Scots in the West End

20 December, 2016

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Chris painting portraits on December 20th, 2016.

Adding atmosphere to an underground restaurant

Video now ready – watch here 

I am currently painting a new mural for the William Street restaurant ‘A Room in the West End’, an Edinburgh establishment downstairs from Teuchters pub. I have dined there a number of times, most recently on my 40th birthday and I know the owner Peter Knight through my long affiliation to Boroughmuir Rugby Club.

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The exterior of Teuchters pub in Edinburgh; the Room In the West End restaurant is located inside and down the stairs.

They already had a mural in their cosy subterranean location, but the last time that I dined there I mentioned to Peter that I thought it was looking a little tired and dated. I suggested that they could do with a rethink as it wasn’t adding value to the restaurant. It took a year or so but Peter came around to my line of thinking and agreed to have me fix it for them.

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The initial design of the mural for the restaurant walls.

The brief as was to reflect the West End/Central Edinburgh location, to visually push the wall back with added depth, but also make the room look exciting, populous and atmospheric. Ideally the mural would become a talking point and would make the restaurant a destination venue. I decided to combine my signature crowd mural concept with a 12m landscape depiction of Edinburgh’s Old Town, sweeping across the skyline from North Bridge to Edinburgh Castle.

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Billy Connolly and Super Gran lurk amongst the well-kent Scottish figures in the mural.

Originally the discussion as to who would be painted into the crowd revolved around the use of regulars, locals and restaurant staff, but also with a strong rugby element as the pub is a haunt of the Six Nations Championship revellers. However the mural has quickly become a nostalgia piece to innumerable Scottish celebrities and the crowd is now a 50/50 mix of celebs and punters, which should result in visitors looking more closely at the painting in order to identify the well-kent faces amongst the lesser-known crowd. 

My crowd scenes frequently feature one or two celebrities but largely my focus has been on the general public. In my twenties I worked for as a magazine illustrator, painting for over 30 different magazines and they would often ask me to paint celebrity portraits within the context of editorial illustrations. So working on this mural has in many ways felt like a blast from the past for me.

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Scottish musicians The Proclaimers, Shirley Manson and Rod Stewart join in the revelry in the mural.
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Chris using his ever-present iPad for photo reference during the painting of the mural.

The extra muscle memory from painting around 6000 portraits in the last five years has meant that I have found this task considerably easier than I used to. The internet has improved celebrity photo reference immeasurable – laying hands on good celebrity photo reference is so much easier and allying that with my ubiquitous iPad has allowed the mural to build relatively easily.

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Some of Edinburgh’s Old Town buildings depicted in the mural, looming above the ghostly outlines of people whose portraits are waiting to be painted.
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Scottish singers Susan Boyle, Lulu, and Sharleen Spiteri of the band Texas make an appearance in the mural.
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Room in the West End owner Peter Knight enjoys the company of Sharleen Spiteri, KT Tunstall and Annie Lennox at his table in the mural.
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Chris painting the mural in the early days of its progression – the skyline has been completed but the portraits are yet to start.

The only real issue has been negotiating painting time around the comings-and-goings of a successful restaurant. In order to not disrupt the customers’ meals, I’ve had to work in and around the Christmas rush which has meant arriving at 7am and leaving around 2pm. After the initial painting of the Edinburgh skyline, each day by lunchtime I have typically managed to produce around ten portraits.

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Painting the first portrait of the mural.
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Chris consulting his iPad during painting.

My plan is to finish the mural by mid January and launch the mural publicly in time for the Six Nations tournament – hopefully with some more famous rugby faces identifiable in the crowd scenes.

Categories: Murals

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Santa Invades Norwich Castle

2 December, 2016

Projecting Paintings onto Norwich Castle

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Footage of Chris (live painting, while dressed as Santa) is projected onto Norwich Castle as part of their Christmas celebrations. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.

In  October 2016 I was asked by Edinburgh-based Double Take Projections (who specialise in large-scale projections nationwide) if I would produce some paintings specifically to create some time lapse footage for the city of Norwich’s 2016 Christmas celebrations. As Double Take Projections are top professionals in the field with a track history of success, the Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) approached them to “paint” a number of local landmark buildings with projected animations and time-lapse footage.

Painting in front of time-lapse cameras has become an intrinsic part of my working practice over the past few years. Working in collaboration with editor Mettje Hunneman, I have now produced more than 20 short films which document my work process in this way. In addition to being a great publicity device and adding to my social media profile, I also find that the presence of time-lapse cameras provides me with added creative focus. The performance element of producing paintings on film keeps me engaged with the canvas and it forces me to be braver in my output. Furthermore, filming encourages me to keep working regardless of physical discomfort or tiredness, thereby increasing my productivity.

 

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Chris being photographed and filmed while painting a Christmas mural in his studio in Edinburgh. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.

For three days at the end of October I painted in the studio while dressed as Santa (complete with a partially moulting fake white beard) while cameraman Adam Robertson kept a watchful eye on proceedings.

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Working on the Norwich BID logo in the studio in Edinburgh. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.
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The painted Norwich BID logo is projected onto Norwich Castle. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.

The images grew exponentially in size as the days rolled on; I began with an A0-size evolving painted Norwich BID logo, followed by a Norwich street scene measuring four feet by five feet, before finishing with an eight foot by twelve foot mini mural designed as a massive Norwich-themed Christmas card. I painted Santa himself in the the background and local celebrities Delia Smith and Stephen Fry pulling a cracker in the foreground. The conceptual idea was that the live action Santa ‘character’ (me) would begin as just a hand in the frame while painting the logo, but then would become increasingly dwarfed by the painting as the film unfolded.

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Chris painting the Christmas mural in the studio in Edinburgh. Stephen Fry is at right, and Delia Smith is awaiting painting at left. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.
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Chris with the finished painting in the studio in Edinburgh. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.

All the years of event painting proved to be very useful in this venture as I now know that the camera likes me to act decisively, and ideally I need to make big decisions as I go. It was also nice to find a different format for that experience with this project.

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Painting projections on Norwich Castle. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.

In late November I visited Norwich for a day while en route to London, in order to see the projection installed in the city. It was most bizarre to see myself on such a large scale, even if I was in my Santa disguise. I have friends in Norwich who will have to look at Santa’s bottom for the whole seven week run and know that it’s me, which can only increase their festive cheer.

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Painting projections on Norwich Castle. Photo courtesy Adam Robertson/Double Take Projections.

The main thing is that the footage and the animations that Double Take Productions created alongside the mural looked fantastic, and it came together to help create exhilarating and atmospheric new Christmas festivities in Norwich. For me personally, it’s really exciting that my time-lapse experiences can combine so seamlessly with my illustration skills. The footage that we generated was almost instantly created in conjunction with the computer animations and it really increased the quality of the product and the feeling of joy in the whole city.

Categories: Murals

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Artists Riot in the Streets

22 November, 2016

Agitating with the ADP Riot Tour

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Artists Chris Rutterford and Elph assessing their work while standing in front of the ADP shipping container, which houses a vast post-apocalyptic landscape viewable through tiny portholes.

The Aftermath Dislocation Principle (ADP) is a trilogy of artworks by Jimmy Cauty on a nationwide tour across the UK – each artwork is a 1:87 scale model housed in a shipping container, which are viewed through observation ports in the sides of the containers. It was also installed at Dismaland, the temporary art project organised by street artist Banksy and constructed in the seaside resort town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England in 2015.

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View through one of the tiny portholes into the ADP shipping container.

 

The artwork has been touring the UK in 2016, specifically appearing in venues where there has been a history of rioting. Edinburgh’s Grassmarket was chosen as one of the tours destinations as it was the scene of the 1736 Porteous Riots, when Captain John Porteous, an unpopular chief of the City Guard, was overseeing the hanging of a local smuggler Andrew Wilson. When the watching crowds began to get unruly, Captain Porteous instructed the City Guard to shoot above the crowd’s heads and they subsequently wounded local residents who were watching from tenement windows. This exacerbated the already volatile situation, at which point Porteous instructed the the City Guard to shoot into the crowd, resulting in the deaths of six people.

 

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The Porteous Mob, painted in 1855 by James Drummond, RSA FSA (1816–1877).

Captain Porteous was arrested for murder but after discovering that plans were afoot to arrange a pardon for him, a mob converged on the Tolbooth on the Royal Mile and he was dragged out of his prison cell and back down to the Grassmarket, where he was lynched, dying a deeply unpleasant death. Captain Porteous was buried in the adjacent Greyfriars Kirkyard in a grave marked with a simple ‘P’. This was replaced in 1973 by a stone bearing his full name and the moniker ‘All passion spent’.

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Ahead of the closing weekend of the ADP Riot Tour’s installation in Edinburgh, I was asked by the Greater Grassmarket Business Improvement District (BID) and events organisers Too Much Fun Club to paint a mural of the scene alongside renowned Scottish street artist and illustrator, Elph. Working on connected octagonal boards, Elph and I engaged visitors to the Grassmarket as we worked on our separate but related public art works.

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Elph invited audience participation with hands-on painting by the public, and I convinced visitors to pose for portraits to be incorporated into the scene. My crowd scene painting was inspired in part by James Drummond RSA who painted the riot in 1855.

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The detritus of live painting.

Our pictures were situated back to back over the weekend and it was really great to have the two different styles complement and contrast one another and in an unintentional twist, even our clothes ended up matching our paintings.

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Artists Chris Rutterford and Elph with their artwork and unintentionally matching clothing.

Elph also created some fantastic 360 degree footage of the two murals which can be viewed here: Elph 1 and Elph 2 

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Chris Rutterford working on his Porteous Riots mural in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.
Categories: Grassmarket, Murals

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Continuing collaborations with Edinburgh’s Greater Grassmarket BID

21 November, 2016

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Chris live-painting his Penny Farthing mini mural in the Grassmarket on September 24, 2016.

Live-Painting in Edinburgh’s Historic Grassmarket

The Greater Grassmarket Business Improvement District is a five-year project (starting February 2013) where all businesses within the defined area have come together to invest collectively to benefit business and local economy growth through local improvements, activities and business support in addition to those delivered by City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Government. Their objectives include creating a sense of place, attracting more footfall to the area and raising the profile and improving the perception of the area, and I am delighted to be involved in these ambitions.

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Foreign visitors to Edinburgh capturing Chris’s live-painting event in the Grassmarket.
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Chris live-painting the Penny Farthing mini mural at left, while his Half Hangit Maggie Dickson mural acts as an appropriate backdrop for the performance stage in the Grassmarket.

In 2014 I created my Half Hangit Maggie Dickson mural within this Greater Grassmarket BID area, live painting onsite the notorious story of the one of the areas most famous residents – a fishwife from Musselburgh who was hanged in the Grassmarket on the 2nd of September 1724 for murdering her illegitimate newborn baby. Miraculously she survived the hanging and as she could not be executed for a second time for the same crime, she received a full pardon and went on to live a long life, garnering the nickname ‘Half Hangit’ Maggie.’

 

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Chris’s Half Hangit Maggie Dickson mural acts as an appropriate backdrop for the performance stage in the Grassmarket.

In September of this year, the Greater Grassmarket BID events team led by Callum Ross wanted some extra colour in their proposed ‘Mobility Week’. Designed to celebrate mobility in all forms and set it within the historic context of the Grassmarket, they commissioned a diverse group of performers which included musicians, actors and even penny farthing demonstrations running up and down the square.

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Chris’s Half Hangit Maggie Dickson mural acts as an appropriate backdrop for the performance stage in the Grassmarket.

I was asked to provide some pictorial colour and I produced a two metre by two metre Victorian-era painting of two men on penny farthings racing a donkey-riding man through the Grassmarket. I took inspiration from the classic beachside postcards produced by Donald McGill in the early to mid 20th century, and built a painting that was fun and light humoured, very much in keeping with the spirit of the day

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Black and white and colour illustrations are the initial planning drawings for the Penny Farthing mini mural

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As always I asked visitors at the event to participate as characters in the picture, and they really entered the spirit of the piece. In addition to the new painting, I took my Maggie Dickson mural along and it was used as an evocative backdrop for the performers on the stage beside me. If possible it’s always nice to have some visual context from one of my previous artworks and visitors seem to enjoy seeing other finished pieces.

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Above: Jason Fricke, an American visitor to the Grassmarket, gets in character – and ends up in the mural (see final piece below).

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The event was held on my birthday and was a splendid way to spend the day, which was topped off by the best pastry ever delivered by Sheila, my studio manager.

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The (almost) finished Penny Farthing mini mural, being worked on back in the studio.

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