Artmapping

Day off and so pleased that the annual Artmap Argyll Red Dot Open Studios event was extended to a second weekend this year, so we were able to have a day trip and enjoy visiting some artists and their art. We drove up to Mid Argyll and headed out along the Crinan Canal road then went over to Tayvallich and on to Carsaig where we knew there were some studios we wanted to see.
The first studio we visited was an interesting studio where the artist explained her technique of drying seaweeds and making scans which she printed. The seaweed are obtained by diving on a reef in the bay at Carsaig.
Then we went to "The Cube", a little caravan where the artist Jane Smith exhibits her screen prints.(see extra) She has recently been on Islay and Shetland gathering material for future work, and will be contributing to a "West coast and East Coast" exhibition soon at Aberlady (to the East of Edinburgh) with another screen print artist who we know, Kitty Jones. Jane will exhibit work with West of Scotland birdlife and Kitty will represent the East. We came away with a lovely framed screen print of Mackerel.
  We had lunchat Tayvallich, where Fergus is welcome on the outside deck area.
Here's Fergus checking that the lunch was up to standard.
After lunch we decided to forego more art and went to the Taynish National Nature Reserve which is just a mile or so out of Tayvallich on the shore of Loch Sween. We took Fergus for a walk there, during which we came across some art displayed at the mill.
After our walk we headed back through Tayvallich and round to the Crinan Canal, then went up to Kilmartin where there was a small exhibition in the Museum coffee shop.

On our way home we stopped to visit friends in Ardrishaig.