Rabbie Burns & Grace Jones

It's been a week of contrasts. I have been frantically finishing things off for submission to the second McTears Scottish Contemporary Art sale and got to chill to when I got to see Grace Jones live in Glasgow.

After several requests I have painted a Kiltie in Burns tartan to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Burn's birth. Cheekily entitled "BUrNS", I am making him available as a limited edition print too. There will only be 250 of these produced. More details on the website.

The gig really was a case of Amazing Grace. It frustrates me that many people think of Grace as a scary Russell Harty beating brat. She is a fantastic singer, outstanding live performer and is a truly funny person with a great sense of humour. After a busy week it was great to have a boogie at the Grace gig and I could hardly believe it when she performed a long version of Slave To The Rythm whilst hula-hooping! Remember: this lady is now 60 years old!

Grace had some nice words to say about Scotland: some kind soul has uploaded this clip to Youtube.

Oh and a message to my Nephew in England if he reads this - belated Happy 21st Andrew. I hope you had a great day.

Amazing Grace

Apologies for the lack of updates on the Blog and on the website. As the cold weather hits I have landed myself with my annual chest infection. This one has been a sly one though: it lets you think it has gone and then comes back adding laryngitis and conjunctivitis to boot...lovely.

Anyway, enough of that. I did manage to struggle out one night, doped to the eyeballs with paracetamol, with a friend to see Sigur Ros. This was courtesy of the company that I used to work for in my old design days (it seems so long ago now) and I have to say it was an excellent gig. I think it must have got into my brain as I painted a piece which seems to have been influenced by standing ina crowd.

I also found out recently that Grace Jones is touring. Grace gets criticised by those who don't know her. I saw her for the first time in 2002 and I have to say it was one of the best gigs I have ever been to. The new album, "Hurricane" is excellent too so I got into "Jones" mode and have been painting the piece shown here just for the hell of it..