A Hive of Activity!

Gee Whiz! Where do I start?!
I’ve had SO many fantastic creative projects on the go it’s been a proper whirlwind of colour and hive of activity in my studio the last few months.

The most recent focus for me has been creating new paintings for my exhibition as a Featured Artist at Green Gallery, Stirlingshire, Scotland.
I’ve been exhibiting with Green Gallery since I graduated from Gray’s School of Art in 1999 – they’re a wonderful gallery to work with and I feel really supported and appreciated by them.
The opening of the exhibition is Sunday 20 June 2-5pm. I’m going to be there and I’m so looking forward to getting to meet people and have a chat.
Not only is the gallery itself really lovely you can also sit in the beautiful garden at the gallery and have a picnic and bring your dog!
It’s a gorgeous place to visit for a lovely day trip.
Everyone receiving this blog is invited – Hope to see you there!

Becky from the Green Gallery came to my studio for a visit prior to the exhibition.

You can see the short video here

As well as working on my paintings in my studio I’ve been contracted by Dunfermline Great Place Scheme for three individual projects.
The first was as an illustrator for a virtual meeting for The Dunfermline Heritage Partnership – a brilliant group of movers and shakers in Fife. My job and that of fellow artist Jess (aka The Ricketty Desk) was to create visuals of the conversations to illustrate the meeting.
It was fast and furious like a massive game of Pictionary! Really brilliant to be part of the whole experience and learn so much about organisations in Dunfermline and Fife wide.

The second project is Hidden Gems.
I’ve been contracted to give this great new project a visual identity and create illustrations for social media and branding. Hidden Gems has just launched on Facebook – check it out – It’s a brilliant project!
Once again not only a great opportunity to be creative but a great excuse for me to get to learn more about my new home town Dunfermline!
The brain child of Hidden Gems is Dunfermline based Community Education Worker Susan Shankland who has been such a inspiration to work with.
I’m going to be leading free drop in drawing workshops around Dunfermline to encourage and inspire people to stop and take notice of their surroundings and share their Hidden Gems – keep an eye on the Facebook page for updates.

The third project has been really spectacular to work on… Our Dunfermline Storybook – a project which I have absolutely reveled in devising and delivering.
My contract was to work with primary aged children from Dunfermline to create a storybook of what Dunfermline means to them through their eyes. I was asked to bring Dunfermline’s St Margaret (aka Queen Margaret) into the project as she is an incredibly important figure in Scottish history but not widely known about.
I worked with 3 groups of kids, one from Touch Primary, one from Masterton Primary and my Little Artists After School group. All workshops had to be delivered online due to Covid restrictions, and, apart from some technical issues with Teams (Grrrrr!), they were fantastic! All the kids were really engaged and really really creative.
I gave them a PowerPoint presentation first with some historical and fun facts then set them a creative task with materials I had delivered to the school prior to the workshop. Weaving, gold leaf, watercolour paint, airdrying clay and embroidery were just a few of the amazing things they worked with.

I created the story in a Julie Donaldson, Lauren Child style rhyming tale and used the fabulous artworks the children had created to illustrate it. Each child taking part created a self portrait which features in the book too. So much cuteness and artistic talent! The story will be printed and each child who took part will receive a copy plus copies will be available in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries.
It will also be available online – I’ll forward the link as soon as it’s available.
I can’t wait to see it all put together, it’s going to be AWESOME!
(I’m not biased – honest!!)

Here’s a selection of some of my available artworks.
Just send me an email if you’d like to know more about them or other works I have available
info@kellyannecairns.com