Art for all

The other day I visited some art exhibitions in Glasgow, part of the GI biennale festival (Glasgow International). To say they were disappointing would be an understatement.
I thought maybe I was being hypercritical until I read Clare Henry’s blog (Clare is former art critic for the Glasgow Herald and Financial Times) and found that she had found most of the work disappointing too.

So it was refreshing to visit Delta Studios in Larbert to see their annual exhibition of work created by adults, nearly all without any art school training yet here they had created a substantial body of work that had an exuberance and liveliness about it reflecting not only a high standard of technical skill but a passion for their subject too.




Delta Studios is the unique vision of artist and teacher Craig Mckechnie,(pictured) a charismatic figure with the ability to nurture and draw out talent from a diverse group of people who attend his daily drop-in art classes.
This vibrant artistic community, which he set up over ten years ago, operates from a large unit in an industrial park, an unlikely setting for such a venture.

Yet it works.