A Big Adventure With John Byrne

I have always loved the work of artist John Byrne. I had his painting on the sleeves of the Steelers Wheel ‘Ferguslie Park’ LP record at my mum and dads house in Johnstone. I was so delighted to be asked to cover the opening of John Patrick Byrne – A Big Adventure. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has put together a new exhibition charting his illustrious career. A Big Adventure is the first retrospective of the Paisley born artist, playwright, and theatre maker for more than 20 years. He was lovely to photograph, so gentle and unassuming. I have photographed him before at the Tramway many years ago. It was amazing to see the artworks at their full scale size. The one that did it for me was the big paining of Billy Connolly. I photographed Martin Craig, curator of Art post 1945 beside the huge almost life-size painting. Billy is pointing at his banjo but it looks as if he is pointing to Martin.

A Dinosaur in the Gym Hall

Cycling For Mary’s Meals

I met an amazing lady up at the University of Stirling. Great grandmother Ellison Hudson, from Bridge of Allan, was celebrating her 84th birthday by cycling 84 miles around the University’s  racetrack. She was helping to raise money to help feed some of the world’s poorest children with Mary’s Meals. She has been a fundraiser for the charity for many years. She gave me shot of her tricycle. It’s an electric one and  takes a bit of skill to use it. It nearly took off with me, until I got the hang of controlling it.

Something To Get My Teeth Into

Being a bit of a scaredy cat and not liking horror films, I wondered about my latest assignment at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow. A descendent of Dracula author Bram Stoker was visiting the Theatre Royal, Glasgow while in Scotland marking the 125th anniversary of the popular gothic novel. Dacre Stoker, the great grandnephew of the famous writer, called at The Grand Old Lady of Hope Street too see where his great uncle worked with Henry Irvine and The Lyceum Company in Faust which was the theatre’s opening performance.  He was in Scotland to mark the 125th anniversary of Dracula and he will be checking into landmarks, which were thought to the be inspiration for the tale with the partnership of Visit Scotland. He was so friendly and chatty. A delight too photograph and not scary at all.