GEORGE BAIN INSPIRES
Marking the 140th anniversary of the birth of George Bain and the launch of a website dedicated to the artist’s work, Groam House Museum presents a series of virtual events celebrating Bain’s work and influence.
An artist and educator with a passion for sharing Celtic art, Bain continues to inspire countless artists and craftspeople to this day. His instruction manuals are still in print as Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction. A new website dedicated to Bain allows access to the extraordinary range of art, artefacts and objects designed by Bain. The website also invites artists and craftspeople from around the world to showcase their work and join an online creative community dedicated to Celtic art and craft.
Groam House Museum has invited members of the Celtic art community to discuss how George Bain inspires ad influences – offering a unique insight into their own art and craft practices.
The George Bain Collection held by Groam House Museum includes sketches, hand-drawn plates for his books, designs for craftwork and craftwork itself – carpets, leatherwork, woodwork, embroideries, ceramics. It is a Recognised Collection of National Significance to Scotland.
This project and the creation of the George Bain Collection website has been made possible by the generous support of Museum Galleries Scotland.
VISIT THE GEORGE BAIN COLLECTION WEBSITE
Celebrating Celtic Interlace –
creating drawings from scratch
Sunday 19 September, 4 pm
Find out how to draw interlace patterns with Celtic art designer Marjory Tait. You’ll master the basics of interlacing strands and transforming the result into your own artwork. It’ll be step-by-step, starting with a blank sheet of paper, and just needs a steady hand.
Watch the video, follow the expert, start to create your artwork, and then join the live Q&A session on Sunday 19th September at 4 pm.
Signing up for a free ArtTicket will activate a link to Marjory’s training video. Take a look. All you’ll need is paper, pencils, a rubber, crayons or pens or felt-tip markers. Then join us to ask questions, share your first attempts, and find out how to do more.
Marj is hugely proud of her Highland heritage and roots, and feels that draws her towards ornamental art forms developed by both ancient and modern Celts. Living on the family croft above Loch Ness, she spends much of her time in nature, observing plants and animals in their natural habitat. Marj’s graphic illustrations are inspired by both the local flora and fauna, where she recreates them through her own Celtic Art, with a contemporary twist.
Share your Celtic creation on Instagram using the hashtag #GeorgeBainInspires
Inspired by Celtic Art – Virtual Studio Tours
15 & 22 September 2021, 7.30pm
Join us over two sessions as we take a look at the work of international artists and craftspeople inspired by the work of George Bain. Gain insight into their creative process we join them in virtual visits to their studios, followed by a live Q&A with the opportunity to ask our artists about their work.
Session 1 – 15th September 2021, 7.30pm
Michael Carroll & Kerry Moncreiff
Session 2 – 22nd September 2021, 7.30pm
Gus Elson & David McGovern
Michael Carroll (b.1961, Chicago, USA) has been a Celtic artist since 1989. For the past twenty-five years, he has worked exclusively in the Insular style, reviving the art of the 8th-century scribes. Rather than copying their work, he creates only originals, using the same tools and methods to produce intricate illuminated pages in the style of the Book of Kells. As a founding member of the five-artist American Celtic Exhibition, his artwork toured the USA from 2000 to 2010, and was featured in London in the 2001 UK show Celtic Design: An Exhibition of the Artform. Carroll received the IBAM (Irish Books, Art and Music) Visual Arts award in 2015, and since 2018 has served as Celtic Art instructor at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago. In recent years has been working with UK scholars researching key pattern theory and methods. Michael is also the author of several books, with two forthcoming volumes on key pattern and knotwork construction.
See Michael’s work on the George Bain Collection website.
Kerry Moncrieff’s interest in leatherwork started at the same time he started wearing kilts. He couldn’t find a sporran that matched the image of the sporran he had in my mind’s eye, and so, being a lifelong artisan, he began his journey into Celtic inspired leatherwork. As well as making sporrans, he also makes purses, kilt belts, sword baldrics, guitar straps, really anything leather related to Celtic inspired fashion items.
One of his favourite processes when working with leather is hand tooling Celtic designs as embellishments on my leather items. He began by using patterns of Celtic designs found in the public domain. Eventually, these images, as well as the amazing work of such artists as George Bain, inspired him to design his own tooling patterns, which allows him to offer truly unique pieces of finely crafted leatherwork. Having retired five years ago, Kerry is now working on his leatherwork business full time.
See Kerry’s work on the George Bain Collection website.
David McGovern is a professional stone carver working mainly in local sandstone but also in limestone and bronze. He is based in his native Angus in the North East of Scotland. David’s work can be found in private collections, outdoor installations and museums. David is a fellow of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland, a member of the Scottish Artists Unio and a Vice President of The Pictish Arts Society.
See David’s work on the George Bain Collection website.
