Squarescapes at Coldstream Museum

As well as working at Coldstream Gallery and teaching, Rich has managed to produce a fabulous set of his squarescapes ready to exhibit at Coldstream Museum at the end of March, it is going to look brilliant! Do pop in to Coldstream Gallery to see us after!

Crossing Borders Exhibition at Coldstream Gallery

The lovely Coldstream Gallery is hosting its annual Crossing Borders Exhibition featuring work by artists working all over the Borders.  It is a great chance to see a variety of work from members of the artist collective all in one venue and Rich and I are happy to be exhibiting there.

Calendulas by Rich Johnson

detail of work by Niall Campbell

Laura Johnson Sea Glass, Pottery and Recycled Silver Jewellery

 To see more from the exhibition pop on over to Coldstream Gallery's facebook page and give them a like!

Exhibition: A.D. Johnson and Rich Johnson

Wedding Stationery

My very talented husband designed all our wedding stationery . . .

and he did a very fine job! So much so that one friend clutched the RSVP to her and said "Can I just tell you I'm coming so I can keep this and put it in a frame?" The very same lady who transformed my wedding dress as a most generous gift.  We have been surrounded by such kindness and love in the run up to and over the period of our wedding and feel truly blessed.

Day 24 A Big Birthday

Day 24 was R's big birthday which took us to St Abbs for lunch and a stroll, Horncliffe for dinner and a giant moon moment on the way home.  A lovely day and I could finally stop keeping secrets!  R's Dad and I, with online assistance from my old tutor Paul Croft and a host of tutorials, transformed an old mangle into a printing press.  Huge thanks to R's Dad as within a day or two of emailing the idea he had found a suitable mangle, stripped it down, worked out how to adapt it and used a ten tonne press to sleeve the rollers in stainless steel tubing!  All I did was brush some white spirits around the dirty bits! Ha!


I love the progress photos on this mangle, we used a smaller one and have yet to decide over whether to set up a more permanent bed but will be fun to experiment further!


It was hilarious to watch R open his print making gifts with a confused we-can't-afford-a-press look on his face!  It's a start and I can't wait to see what he produces. You can see his work on his website and blog; he's a bit talented!

The Found Gallery, Dunbar

Last weekend a beautiful new gallery opened on the High Street in Dunbar.

Look closely . . . left window, oh yes it's a Rich Johnson original!

I can assure you The Found Gallery is beautiful as we visited yesterday to replace one of R's paintings which sold on the opening day, yay!

There are so many splendid pieces within and owners Amy Christie and Simon Glover offer a warm welcome to a gallery of work they should be justly proud of.  The vibrant paintings in the back corner shown above are by Siobhan O'Hehir whose work I first saw at the Crossing Borders Gallery, Paxton House.  On my day working their last month I spent a lot of time looking up close at her work (fret not, my nose did not, at any point, make contact with canvas!) and the textures achieved with wax and paint are mesmerizing.  

Lace textured porcelain jugs by Stephanie Earl.

Simon Glover and Rich Johnson, The Found Gallery, Dunbar

A marvelous mooch around Dunbar followed and, as you may tell by the fact that I have left the house on a non work related venture, I have finished the marking work at last!  Free time is amazing, in the last day and a half I have weeded and planted in the garden, cycled and wandered, scraped, sanded and oiled the garden benches.  Am I ever glad that's marking done for this year!

New British Comics Volume Three

New British Comics volume 3 is available now and features a host of fabulous work including Here Comes the Neighbourhood which was created by Matthew Craig and Rich Johnson. I'm incredibly proud of Rich and his work and it is so exciting to see his illustrations in print not to mention his paintings in a gallery, his poetry in a magazine! Eeeeeee! I'm gushing, he is a talented man!

Gifts

We were all spoilt with splendid goodies this year and I thought I'd share one of my parents' faves - scraperboard portraits of the dogs from R. He got such a good likeness of both and my parents were delighted, the photo shows Dad looking a little stunned! If you are interested in pet portraits you can get in touch with R though his website.

Rich Johnson

I've been showing Mr Richard Johnson's new website off over on Folksy, I think it is beautifully done. Rich's photographic interests are clear to see with gorgeous images of cathedral interiors, moody woodland and striking macro flowers and seeds with texture and light abounding in his still life and landscape paintings. Finally his drawing is being shown to a wider audience than English Department meetings at school and I hope you enjoy having a look round as much as we enjoyed watching the minutes becoming ever more elaborately embellished!

Gorgeous work Mr Johnson!

Florence

We're just about ready to leave for Florence so I'll see you all soon for tales of lovely park wanders


some Brunelleschi


and stunning views a plenty!