’s Tail – West, South and East’. The interesting use of the two layered skirt, with the upper one being tucked up to form a pocket (as well as reveal it’s striped lining) may well have been used by these women whilst selling the herring or bartering them for meal and eggs. With the focus of these paintings being solely on the these skirts, I aim to highlight to their distinctive shape and pattern and, consequently draw attention to their significance in helping to tell a story about the fishwives lives and the culture in which they lived.

In this exhibition I am also showing one of the works made during my artist residency in Timespan Museum and Arts Centre in Helmsdale, Sutherland, where I spent 3 months exploring the crofters homes and their lifestyle in the 1800’s. I found this bucket in one of the croft ruins in Wester Helmsdale. It had no bottom on it and a big hole in the side. The crofters were (and still are) extremely resourceful and frugal, and would mend what they could before replacing it. This bucket would have been a vital piece of equipment, so I mended it by weaving it a new bottom and wrapping the hole at the side with string. It’s now a perfectly good bucket again…for everything except liquid!…and is valued once more, transformed from the rejected to the treasured.

There is also sound work/music and an installation byWounded Knee and two videos of performance work and some brilliant ‘snail drawings’ by Ross Combe.

Well worth a visit!

I do hope to see you there.

JuliaDouglas-AFishwivesTail-720
A Fishwives Tail (East, South and West)