"Complementary Backgrounds" - the subject of Paul's latest Painting Snippet was inspired by a query posted by Apala Mukund of India on Paul's Art Clinic.

Watch this two-part video here and pop over to Art Clinic for more information that would be of help.

Bruce MacGregor and Blazin’ Fiddles along with Artist & Author Paul Taggart were pleased to welcome the hundred guests who joined them for the unique Blazin’ Concert Party on March 12th, 2010 at Bruce MacGregor's music and outdoor activities venue Bogbain Farm, Inverness.

This special intimate evening was staged in celebration of Traditional Music and Traditional Art with Bruce and his team laying on the most delicious fusion traditional food and typical Highland hospitality.

Guests were treated to a passionate showcase preview of Blazin' Fiddles' new material, which will be given its public debut at their upcoming tour and ultimately on their next CD.

On-The-Night live painting of Blazin’ Concert - as part of Paul Taggart’s on-going project with Bruce MacGregor and their various joint-initiatives, such as ‘A Brush With Music’ – Paul was to be found working at his easel throughout the concert.

For lovers of painting there is a 2-Part video featuring Paul at his easel on the night. We see his on-the-spot painting unfold from a blank sheet of paper – before stopping for the intermission when guests were treated to the mid-concert-supper and a chance to wander round Paul’s Private View of original oil paintings and limited edition prints.





For music lovers a dedicated video compilation of the concert given by Blazin' Fiddles.

It was also the evening for launching Paul's newest release in his 'Heritage Collection' of miniature oil paintings and prints - namely "Blazin' Rehearsal" – a painting that captures the band Blazin' Fiddles at one of their private rehearsals in the Summer of 2009.

From this oil painting “Blazin’ Rehearsal” – comes a limited edition print, published privately by Paul Taggart, with only 250 prints available to order.

The live painting produced on the night now hangs alongside Paul’s other Live, On-The-Spot paintings of the ‘Bogbain Open Sessions’ and ‘Bogbain Concerts’ at Bogbain Farm in Inverness, Highland of Scotland. Prints from this on-the-spot painting are also available to order.


For further details of the music sessions, concerts, festivals and music club at Bogbain Farm visit their main website

http://www.bogbainfarm.com

For further details of Blazin’ Fiddles tours, CD’s, biogs, gigs and news visit their main website

http://www.blazinfiddles.com

Paul Taggart and his partner Eileen Tunnell have produced the following video by way of a thankyou to John MacDonald and his team at multi-award winning Balblair distillery for once again offering their support to a community fund-raising event.

Their equally ‘Winter Warming’ contribution to the day’s enjoyment, in donating a signed and dated bottle of Balblair whisky vintage ’89, was very much appreciated by one and all in the committee of the North Highland Curling Trust.

As the sole prize in the competition to name as many of the curlers and spectators at the Bonspiel featured in Paul Taggart’s fund-raising print “Bonspiel 2009”, it was very much appreciated by the winner David Lyall.

On 6th March 2010 around 60 people arrived at Morvich Farm in Rogart (Northern Highlands of Scotland) to join in the celebrations organised by the committee of the North Highland Curling Trust.

Paul Taggart's “Bonspiel 2009” original oil painting was inspired by a Bonspiel in January 2009 in a field on that very farm and he has subsequently dedicated the entire edition of 250 prints to raising funds for the Trust.

Curlers and local folk enjoyed Bangers and Burgers BBQ in the barn with the winter’s sun shining on the many prints from Paul’s various collections displayed on hay bales! Not to mention tables groaning with scones, cakes and bakes provided by Val Murray, who with husband Nigel, had very generously hosted the event in one of their barns.

This was a very special day, just as much enjoyed by onlooking cattle in the adjoining byres, although curling was by nature of the non-wintery weather, restricted to table-top games.

Over £250 of additional spontaneous donations was raised on the day and many orders placed for Paul’s prints, to swell the funds for the North Highland Curling Trust.

For more on the gem that is Balblair whisky visit:-

http://www.balblair.com

For more on the North Highland Curling Trust visit:-

http://www.nhct.co.uk

“Bonspiel 2009” fund-raising prints are available to order and can be found on Paul Taggart's Work In Progress Gallery and Limited Edition Prints Gallery.

Pop over to Paul's Limited Editions Gallery to see his still-life limited edition print from an original miniature oil painting celebrating Balblair as a Highland Gem.

Paul Taggart and his partner Eileen Tunnell have produced this video by way of a thankyou to John MacDonald and his team at multi-award winning Balblair distillery for once again offering their support to a community fund-raising event.

Their equally ‘Winter Warming’ contribution to the day’s enjoyment, in donating a signed and dated bottle of Balblair whisky vintage ’89, was very much appreciated by one and all in the committee of the North Highland Curling Trust.

As the sole prize in the competition to name as many of the curlers and spectators at the Bonspiel featured in Paul Taggart’s fund-raising print “Bonspiel 2009”, it was very much appreciated by the winner David Lyall.

On 6th March 2010 around 60 people arrived at Morvich Farm in Rogart (Northern Highlands of Scotland) to join in the celebrations organised by the committee of the North Highland Curling Trust.

Paul Taggart's “Bonspiel 2009” original oil painting was inspired by a Bonspiel in January 2009 in a field on that very farm and he has subsequently dedicated the entire edition of 250 prints to raising funds for the Trust.

Curlers and local folk enjoyed Bangers and Burgers BBQ in the barn with the winter’s sun shining on the many prints from Paul’s various collections displayed on hay bales! Not to mention tables groaning with scones, cakes and bakes provided by Val Murray, who with husband Nigel, had very generously hosted the event in one of their barns.

This was a very special day, just as much enjoyed by onlooking cattle in the adjoining byres, although curling was by nature of the non-wintery weather, restricted to table-top games.

Over £250 of additional spontaneous donations was raised on the day and many orders placed for Paul’s prints, to swell the funds for the North Highland Curling Trust.

For more on the gem that is Balblair whisky visit:-

http://www.balblair.com

For more on the North Highland Curling Trust visit:-

http://www.nhct.co.uk

“Bonspiel 2009” fund-raising prints are available to order and can be found on Paul's Limited Edition Prints Gallery, the origibal can be seen on his Work in Progress Gallery.

When you visit the Limited Edition Prints Gallery scroll down to see Paul’s still-life limited edition print from an original miniature oil painting celebrating Balblair as a Highland Gem.

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