The craic is back

30 January, 2018


Malones bars are something of an institution, known throughout Scotland and further afield for their party atmosphere and traditional Irish craic. The Irish love of partying goes down very well in Scotland; we are cousins in that regard.

Old into new

Malones previous location in Edinburgh shut down some time ago and the owners had been waiting for the right venue to become available in order to relaunch in the Scottish capital. In the meantime they kept a local foothold with a number of pop-up venues, but late in 2017 they bought Edinburgh institution Diane’s Pool Hall near Haymarket station. After decades of running the legendary pool hall Diane decided to retire, leaving the much loved two-storey corner space open to new opportunities. On a personal note, I’ve been playing pool in Diane’s for more than twenty years and really loved the place, and so I was sorry to see it go. But I was delighted to receive the call from Malones and to help make this new incarnation a really special place was the best thing I could do.

Craic and Ceol

The venue is ideally placed to take advantage of the ongoing revamp of the Haymarket area and the plan was to create an authentic Irish bar atmosphere, with a smaller bar downstairs and a larger music venue and gastropub upstairs. 

Malones needed me to contribute to a number of zones in the bar, providing feature artwork that would create atmosphere and excitement. The two initial critical areas mentioned were the brick wall behind the new main stage and the staircase leading up from the bottom bar.

I arrived on site in early January 2018 and though it was still a building site in full flow, I knew it was important to get a foot in the door and get on with it; from experience if you want to hit a deadline you panic early enough. However, in order to make the job possible I had to work a night shift throughout the month as I was working in the staircase – the main thoroughfare for the site. To avoid getting in the way of the dozens of joiners, plumbers and electricians who constantly needed access up and down the stairs, I frequently turned up at around 6pm and worked till 5am. 

Down With This Sort Of Thing

The staircase needed to be Irish-themed but Malones were keen to avoid worn-out stereotypes like leprechauns and shamrocks. We decided to produce a large scale ‘Father Ted’ mural; a television series that I love and that is universally popular throughout the UK. I knew that if I painted it right, customers to the pub would all come in with a big smile on their face. The most intimidating part for me was the initial drawing on paper. I sketched it over Christmas and then cleaned and primed the walls before starting painting the mural.

The builders were more than a little surprised at how fast it started coming together. We covered lots of the most famous scenes from the show.

• Dougal learns about ‘this is small / these are far away’.

• The Eurovision Song Contest entry ‘My lovely horse’

• Kicking Bishop Brennan up the arse

• The priests getting trapped in the lingerie department

 

I also included large scale portraits of fan favourites Mrs Doyle and Father Jack; all this and plenty of smaller details that would keep the most committed of fans happy.

For the main room upstairs I produced the new stage artwork in one long 15 hour shift. After first creating the design on paper, I then hand painted it on the bare brick wall using a digital projector for speed and convenience. The final result has a warm, inviting and authentic feeling; it feels like it has always been there and on opening night it went down very well.

 

Following the success of the stairwell mural and the stage design I was also asked to provide further artwork for some other areas.

Downstairs the builders had uncovered some original bifold doors that had been sealed away for decades. Eventually the plan is to reinstate the windows, but as planning permission may take some months Malones needed something authentic and Irish to fill the glazing spaces. With Guinness’s permission I recreated one of their classic advertising posters for the space. Guinness were quite firm that they wanted an exact copy, but as these are classic illustrations it was an honour to oblige. The greatest compliment was that a number of customers thought the paintings were original and had just been found behind the wall.

In addition to this Malones Marketing Manger Aoibhinn Cullen asked me to paint a feature picture for the ladies’ toilets, illustrating the classic Guinness caption ‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle’. It has been put in the lobby of the girls’ toilets and it does a good job to dilute the Father Jack painting lurking at the door.

All this artwork was produced over the course of around a fortnight in the midst of a building site, with dust, rubble, and workmen littered around the place. However as opening night approached, the full extent of Malones plans became apparent. In addition to commissioning my pictures they had been very busy sourcing vintage items in auctions and antique shops throughout Ireland. Towards the end of the job they brought huge amounts of antique prints, signs, mirrors and objects, that when placed throughout the venue made a huge difference to the space. When opening night came, the transformation from dusty building site to stunning party venue was instant and shockingly effective.

Press

The project has been garnering a lot of press both here in Scotland and across in Ireland – according to various comments on social media, Malones Edinburgh is already on the fans’ drinking map for the next Six Nations Championship!

Newsletter: “Bar unveils giant mural tribute to Father Ted”
Belfast TelegraphPaint the town Ted – bar’s tribute to Father Ted with huge mural”
Buzz.ie: “A pub in Edinburgh has just revealed a 28-meter-long Father Ted mural”

Irish Central: “Edinburgh pub unveils massive mural in honor of “Father Ted””
Irish Post: “Paint the town Ted – New Irish pub opens with amazing 28-metre mural tribute to Father Ted”
Edinburgh Evening News: In pictures: Edinburgh bar unveils giant mural tribute to Father Ted

Malones have been a joy to work with; their collective will to achieve quality and open the venue on time was really impressive and all done with Irish goodwill and spirit. The next step is to extend the Father Ted mural to the bottom of the stairs and there are plans for more branding and pictures throughout the bar. I can’t wait to see how the bar develops. With the gang’s attitude and drive, I know it’s going to be a big success.

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The Wedding Present

13 November, 2017

Carole and Stan’s wedding

I have been a friend of Carole Racionzer for some time now and several years ago she also bought my 2012 portrait of my cousin Anna Rendall playing the cello.

The first painting of mine that Carole bought; a portrait of my cousin playing the cello.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to learn that she was getting married to Stan in 2017, and when she asked if I could paint a picture as her main wedding present I was happy to help. The idea was that instead of her guests buying wine glasses or kitchen paraphernalia as presents, as a unique and personal alternative they could all chip in for a custom painting. I have long thought that many wedding photographs end up being quite formal, posed and lacking in soul. A party painting like the ones I am known for could provide a lasting memento of the day and it would also reflect the life and joy of their wedding celebration. 

Stan and Carole on their wedding day. This scene formed the initial focus of the painting.
Chris and Carole at the beginning of the reception, as the painting starts to take shape. Chris’s Hogmanay mural helped create a party ambience in the background, and also helped guests understand what the painting would eventually become.


I decided to paint portraits of all the wedding guests as well as the main wedding party. Carole and Stan hosted their ceremony at Archerfield House in East Lothian, with a handfasting ceremony led by a Humanist minister and their guests arranged around them. It was decided that I would make a picture of that scene and build it on a circular canvas that reflected the shape of the ceremony. I gathered reference photos of the happy couple during the ceremony and then took pictures of as many wedding guests as I could get to pose at the time. I then went down to the reception venue and started the painting in full view of the guests. Throughout the day this painting process provided unique on-site entertainment for the wedding guests; I painted the main wedding party first, starting with the bride and groom before painting Carole’s daughters, the best man, the matron of honour, and the parents of the happy couple. People of all ages are fascinated by the process and the openness of how I do it, and wedding guests were constantly hovering around the easel, watching my progress. 

Chris took dozens of photographs of the wedding guests, to be painted into the artwork either during the reception or after the event.
The painting underway during the reception. Guests were encouraged to stop by to get their photo taken and to watch the progress.

 

 

To add to the ambience of my workspace, I brought four large boards of crowd scenes from my 2013 Hogmanay painting. This gave the guests an idea of the direction in which the wedding painting was going.

Chris adding portraits to the painting in his studio in Leith, using photo reference collected during the wedding reception.

After the event the picture was taken back to the studio in Leith and the longer process of painting all the guests in began.

Once finished it was popped in a custom-made frame to be presented to Carole and Stan and hung in their Perth home. Job done! 

Categories: Art, Murals

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Building Bridges in South Queensferry

10 October, 2017

Echline Primary School – Queensferry Crossing Mural

South Queensferry, a town ten miles west of Edinburgh and already world famous for its Forth Road and Forth Rail Bridges, entered a new phase in its history in 2017 when a third bridge was built on the Firth of Forth. 

Prepping the palettes for the children to start painting.
Chris sketching out the mural’s outline using reference photos and a paper design.
Chris introducing the project to a new class of children, using the design drawing as reference.

Local school Echline Primary already had an interior bridge mural which had been on site for more than twenty years. It was very well executed, much loved and had stood the test of time, but it was now a bridge short and it was deemed time for a new version. The old mural was careful taken down and hopefully it will be preserved in some form for the school’s archives.

Chris entertaining some of the school children with his witty banter.

The school wanted a crowd mural as they were really inspired by some of my past work, but with the added feature of having the kids helping to build it. 

The mural starts to take shape; laid out on the floor for a better overview.
The Burry Man, the central figure in South Queensferry’s annual Burryman’s Parade, also features in the mural.

South Queensferry has a famous annual town ‘Ferry Fair’ so I decided to base the mural on that for crowd vibrancy, and have the three bridges in the background. I produced a drawing that would steer the whole project, which was approved by the school ahead of the project launch. 

The Victorian Forth Rail Bridge looms over South Queensferry.
The kids painted themselves into the mural, creating a permanent moment in time for the school and the Queensferry Crossing event.

On the Friday before the mural started, I presented at a school assembly where I introduced myself and my work, and showed the children some of my videos. 

The foreground of the painting focuses on the annual Ferry Fair and features some famous local buildings.
The finished mural installed in the school.
A panoramic view of the finished mural.

During the week of the project I worked with all the children from primary one through primary seven. The idea was that some of the children would paint themselves into the painting while others worked on the buildings and background. The mural evolved throughout the week and I painted alongside the children to help continually steer the picture towards its vision. It was all done and dusted in a week. I heard reports from the teachers that the kids were delighted to work with “Mr Hat”. Many of them learnt top hat spinning as a byproduct of my residency. 

Coverage of the project in the Edinburgh Evening News.

The mural was also featured in an article in the Edinburgh Evening News as part of the school’s celebration of the new bridge. 

Categories: Murals

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Sprucing Up The Three Sisters Student Union 

29 September, 2017

Painting in another historic Edinburgh venue


Last year I spent time painting various spots in The Three Sisters, a famous pub on Edinburgh’s Cowgate. The venue was named after the three Mackinnon sisters Cath, Kitty, and Maggie, famous in the 1740s for gracing Edinburgh stages with their singing, dancing and beauty. It is a large complex of bars, and inside this network of rooms is housed Edinburgh’s Student Union Bar. 

The Three Sisters asked me back this year to further improve the Student Union. This time I took on a tired and bedraggled looking corridor which before I arrived, wouldn’t have looked out of place in a 1970s office block. They wanted some new artwork that was very Edinburgh-themed, would energise the space, and had some relevance to the diverse university students who frequent the space. 

 

The main wall in the corridor now has an impressionist vista of Edinburgh with the castle illuminated by the world famous bi-annual fireworks display. 

I took the artwork onto the ceiling as well as the walls in order to give the area an immersive feel. As the scene moved further away from the firework end of the corridor, the idea was to give it a ‘starry night’ / Van Gogh inspired look. The Three  Sisters also had me paint the walls at the far end with notable university buildings from around the city. 

On a completely different theme, The Three Sisters asked me to reflect the Cowgate location of the bar in another mural. The venue is surrounded by a maze of vaulted arches that hold the buildings of the area up, and so I painted a map to the vaults under George IV Bridge with a pop art/brightly coloured feel. 

The whole job was done to deadline in under a week, just after the Edinburgh Festival finished but before the onslaught of students for Freshers Week.

Fingers crossed it will keep the students happy and ultimately lead to increased footfall through the door – always the mark of a successful project for me! 

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Edinburgh Rugby Kyloe Cow On the Moove

28 September, 2017

Continuing collaboration with Kyloe restaurant; painting their life-sized fibreglass cows. 

Chris securing the new Edinburgh Rugby Club cow outside Kyloe restaurant in the West End with Edinburgh Castle in the distance.

Over the years I’ve painted a succession of cows with various themes for Kyloe. We switch over the cows on a regular basis so that they are seasonally relevant and stay fresh for passersby. 

The restaurant has watched the foot traffic outside via their CCTV and estimate that the cow has its photo taken once every two minutes. It functions as a huge social media envoy and doorman for the restaurant, acting as a hook to let people know that the restaurant is there. This is important as the restaurant is a first floor establishment and is only accessible through the Huxley, its sister pub at ground level. 

One of the initial designs for the Edinburgh Rugby Club cow, which was eventually modified in the final execution.

The cows are branded with the restaurant’s logo to help increase the restaurant’s profile on social media and on the street. Kyloe is an award-winning steak restaurant so the cow is bang on theme for the beef aficionado. I take my responsibility in painting this very seriously. The cow’s location is the first thing you see when you step onto Princes Street from the West End, and I think the quality of the paint job that I do should reflect the calibre of Kyloe, the top steak restaurant in Edinburgh.

Working on the cow in the studio.

Kyloe restaurant and The Huxley bar are on the route to Murrayfield Stadium and both have a strong history as a rugby supporting venues; the last cow that I painted was a personal favourite and was ‘Tartan Army’ themed. 

The latest cow celebrates the restaurant’s new sponsorship of Edinburgh Rugby Club. Decked out in the Edinburgh Rugby colours and an Edinburgh Rugby coloured tartan kilt and skull cap, I’ve made it look like a bit of a roughneck. 

Painting the underside of the beast requires a touch of cow-tipping.

Kyloe is also taking on organising the catering in the hospitality tent at Edinburgh Rugby’s home ground Myreside, so in this brief I had to keep both clients happy. 

Hand over of the cows – they are switched on a regular basis to reflect different seasons and events.

The final paint job has gone down very well with the staff and customers, and players from the team have been by a number of times to pose with their biggest supporter. 

Chris and two of the Kyloe cows with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

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Back to School – New Murals at George Watson’s College

20 July, 2017

George Watson’s College Upper Primary School Murals 

 

In 2016 Junior School Headmaster George Salmond and I began discussing a potential project at George Watson’s College; he was really keen to have murals in the school that reflected the energy and enthusiasm of the current children. The plan was to work with Primary Four through Seven, ideally with all the children participating hands-on in the project. 

A mockup of the World War II evacuees illustration superimposed in the stairwell. 
A mockup of the Viking illustration superimposed above the existing tiles in the stairway.

Drawing directly from the school’s curriculum, each of the year groups were given their own historic theme; the Primary Fours learn about Vikings, the Primary Fives study the Battle of Bannockburn and the Wars of Independence, Primary Six learn about the Jacobite Rising and Primary Seven approach World War II as seen through the eyes of evacuees. 

A mockup of the Jacobites illustration superimposed in the stairwell.

 

A mockup of the Battle of Bannockburn illustration superimposed in the stairwell.

 I have previously done group projects with large amounts of children and I think it’s really important that all the children are involved and that they are empowered to express themselves as a small part of a bigger picture. 

I created four illustrations that would provide clarity and focus to the project, and came up with a plan so that the mural could be built remotely in bite sized chunks by the children and then fastened to the wall at a later date. Working in a school staircase which is also a chief fire escape route had unforeseen complications; understandably strict fire regulations meant that I had to ditch my usual plywood support and buy magnesium oxide fireproof sheet material, and once finished a fire-rated varnish had to be applied. Every day is a school day! 

Chris giving the first of two assemblies to the Upper Primary School, where he introduced the project to the students. At left are some of the boards from his Hogmanay mural.


The project was launched at two special assemblies where I introduced myself and my work, and I showed them my Hogmanay video. I emphasised the ambition and scale of the project but also underlined that the plan was to make all four murals in an incredibly short period of time. The aim was to have them built from scratch and installed in a three week period, dancing around the school timetable and the children were super excited. 

Chris prepping boards in Mr. Briggs’ classroom; at left you can see one of the time lapse cameras which were used throughout the project to capture the progression of the murals. 
Some of the ‘Evacuees’ mural in mid-production in Mr. Briggs’ classroom.

 In week one I was given the use of Mr. Briggs’ primary six classroom which was available while the whole year was away on a trip. Over the course of that week three of the murals had their backs broken. The children were shipped in class by class and though to the untrained eye the production process seemed slightly chaotic, in fact the children were incredibly productive. The focus of the drawings and my urgency for them to visually communicate as fast as possible helped drive the project forward. Throughout the project my studio manager Sheila Masson was on site helping to corral the kids and prep the paint and materials. She has an illustration degree amongst her many skills so is well versed in painting, though at times the energy and craziness of the factory we had set up proved a bit wearing on her. 

Chris explaining correct usage of paint brushes and palettes. This saved countless brushes from being destroyed, aided in more sensitive painting, and helped keep palettes from becoming nondescript vegetable soup. 
Chris demonstrating how to paint chainmail on soldiers in the Battle of Bannockburn mural.


The primary six students were due back from their trip at the end of the first week so we moved the production base out of Mr. Briggs’ classroom and into the art department with the help of a class full of strong-looking primary sevens. 

Teachers and students painting portraits in the Battle of Bannockburn mural.

 

Occasionally more paint went on the students than on the boards… 

During the second week we had the huge help of the art department staff. They had allocated two classrooms as a production base for the murals which was fantastic. It allowed us to have a space where one of the murals could be laid out in its entirety on the floor (so that we and the kids could literally see the big picture), and another that functioned as the main production base with individual boards laid on tables for painting. 

Sharing paint palettes and keeping the colours separate to prevent vegetable soup from forming.


By the end of the second week the children had nearly finished the murals, so much so that we had to start some smaller projects to keep them busy. With the help of the art department and a huge roll of white paper, we set up a large-scale drawing in the art department lobby plus four mural boards of self portraits by all the children sorted into their respective school houses. 

One of the two huge paper murals set up in the art department lobby as overflow/satellite projects.

 

By the time we reached the end of week three, all my anxiety was focussed around the difficulty of getting the mural hung. The stairwells are nearly eight metres tall so the initial plan was to source a boom lift to help with the hanging. In the end my assistant Charlie Savin and I managed to hang the pictures over three intense days from a scaffold tower – we were under something of a deadline as we had to complete the hang over the midterm break, while no kids were on the premises.

The children exploring the stairwells on the unveiling day after their half term break.


Sheila and I were there when the children came back to school on the Thursday morning and there was a huge amount of excitement. All the children felt the accomplishment and pride of being a part of a big community project. The project goals had been achieved and the children had left a legacy in the stairwell as testimony to their effort. As I had said throughout, not all projects grind at the speed of evolution. In this case change came like a creative tsunami. The stairwells are now resplendent in a new coat of vibrant age-appropriate artwork that will hopefully inspire generations to come. 

Chris in front of the Jacobite mural at the end of the project.


As with all of my projects, every step was filmed and time lapsed. Click HERE to see the final video of the murals’ creation.

And finally – the finished murals, pieced together:

The finished Viking mural.
The finished Jacobite mural.
The finished Battle of Bannockburn mural.
The finished evacuees mural, surrounding the original mosaic map.

Categories: Art, Murals

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Scottish Stars In West End Edinburgh Mural

28 February, 2017

Chris putting some finishing touches on the mural.

 

Watch a video of the making of the mural here.

I’ve known the owners of Edinburgh restaurant A Room In The West End for a number of years as I became friends with Peter Knight while playing with Boroughmuir Rugby Club.

I celebrated my 40th birthday with a meal at the restaurant; the food was great but a previous mural in the subterranean location was looking tired and needed refreshing. As the wine flowed I apparently told Peter this, and my charming rant must have struck a chord as several years later he called me up to commission a new mural.

The previous mural was in need of an update.

A Room in the West End is already an established fixture on the Edinburgh culinary scene; the food is excellent and it’s nestled below Teuchters – a great bar in its own right. Owners Peter and John wanted me to paint a cafe crowd scene to create a buzz in the space and reflect their central Edinburgh location with an urban horizon that made the room look bigger.

The plan was to build a broader restaurant scene with the Edinburgh’s Old Town as a dramatic backdrop, and the crowd in the scene needed to be busy enough to make the restaurant feel bustling even when it was empty. We decided that some customers and staff would be included but ultimately the crowd would be made up of Scottish celebrities. Some of these celebrities would also reflect the rugby heritage of the pub and restaurant, as Teuchters and A Room In The West End are one of Edinburgh’s favourite stops for rugby fans on their way to Murrayfield Stadium.

Chris begins to build the city as a backdrop for the bustling cafe scene.

In mid November 2016, my wife Fiona and I got to work in the restaurant, covering the the old mural with an undercoat for my painting. I then began painting the Old Town landscape from one end to the other, and then worked back again, fixing all the roofs and windows. This took about week in total and I now know the Old Town horizon line in minute detail!

Edinburgh’s Old Town stretches across the wall.

As this was in the build up to Christmas, fairy lights and baubles were hung from the paintings, doors and ceiling by Carol, one of the managers. As she was passing by me, I popped Santa on top of the Bank of Scotland at the top of the Mound for a little bit of festive fun.

Setting up the layout of the crowd scene before adding the individual portraits.
Painting in the first portraits – the two Sheilas.

 

Scottish rugby commentator Bill McLaren force-feeding Hawick balls to Gavin Hastings at the sporty table.

I then began painting the crowd. Owner Peter and managers Stephen and Carol provided me with photo reference from some of the regulars in the bar. I started in the middle in a well lit area with  portrait of Sheila Denney stood next to her good friend (and my studio manager) Sheila Masson.

Scottish football manager and player Alex Ferguson with his wife Cathy.

 

Then I started to move down. The first celebrity that I put in was rugby commentator Bill McLaren – I had him handing out Hawick ball sweeties to a flustered Gavin Hastings, with his brother Scott laughing as he looks on. After setting the background scene I started to fill in the crowd, first painting some restaurant and bar regulars and then I had great fun painting the Big Yin – Billy Connolly. I decided to pop the 80s children’s tv star Super Gran in the background behind Billy as he appeared in the show and sang the theme tune. Close to Super Gran and Billy Connolly I painted the Reverend I.M. Jolly, aka Rikki Fulton.

The Big Yin Billy Connolly and Super Gran feature in the mural.
The mural also memorialises some close friends and family who passed away recently.

About that time I heard the sad news that a favourite uncle of mine in Orkney, Charlie Rendall, had passed away and so I decided to paint him and his fabulous wife Muriel into the party scene. As I was on that theme, I added the portraits of two of my favourite aunts who passed away some years ago, and also my good friend Adriana together again with her daughter Chiara, who sadly also passed away.

Leith favourites The Proclaimers are all smiles with Shirley Manson of Garbage.

As I dug up more Scottish-themed photo reference, it was becoming obvious to me that it was really becoming a nostalgia mural and so I popped in Leith favourites The Proclaimers. Next to them I added my wife Fiona chatting up the lady from the dress shop up the road, followed by my wife’s friend Nicky swigging from a bottle of champagne while her good friend and Edinburgh rock goddess Shirley Manson from the band Garbage is laughing away.

The rock chick table enjoys the company of restaurant owner Peter Knight.

About this time restaurant owner Peter’s brother Andy was seeing the Facebook updates and asked where he was in the mural. I decided to expand the rock chick table and have Peter drinking a glass of wine with Shirley, Nicky, Susan Boyle, Lulu, KT Tunstall and Annie Lennox, while Lorraine Kelly looked on in the background. I thought that sounded like a fun table to dine at. Behind them I put Andy – he’s a bit of a character so I found a funny picture of him on his Facebook page and popped him in the background, being bored (along with the rest of the Still Game cast) by one of Isa Drennan’s gossipy stories.

International movie star Sean Connery looking disconcerted between the Rutterford brothers, Danny and Chris, as their friend “Glasgow” Andy looks on.

I was coerced into putting myself in the signature spot at the far right end of the painting, so I also popped the rest of the Scots that I go on annual “Tartan Army” rugby tours with. These included my brother Danny (with his trademark hippo hat on) and our friend Andy, wearing a classic combo from a tour gone by – dressed as a captain from the German epic war film Das Boot. I thought it would be funny to make Sean Connery sit at the table with us, looking a bit grumpy.

Chris adding detail to portraits, shortly before Christmas.

I moved back to the middle of the restaurant and started to work left, heading toward North Bridge. I managed to paint a few more rugby legends in, including Boroughmuir stalwart and British Lion Bruce Hay, and the great Scotland coaching duo Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer. I was just starting work on Alex Ferguson and his wife when the Christmas holidays intervened. I stopped for a few weeks over Christmas for the festivities and to have a trip to Orkney for Hogmanay.

Before Christmas I had been getting up at six am and arriving on site at seven so that Peter could let me in to the restaurant before he dropped his kids off at school. That way most days I could paint about ten portraits by lunchtime, when the restaurant got busy I would need to clear out.

The cast of the first Trainspotting film with director Danny Boyle, plus actress/director Karen Gillan, and tennis stars Jamie & Andy Murray.

When I got back to Edinburgh after my Orkney trip, the Trainspotting 2 film release was imminent and coincidentally I had been planning on painting the characters from the first film into the mural. My friend Russell had involved in the production as his company ‘Driven Scotland’ provided the cars for the film, and so I said that I would paint the drivers’ portraits behind the Trainspotting stars.

I popped Dunblane tennis legends Andy and Jamie Murray behind them, along with children’s TV stars The Krankies. Finally I sat restaurant co-owner John alongside film actress Tilda Swinton and Dr. Who favourite Karen Gillan, so that John wouldn’t feel jealous of Peter being seated at the rock chick table – and then the mural was basically done.

After the completion I made a time lapse film of the creation of the mural which was then released to social media. Billy Connolly kindly give me permission to use the theme tune to Super Gran on the clip, which gave it a really strong Scottish tone without reverting to bagpipes, the name-dropping narrative of the song re-enforcing the celebrity nature of the picture.

Chris painting under the watchful eye of one of his time lapse cameras.
28/02/2017 The Sun article.
27/02/2017 The Times article.

 

27/02/2017 Glasgow Herald article.
27/02/2017 The National article.
27/01/2017 Edinburgh Evening News article.

The mural seems to have struck a chord with people as we’ve attracted great widespread national coverage with the mural, appearing in the Edinburgh Evening News, The Times, The Glasgow Herald, The National and The Sun.

Even better, the mural has received positive feedback from all the staff at the restaurant who have noticed a huge change in the atmosphere, and there is no lack of conversation at the adjoining as diners now celeb spot during their meals.

Plans are currently afoot to make further improvements upstairs in Teuchters pub, as well as to sister restaurant A Room in Leith (handily just steps from our new studio in Leith Custom House).

Watch a video of the making of the mural here.

The finished mural before the restaurant opened for the day.
Co-owner Peter Knight surrounded by rock chicks.

Full list of the celebs featured on the walls of A Room In The West End: Tilda Swinton, Shirley Manson, Sharleen Spiteri, Lulu, Annie Lennox, Susan Boyle, Lorraine Kelly, Rod Stewart, The Proclaimers, The cast of Still Game, Andy Murray, Jamie Murray, Danny Boyle, Kelly MacDonald, Shirley Henderson, J.K. Rowling, Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kevin McKidd, Sean Connery, Princess Anne, Billy Connolly, Alex Ferguson, Bill McLaren, Scott Hastings, Gavin Hastings, John Jeffry, David Sole, Jim Telfer, Ian McGeechan, Andy Irvine, The Krankies, Rikki Fulton, Karen Gillan, Super Gran and Shrek.

A Room In The West End is located at 26 William St, Edinburgh EH3 7NH

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A Custom House Christmas

21 December, 2016

lchlivepaintingdec2017flattenedfinal
The digital flier for the Christmas event, showcasing the neoclassical Georgian building in which we now work.

Celebrating the Season at Leith Custom House 
 

After six years at my previous studio at St Margaret’s House in Edinburgh, I recently moved to Custom House in Leith; a stunning neoclassical pillared building that is a central landmark on the Leith landscape. After a prolonged period as the National Museums of Scotland’s storage facility, this A-List Georgian building is now being managed by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust who are encouraging a wide variety of creative people to build a new hive of activity in the heart of Leith.

There are two distinct buildings on the site: a the larger, more grand building situated on the corner of the Commercial Street and the Water of Leith, and the “cruiser” store, located behind the main building on a narrow cobbled lane that has been hidden from view for years. My new studio backs directly onto this lane via an extremely handy loading bay and this provides me with much better access for loading my often bulky murals.

Even more exciting however is the nascent creative community that is burgeoning within the space. The Christmas event on 17th and 18th December was the first open studio day that I’d been involved in at the Custom House since the move and therefore I thought I’d celebrate by undertaking my first live painting event in the new space.

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Studio manager Sheila Masson at work covering the walls of the loading baywith an undercoat of emulsion.
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The loading bay makeover fully underway as it is transformed into a Narnia-themed space.

The large loading bay was an extremely bland and tired-looking area so with the blessing of SBHT Director Una Richards, we set out to give it a seasonal makeover. As our new studio opens directly onto this space, I felt it was extremely important it project the creativity and joy that the new building and its new tenants aspire to. I enlisted my studio manager Sheila Masson – a talented artist (as well as a powerful brain) and we started work on the Wednesday afternoon, priming the space in preparation for our plan.

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Sheila and Chris adhering to health and safety during extensive spray work in the loading bay.
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A gigantic Aslan appears out of the snowy landscape in the loading bay.
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Sheila flexing her muscles on the scaffolding as she applies spray painted hand-cut stencils late into the evening.

We decided to paint a Narnia themed mural as although there is a Christmas element to the story, it does not define it, so therefore the mural will remain relevant till spring. We spray painted a snowy landscape with a large scale Aslan and the ubiquitous lamp post front and centre. Sheila made a number of beautiful snow stencils that really set the tone and we quickly built an atmospheric frosted landscape.

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Detail of some of the stencilling and freehand collaborative work that Sheila and Chris created on the loading bay walls.
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Detail of some of the stencilling and freehand collaborative work that Sheila and Chris created on the loading bay walls.

Come the main event on the Saturday however it was important that we kept spray paints to a minimum due to the health and safety issues (and the pong!). The alley was filled food stalls and visitors to the building as well as regular Leith Farmers Market shoppers who wandered into the newly revealed space.

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Visitors to Leith Custom House wandering through the loading bay and out into Custom Lane, where they could enjoy hot food and do a spot of Christmas shopping.
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We also set up a stall of our own posters, prints, postcards and t-shirts (also available on our website if you missed out!) which were very popular for Christmas presents.
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Chris painting life size cut outs during the Christmas event at Leith Custom House.
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Santa nestled in the loading bay.

Moving on from the spray painted walls I changed my focus to shaped life size characters from the book, cut from large sheets of wooden board. I snared a few tenants and SHBT friends to pose for the The White Witch, her dwarf, Mr. Tumnus and a large scale Santa.

To keep the characters on theme and to compliment the visuals in the loading bay, I reused Sheila’s stencils to add surface detailing. The end result had a vibrancy reminiscent of textile design or a Rauschenberg painting.

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Detail of the White Witch’s dress which utilises some of the stencils that Sheila made for the loading bay walls.
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Stencils drying on the scaffolding during the painting of the loading bay.

The joy for me in collaboration is that every new partner brings fresh tools to the army and in this way Sheila’s stencils and application to the cause really enriched the product and added a further depth and subtlety to my directness and drive. 

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Interaction between Chris’s freehand and Sheila’s stencilled spray work.
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Three of the Narnia cut out characters inserted into their virtual stage set in the newly painted loading bay.

The loading bay mural is now established and the plan is to periodically adapt the visuals over the coming months and years. The hope is the magic will be infectious and over the coming years the building will permanently acquire some of the magic of Narnia.

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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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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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