Dugs of war, seems appropriate

Dugs

Quite exciting news for the new audiobook of Alasdair Gray's Lanark: "Alasdair himself also makes an appearance. Back in 1995, Alasdair recorded excerpts from Lanark for a cassette release, and those tapes have been folded into the new production." www.thenational.scot/news/2583385...

'His achievement is to create this loving and vivid portrayal of one small corner of London, its making and remaking after The Great War'. V. grateful for this lovely review of Songs of Seven Dials by London Society - which really gets what I was trying to do. londonsociety.org.uk/songs-of-sev...

A wee bit of this as a drawing buddy today. Tim Neats’ wonderful book on the highland traveling families and pearl fishers

Edvard Munich’s Cabbage Field. I’m on a bit of a Karl Ove Knausgård kick at the minute. He describes the painting as being about death to him and seeing the world for the first time when you’re not there. He talks about it better than I could here: youtu.be/-0EaEf2HXMs?...

youtube.com/watch?v=-0Ea... an interview with Karl Ove Knausgård where he talks about how trust in the world and in people can disappear as the result of traumatic experiences and that art, writing can be not only a way to confront the world but also to hide from it

Launching on Monday! 100 years of incredible ethnographic recordings from @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social's extraordinary sound collections, reimagined into brand new compositions by sound artists, musicians, composers, poets and producers from all over the world.

I might have been looking at too much mid nineteenth century Scottish landscape painting

Every child needs to hear this, and remember it, as a teen, as an adult, when they are very old. Rest in Power Rev. Jesse Jackson

A quick grab of a working drawing before I wreck it and then decide that I liked it after all

And I think of the things that matter

Why should I stay here, the boy racers are racing home past Carrick Carpets

Aretha Franklin is outside the Griffin Bar in Glasgow while a train passes by in the background (some of this might not have happened)

I am looking at a photo of Ayr Baths in the early 1980’s before the flume and the urban myth about someone sticking a razor blade in it.

I’m thrilled with Scenes from the Blue CD cover - thanks Pascal Blua for gorgeous design with my artwork.❤️ 📢 Pre-orders go live tomorrow on Bandcamp Friday 6th Feb! Link coming. 💾 Release date: 20th March 2026 Thanks Creative Scotland & Tramway Glasgow. #newmusic #soundart #soundscape #bandcamp

My next wee bit of drawing, looking forward to it. Might be of interest @tricksterprince.bsky.social ? 100years.scot/the-story/th...

‘Uair is uair agus me briste Thig mo amusing ort is tu òg’ ‘And again and again when I am broken My thoughts come to you when you were young’ It is from Reothairt (Spring Tide) by Sorley Maclean

Some drawings and the line from January

Portrait study

my drawing buddies today youtube.com/playlist?lis...

youtu.be/tYK1-AJ4BSU?... Ten years in an open necked shirt. Happy birthday JCC

The last Gaelic speaker in Ayrshire died the year Robert Burns was born

It’s Robert Burns’ birthday and in there somewhere in my Michael Marra, Neil Gow, Dougie Maclean, growing up in Ayr tribute to socialist folks wandering about the hills of a weekend in the 1950’s pointing at things.

Joan Greenwood on the Isle of Barra in Scotland during a break from location filming for Whisky Galore! (1949)

43 years ago today, Echo and the Bunnymen appeared on TOtP, alongside U2. Afterwards, both of their career's would dramatically diverge. But first, they'd have to get there. This is the story of how the Bunnymen achieved their first Top10 hit, The Cutter. grantmcphee.substack.com/p/echo-and-t...

I am scared of the future, I am scared of the past

youtu.be/5UZrR4UlfoQ?... a mighty fine drawing buddy on this cold and dark January afternoon

Scenes of a remembered intimacy set against a backdrop of bucolic indifference

Scott Walker's Farmer in the City absolutely blew me away on first listen. A mere 30 years ago. youtu.be/zIJzTWk6bSw?...

www.instagram.com/reel/DTVo3kp... ‘Charing Cross in the last half of the Twentieth Century’ Many thanks to Fine Little Day and those words might end up in my bio :-)

Study for a Gaelic Mass (Heavy Structures in a Landscape Setting - After William McCance) Just to lay the references on thicker, the wording across the boat is from Hallaig by Sorley Maclean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain) and reads in English ‘The dead have been seen alive’ (chunnacas na mairbh beò)

This is my new album. It's instrumental, apart from some crowd chanting on Your Gold, Mr Bridger. The average tune length is two minutes and eight seconds. There are fourteen tunes. It sounds like old telly music. It's ace. I'd love it if you listened. I've love it even more if you shared it.

More workings on ‘A Study for a Gaelic Mass - Heavy Structures in a Landscape Setting (after William McCance)

Work in progress, my first wood engraving for several months. Enjoying the calm it brings. 10x10 cm lemonwood. Looking back up the cliff path at Rubha Hunish, Trotternish, Skye. Down to the almost hidden peninsula and the birds, the Shiants, the Outers and the panoramic mainland mountains.

‘Study for a Gaelic Mass - after William McCance’s Heavy Structures in a Landscape Setting’ The second bit of the title is a long winded nod to the artist and conscientious objector William McCances’ painting ‘Heavy Structures in a Landscape Setting’

Study for a Gaelic Mass #3 prior to the evacuation of Hiort in 1930 all the working dogs were drowned in the waters of Village Bay

Study for a Gaelic Mass #2

Study for a Gaelic Mass #1

youtube.com/watch?v=bXps... The Conjoining of Ancient Song: sacred singing from the Western Isles and African American, Native American, and white American religious song traditions.

So it seems at the minute this is turning into the draw of a background that doesn’t want to be a background.

My wife died some years ago and so with much gratitude to @ccohanlon.bluesky.social for the invitation to publish this piece through Burning House Press @thearsonista.bsky.social on her anniversary: Mòran taing burninghousepress.com/2025/11/18/e...