Banksy exhibition

There are many reasons why I feel lucky to live in Glasgow, and the most recent one is that Banksy has chosen to hold his first exhibition for 14 years at the Gallery of Modern Art here. It seems we have the cheeky traffic cone perched on the head of the Duke of Wellington to thank for that, according to Banksy himself. He says the statue is his favourite work of art in the UK, no doubt because it reflects his own attitude towards authority. Despite regular attempts by police and Glasgow City Council to remove the cone, another one magically appears the next day (and sometimes one on the horse’s head as well!) I think the authorities must have given up now, as it’s been that way for about 40 years.

Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art and the famous statue

I was discouraged back in June to discover that the Banksy Cut & Run exhibition had sold out in three days. Luckily, the gallery soon decided to stay open until 11pm on weekdays and through the night on weekends, creating lots more opportunities for Banksy fans to visit the gallery as late as 5am, should they choose. If you’re lucky you can also turn up early any day and secure a ticket, so I was able to get in one Sunday morning. The exhibition runs until Monday 28 August, so there’s still time to see it if you are in the city.

I don’t have permission to post any photographs of the exhibition (though I have put in a request) so in the meantime you will just have to imagine the highlights I will list here (or buy yourself a copy of the book pictured above, which is available from the GOMA shop online). Now, on to my favourite Banksy works from the exhibition:

A wall-size stencil of a Jean-Michel Basquiat self-portrait being stopped and searched by two classic Banksy stencilled cops. This was painted on the Barbican gallery wall in 2017 on the occasion of a Basquiat retrospective exhibition there. Banksy was imagining the type of welcome a New York graffiti artist like Basquiat might expect from the London authorities.

An image of a council worker who grows bored with painting double yellow lines along the roadside and decides to bump his roller up the curb, across the pavement and then up a nearby wall, painting a giant yellow flower. The worker himself is stencilled on the wall too, sitting on a can of yellow paint, roller in hand.

The testimonial of a staff member at Dismaland, the parody of saccharine Disneyland created in 2014 in Weston-super-Mare. In a world of burnt-out ice cream vans, grim iron-grey castles and condemned rides, the staff wore Mickey Mouse ears made of paint tin lids and had been trained to be as rude as possible to visitors. One tourist was desperate to buy the last “I’m an imbecile” balloon, so the staff member took his money, popped the balloon in front of him and handed him the string.

The cattle truck full of soft toy cows, pigs and sheep. This large vehicle takes up a lot of space in the main gallery, and the animals’ heads poking out of the gaps in the truck seem to move. When you get round to the other side of the truck, there are steps leading up inside. Visitors are invited to climb in and animate the puppets for the people following them. This truck was driven around New York City for a month in 2013, with puppeteers working the animal puppets with both hands and foot pedals for eight hours a day. Banksy remarks wryly that this “ironically might be even worse conditions than the animals are put through.”

That’s just a taste of the many brilliant works on display in the Cut & Run exhibition. If I hear from Banksy’s people about permission to post photos I’ll be back to share those. In the meantime, I can highly recommend the show!

Maisie the Mountain Hare

It’s that time of year again! Time for the launch of my latest Picture Kelpies rhyming story, all about a pair of young mountain hares who live in the Cairngorms, a national park and mountain range in the Highlands of Scotland. Maisie and Archie start out as leverets, the word for a baby hare. They spend their days sleeping in a shallow depression in the heather and grasses called a form, while their mum goes foraging.

At nightfall she returns, and they wake up to feed and frolic about in the moonlight. Time passes and the seasons change. As winter approaches, their fur starts to turn white. Their best friend Thomas (a young ptarmigan) is also getting white feathers! Soon they will all be completely white, but where is the snow?

Baby mountain hares, or leverets, are brown to hide in heather and long grass.

As winter nears, their fur turns white so they can hide in the snow.

Ptarmigans are speckled brown in summer and white in winter too, like hares.

Maisie, Archie and their friend Thomas love to play hide-and-seek in the heather and tall grasses on the mountainside. During the summer and early autumn they are difficult to spot, and this keeps them safe from predators like the big golden eagle who would like to eat them!

Turning white in winter should keep them safe too, but the snow is coming later every year because of global warming and climate change. Hares and ptarmigans have not adapted to this change, so their white colouring makes them very visible against the brown autumn grasses. At the end of the story, Maisie, Archie and Thomas are so excited when the first flakes of snow start to fall. Now they can play hide-and-seek again!

Click on Maisie the Mountain Hare to see more images from the book. Available from 16 February from Floris Books in Edinburgh (and lots of other online bookshops). If you’re curious about puffins, red squirrels, wildcats or otters click HERE to see my whole range of Scottish wildlife rhyming picture books!

Oran the Curious Otter

My latest Picture Kelpies book came out earlier this year, and I’m delighted with the expert illustrations of Abigail Hookham, a graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London. Oran the otter spends a lot of time underwater, and Abigail is brilliant at capturing the light coming through water from above, as well as dark, stormy seas when things get scary.

Oran the Curious Otter is a rhyming story about a young river otter who goes for his first trip to the open sea with his mum and his sister Orla. They live on the isle of Mull, and arrive in a wide and beautiful bay – Calgary Bay. Naturally, to do proper research for the book, I had to spend some time on Mull, taking photographs of a tree overhanging the bank of a stream, the journey downstream to the shore, and the wide expanse of the bay.

The perfect spot for a holt where otters can live.

The stream flows along the edge of the beach down to the sea.

Calgary Bay with its white sand in the late afternoon sun.

Abigail has captured all these features in her illustrations, starting with the otters’ holt by the stream:

Oran and Orla are just waking up. They are old enough now to visit the sea…

Mum leads them downstream to the bay which looks enormous!

Oran meets a friendly seal called Camille who shows him around and teaches him a thing or two.

When Oran finds a lobster trap, Camille warns him not to climb inside.

Camille also warns Oran not to eat the plastic floating in the sea.

Abigail first shows the sun filtering through the water in a bright and happy moment when Oran meets Camille. Then, when there is danger, Abigail uses darker colours to convey a more worrying atmosphere. The most distressing moment comes when Camille is caught in a fishing net and Oran has to rush to her rescue. Abigail makes the sea grey and stormy to give us a sense of danger and uncertainty.

Two guillemots warn Oran that Camille is in trouble. The sky has turned dark and rain is falling.

The sea is dark and murky as Oran struggles to free Camille from the net.

As the sun goes down, Oran, Orla and Mum head back upstream to their holt.

Camille is rescued, and Oran rejoins his mum and sister at the end of a long and busy day. The storm has passed and the clouds are turning pink and gold as the sun sets. With this illustration, Abigail creates a sense of calm using warm, mellow colours. The final image shows Mum and the two pups curled up in their holt, safe and sound.

Like all my Picture Kelpie stories, this one has a happy ending! Oran has a new friend, and he has learned a lot about sea creatures and underwater dangers. I hope Abigail’s amazing illustrations will inspire readers to visit the isle of Mull for a bit of otter spotting!

Calgary Bay, Isle of Mull

The beauty of Scotland

Photo ©David Russell

I sometimes forget how lucky I am to live in Scotland. Not only do I have a brilliant city life in a handsome Victorian neighbourhood, but the beauty of wild natural landscapes can be reached in a matter of minutes. Scotland may be a small country, but the variety of landscapes, from mountains and moors to white sand beaches and ancient woodlands, is quite stunning!

Recently I discovered a talented photographer whose work reflects his passion for Scotland and all its natural beauty. David Russell lives in the Cairngorms National Park and is a qualified wilderness guide and outdoor instructor. I love this photo of him as a young boy first trying to capture the beauty around him:

Photo ©John Russell

David spends long hours tramping though forests at dawn to catch the morning light through the trees. The key to success as a nature photographer is patience, and clearly in David’s case it pays off!

Photo ©David Russell

In addition to producing these beautiful images, David has recorded several video tutorials on nature photography, and some stunning drone videos of Harris in the Outer Hebrides and the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.

Photo ©David Russell

David ventures out in all seasons, showing Scotland in autumn mist and dusted with snow:

Photo ©David Russell

Photo ©David Russell

He also produces high quality prints of his work which are available for sale on his website, Highland Wildscapes.

Photo ©David Russell

Inspired by the beauty of nature, David has put together collections of his photos with evocative poems and short pieces of writing. It’s a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings that these landscapes inspire in the photographer.

It’s good to be reminded now and then of the natural beauty right on my doorstep. Thanks, David!

Photo ©David Russell

Parker’s positive poetry

Comely Park Primary School in Falkirk, Scotland, where I am a proud Patron of Reading, has a special mascot bear called Parker. As you can imagine, Parker has been very lonely in school since the lockdown, and he is looking forward to the day when the children will return. In the meantime, he has painted a rainbow for his window, and he’s been thinking about how to help everyone feel more positive about the future.

Parker is quite a creative bear, and he has been writing some poetry. It made him feel better to think about the colours of the rainbow and all the things he is looking forward to doing with the children when they come back to school. You can read his poem here:

Parker was so pleased with his poem that he thought he would challenge all his Comely Park friends to write one too! And that’s where I come in. As Comely Park Patron of Reading, it’s my job to launch this exciting new writing challenge: Parker’s Positive Poetry.

So what can you write about, I hear you ask. Well, Parker has provided a few ideas to get you started. You can write about all the things you like about being at home instead of at school. You can talk about all the things you are looking forward to once school starts again. You can describe how the world has changed, like the cleaner air and all the animals and birds coming out of hiding. You can imagine what the future will be like – will we all just go back to the way we were, or will things change for the better?

Your poem can be in any form and any length, from a short haiku to a kenning or acrostic poem. It can rhyme or not rhyme – it’s entirely up to you!

Every poem submitted to your teacher will be posted on this page. I’m hoping there will be lots of brilliant work added here over the next few weeks! Good luck and happy writing!

And here are the first entries – some crackers already!

          Alistair P3M