Bruce MacGregor and Blazin’ Fiddles along with Artist & Author Paul Taggart would welcome your company at the

---------------- Blazin’ Concert Party ------------------

A special intimate evening in celebration of
Traditional Music and Traditional Art
with Traditional Food

hosted by Bogbain Farm on Friday March 12th 2010 - from 6pm

guests will be greeted with a welcoming glass of something tasty and pre-concert nibbles

--------------- to celebrate the launch of ---------------

“Blazin’ Rehearsal” - Paul Taggart’s latest addition to his ‘Heritage Collection’ of paintings and limited edition prints

guests will then be treated to the first half of the Blazin’ Fiddles concert

before breaking for the mid-concert-supper

in which everyone can join the craich with the Blazers and Paul

before resuming the second half of the concert

All-inclusive Ticket for Food & Concert £27.50
(not including the licensed bar, which will be open for drinks throughout the evening)

On-The-Night live painting of Blazin’ Concert

as part of Paul Taggart’s on-going project with Bruce MaGregor and their various joint-initiatives, such as ‘A Brush With Music’ Paul will be painting the entire Blazin’ Fiddles concert as it happens.

Once framed, the painting will hang alongside his other Live, On-The-Spot paintings of the ‘Bogbain Open Sessions’ and ‘Bogbain Concerts’.

Prints from this on-the-spot painting will also be available to order.

----------Advance Orders and On-The-Night ‘Special’----------
for “Blazin’ Rehearsal” limited edition print

To commemorate this special Blazin’ Concert Party

every “Blazin’ Rehearsal” limited edition print ordered prior to March 12th and on the night will feature the Blazin’ Fiddles band members signatures in addition to Paul Taggart’s

If you would like to place an advance order for an early number, or a ‘special number’ in the edition bearing the Blazers signatures please ring Eileen on 07833 680650 or email paul@artworkshopwithpaul.com

To order tickets for this forward booking concert please ring Bogbain Farm on 01463 772800 or email info@bogbainfarm.com

Continuous Display & Sales of Limited Edition Prints from Paul Taggart’s various collections and the ‘Bogbain Open Sessions’ Collection in the Bistro and Musicians Snug at Bogbain Farm.

So many people ask me how I produce my work, what is involved and why I select a subject to paint.

So Eileen and I wondered if we could put together a video showing the various stages my oil paintings go through from the blank surface to the finishing touches.

This is the first of these 'reveals' and shows one of the paintings I have recently completed, which we are also publishing as a limited edition print.

From my growing 'Heritage Collection' of miniature oil paintings, "Blazin' Rehearsal" is a complex painting that required a lot of working out and the full array of traditional techniques in which I specialise.

And to make it all the more enjoyable to watch, some of Blazin' Fiddles music underscores the narrative and accompanies the step-by-step reveal. Brought to you by their kind permission, from one of their CDs - Blazin' Fiddles Live.

In this video Paul Taggart shares the background to his painting, the techniques used and the way in which he composed the painting.

Featuring Paul himself, plus a stage-by-stage reveal of the traditional techniques he uses in this oil painting from start-to-finish.

Accompanied with an underlying music track, featured by kind permission of Bruce MacGregor (Highland fiddler and founder of Blazin' Fiddles) - tracks from his CD "Loch Ness" - available from the Blazin' Fiddles website

www.blazinfiddles.com

“Bonspiel 2009”
Limited Edition Print in aid of North Highland Curling Trust
from Paul Taggart’s Spirit of the Highlands Collection

Dimensions : 293mm(h) x 446mm (w)
Framed Dimensions : 473mm x 726mm

Framed Price: £265

This is a Fund-Raising Limited Edition Print in aid of North Highland Curling Trust published from the original oil painting on board

£80 from each print sold goes to North Highland Curling Trust


Entire edition of 250 prints is dedicated to North Highland Curling Trust

Main Website http://www.nhct.co.uk

FceBook Page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000624925132

To enquire about placing an order for this print please contact Eileen Tunnell (MOB - 07833 680650) or email
et@eileentunnell.com

In the first year of our relocation to the Northern Highlands of Scotland and along with the rest of the UK, we were gripped by one of those Torvill & Dean moments. A 2002 Winter Olympics Gold medal won by a British team, competing in a sport rarely followed outwith those in the know. Although around for at least 500 years; the sport of curling had only returned to the Olympics four years earlier, after a break of some 70 years.

Visit the British Pathé news archive website and you will find rare black and white footage of the annual Grand Match, traditionally held on the Lake of Mentieth, going back to the early 1900’s. Thousands poured onto the ice, resplendent in kilts and bonnets, to sweep the ice and throw the stones. The term ‘curling’ comes from the curl of the stone as it slides across the ice.

Not since 1979 has an outdoor Grand Match taken place and although hoped-for in the ideal freezing weather of January 2010, it never came to be – the issue of crowd safety and risk assessment thwarting all plans for such a happening!
As such, an outdoor Bonspiel is now becoming an even rarer sight and is precisely what we had resigned ourselves to thinking. For although a subject on the list of paintings to include in the ‘Spirit of the Highlands’ collection, we had all but given up any hope of chronicling such an event – that is, until in the last days of 2008, upon overhearing a chance remark from one of the local curlers at a social gathering to which we had been invited.

Which is how, a couple of days later (the first days of 2009), we found ourselves invited to witness an outdoor Bonspiel in one of the frozen fields of Morvich farm, in Sutherland. The term Bonspiel describes the gathering of clans or alliances in a tournament and mostly these are now held indoors, or on specially constructed outdoor rinks. But here we were, at an impromptu Bonspiel, where members from a number of clubs were busily clearing the snow and preparing the ice for their required sheets (the playing area). As you can imagine, we were delighted to have been asked along and this painting is the result of that days efforts.

Amongst these players, the very people who subsequently took it upon themselves to form the North Highland Curling Trust; with a view to re-establishing a curling facility north of Inverness, as the previous facility had been closed down for re-development. Initial investigations soon established that such a facility would prove invaluable, not only for the curling fraternity, but also for the wider community and in attracting visitors from around the world. How could we not lend a hand with fund-raising, when others are voluntarily putting such efforts into making this project come to fruition – a project which is gathering pace and is at the next stage of development, with the appointment of architects to carry out a technical site study.

This proved a tremendously challenging prospect; what with the thirty-five figures, two dogs and all the curling paraphernalia – the aim being to record the essence of an outdoor Bonspiel, not to mention the hive of on-going activity that accompanies an impromptu gathering such as this.

I needed to capture the accompanying ‘piper’, the clearing of the snow and buffing of the ice to create the ‘sheets’ and crucially, the movements in the throwing of a stone, or the ‘bent’ of the figures leaning on their brushes – all too easily this could have resulted in a static view and not the lively occasion of such a gathering.

Unusually, the answer was a symmetrical arrangement of figures. Those on the left are predominantly busy preparing the area, whilst those on the right are getting on with the games. These figures sweep upwards and outwards so that I could lead the viewer through the middle to the distant brazier, keeping the soup warm for the end of play.

The sun, coming in from the right, provides a golden reflection down into the ice, interrupting the symmetry of the composition. It silhouettes the hills on the right, which are cast into wonderful blue shadows; whilst those on the left are bathed in its glorious amber glow. Cool converging shadows break the white starkness of the snow, allowing sunlit patches to sparkle in brilliant contrast.

Paul Taggart Artist & Author : Free to View Tutorials on You Tube are proving popular to visitors from around the world

Nine videos uploaded to date - covering a full sepctrum of media.

More uploaded on a regular basis.

To see more of Paul Taggart's various projects and work in various fields such as art tutorials, painting live at music events, details of his fourteen books, Painting Companions art group................plus painting demonstrations and video tutorials please check out the following FaceBook pages and You Tube channels.

FaceBook Page
Paul Taggart Artist, Chronicler & Author

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Taggart-Artist-Chronicler-and-Author/168780887737

FaceBook Group
Art Workshop With Paul Taggart Painting Companions
(art club & tutorials)

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=277237235133&ref=mf

FaceBook Group
A Brush With Music
(live events bringing Paul Taggarts art together with music)

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=198163705072

YouTube
Art Workshop With Paul
(art tutorials)

http://www.youtube.com/user/artworkshopwithpaul

YouTube
A Brush With Music
(live events bringing Paul Taggarts art together with music)

http://www.youtube.com/user/abrushwithmusic

YouTube
Highland Art Beat
(collaboration with Bruce MacGregor)

http://www.youtube.com/user/HighlandArtBeat

You Tube
Paul Taggart gallery of original paintings and prints as start-to-finish reveals

http://www.youtube.com/user/artistpaultaggart

Watch this video on FaceBook to see how to prepare a graphite pencil stick for applying broad and fine strokes in drawing.

This compilation has been produced to show the stage-by-stage process of this painting, from start-to-finish, as it was painted during the session.

It shows Paul Taggart working with a minimum painting kit of three brushes, six watercolour paints, a limited palette of acrylic inks and a pencil.

The technique used is Wet-on-Wet Watercolour, over waterproof ink linework, all applied with a brush.

To view a musical compilation of this Open Session please visit Paul Taggart’s ‘A Brush With Music’ You Tube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/abrushwithmusic

To view further tutorials, painting hints and tips and get the latest news updates for Paul Taggart’s work as a Fine Artist, Chronicler and Author visit his various FaceBook pages and groups and his main website
http://www.artworkshopwithpaul.com

For further information on Bruce MacGregor and Bogbain Farm, please visit
http://www.bogbainfarm.com

Check out the events page on Paul Taggart and Bruce MacGregor’s various FaceBook pages and groups to keep abreast of these and other events – see links in Profile panel on left.

The next Open Session is on January 24 2010 at Bogbain Farm.