Above; the Scott, Wilson Sculpture by Bruce Walker ( internet photo)
Easter Weekend 2015
Before you start I have to warn you, this could be a
bit of a lengthy read, I’ve had a ball and I’m about to share, but it could
take a while
I hope every one who reads this has enjoyed their
Easter as much as I have. I was beginning to feel a bit like a prisoner in my
own home. The winter and the cold weather dragged on and on and on, I began to
feel like a recluse. At times the winter felt endless and the summer a distant
hope. Anyway….. that changed this weekend, my days of pacing the floor are over,
well at least until next winter.
Above; Photo by Ken Hay
I don’t expect many people would have found my Good
Friday activity exciting but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I went to a local museum
to an exhibition of ‘Kenneth Hay’ photos. I’ve been to ken Hay days at the
museum before and so far I’ve not come away disappointed.
He was a (not particularly well known) local
photographer who worked for the local newspaper and also had his own studio.
His photos range from wedding and formal portraits to local scenes and local
celebrations. They are mostly black and white and date from the late 40’s and
50’s through to the 80’s. When he passed away all of his photos and negatives
were bequested to the local museum where, under the careful supervision of a
dedicated group of volunteers, they are slowly being sorted and catalogued.
Initially, when these fascinating photos arrived at the museum no one had any
idea of the vast quantities involved, there are quite literally thousands and
thousands of images and negatives.
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Above photo by Ken Hay
I
find them a wonderful resource. I take my sketch book and draw from them. There
are ladies in 40’s style wedding dresses, young teenagers off to a 50’s dance
in patterned swing skirts and petticoats and little children innocently playing
on a beach with buckets and spade. I’ve bought a couple of these images for
future use. They get emailed to me; which means I can print them out, crop them
or other wise edit them to suit my needs.
They are covered by copyright which
means I’m not allowed to reproduce them but I’ve been assured using them as a
drawing resource doesn’t break copyright. Anyway, I’m going to put a couple of them here
just to let you see, so long as they are credited to him I guess that will be
ok. Yep…….. Friday was a good day.
On Easter Saturday the intention was to visit another
small local museum for what was advertised as a ‘Tartan Craft’ day. It took two
buses and 1 ½ hour to get there but it was a pleasant journey through
countryside with lots to see. We passed horses, cattle, sheep, chickens and lots
of ploughed fields.
When we arrived we found that the ‘tartan Craft’ day had
been wrongly advertised and it was in fact a children’s activity. But, my
friend and I are fairly optimistic people and it was a case of one door closing
and another one opening. We took a stroll around the village, photographed some
of the lovely old buildings and then wandered into the studio of an artist
called Bruce Walker.
He’s a fantastic man, he told us all about his history; how
he trained to be a stonemason in Aberdeenshire and then took up glass
engraving. This is what he says about himself on his own website;
‘’Bruce Walker was born in Aberdeenshire in 1946.
He served a 4 year apprenticeship as a monumental sculptor with William McKay & Sons in Aberdeen. As part of his training he attended Aberdeen Technical College where he studied stone carving. He was an evening student at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen where he studied life drawing, lettering and stone carving. In 1975 he set up own business hand engraving quality glassware and stone carving. The classical training as a sculptor in granite has enabled him to carve virtually any thing out of any stone. During his working life he has successfully worked with granite, sandstone, marble, limestone and soapstone.
At the moment Bruce combines his stone carving with his very successful glass engraving business in Kirriemuir.’’
He served a 4 year apprenticeship as a monumental sculptor with William McKay & Sons in Aberdeen. As part of his training he attended Aberdeen Technical College where he studied stone carving. He was an evening student at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen where he studied life drawing, lettering and stone carving. In 1975 he set up own business hand engraving quality glassware and stone carving. The classical training as a sculptor in granite has enabled him to carve virtually any thing out of any stone. During his working life he has successfully worked with granite, sandstone, marble, limestone and soapstone.
At the moment Bruce combines his stone carving with his very successful glass engraving business in Kirriemuir.’’
The photo below is of his monument commemorating Scott
and his expedition to the Antarctic. This is one of the biggest and best of his
stone works.
‘’The Scott Wilson
sculpture was commissioned to replace an existing monument to Captain Scott and
Doctor Wilson of the Antarctic in the centennial year of 2012.
It is situated in Glen Prosen, Angus’’
It is situated in Glen Prosen, Angus’’
He
is a fantastic man and took great pride in telling us about his life, his work
and his art. He also allowed us to take photos of him engraving the glass.
And then it was Sunday………….and we were caught out by
the heat. I didn’t expect it to be cold, but Sunday was unbelievably warm, so
warm it caught me off guard and a bit over dressed. It was a truly beautiful
day but because it was so unexpected, I spent much of the day seeking shade and
melting in my dark and weather inappropriate clothing. Still, really shouldn’t
complain about the sun, it was a totally glorious day.
We visited the Caledonian Railway. The Caledonian
Railway is a four mile standard gauge railway running from the Victorian
terminus station at Brechin through the Angus countryside to what was once a
mainline station at Bridge
of Dun. The regular passenger
services stopped in 1952 and the goods service stopped in 1981.
Since then this
small piece of line together with some of the older steam and diesel engines
and rolling stock has been cared for by the Brechin Railway Preservation
Society. Easter Sunday was an open day and we took the steam train on the
return journey along that short pieced of track.
The truly weird thing was the
way the passage of time disappeared as
soon as I boarded. I sat there in a carriage identical to the ones of my
childhood, listened to the slow chugging of the steam engine and watched the
stream of black smoky steam float past the window.
I even opened the window,
leaned out and took some photos of the engine in action. It was all rather
exciting. The station was decked out in bunting, there were old enamel adverts
every where and all the staff ( who were actually volunteers) looked super
smart in their old fashioned uniforms.
Then a special
visit to Arbroath Abbey for Easter Monday.
A brief but important history note here, Arbroath Abbey was the site of
the historic signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.
The Declaration of
Arbroath is a declaration of Scottish independence, made in 1320. It is in the
form of a letter in Latin submitted to Pope John XXII, dated 6 April 1320,
intended to confirm Scotland's
status as an independent, sovereign state and defending Scotland's
right to use military action when unjustly attacked.
It was written at Arbroath Abbey by Bernard of
Kilwinning, then Chancellor of Scotland and Abbot of Arbroath and sealed by fifty-one
magnates and nobles. The original copy
of the Declaration that was sent to Avignon
is lost. A copy of the Declaration survives among Scotland's
state papers, held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh. The most widely quoted passage is;
‘’ .for, as
long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be
brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor
honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest
man gives up but with life itself.’’
i'm sure
you can see why this particular piece of history is still so valid today. The
signing of the declaration has been reenacted within the ruins of the Abbey
since 1947, not always annually, or even bi-annually but they did it on Monday,
and happily I was there to witness it.
As a prelude to the re-enactment a band called The
Trybe played. I’ve seen them before at a couple of local events. They are
‘different’ but highly entertaining and evocative. This time the piper brought
his daughter, her name is Iona, it was her
thirteenth birthday and she played the clàrsach ( Scottish harp) just
beautifully. Couldn’t believe she was only 13.
This is their facebook page where someone has very kindly
posted a video of them playing outside the Abbey on Monday. I like the way they
had the Catalonian flag and the Venetian Flag both displayed alongside the
Saltier as a sign of support for their independence movement.
