Fiddle Icons - latest news.

Huge thanks to all the generous supporters who carried me to the target of $3000 to make my Fiddle Icons show in Northern Ireland possible. As you can see from the Pozible widget at the side of the blog, we went to 110%, a brilliant result.

The first use for the money is to pay for digital capture and reproduction of the images. The paintings are currently at Brisbane Digital Images, where the work is progressing apace. The meticulous Martin Barry is scanning the images and doing the colour corrections. As soon as they are ready, I will post the images on the blog, and email them to all my supporters so you can choose the image you would like as your reward. I will also have postcards made of them.

The fiddle players to choose from are, from left to right: Emma Nixon, Nancy Kerr, Natalie Haas, Alasdair Fraser, Martin Hayes, Dougie Maclean and Ado Barker.

Although I am currently on tour with Cloudstreet in the UK, I am attempting to finish some watercolours of other fiddlers I have interviewed, to show alongside the major works at NAFCo.

The show will run for the duration of the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Derry, from 27 June to 1 July.

More news as it comes to hand!

Fiddles are closer to Ireland already.

Huge thanks to the brilliant supporters who have already, after only a day, pledged financial support for my "art on tour" project! I have put the Pozible progress widget on the side of the blog, so its easy to keep track of how its going. This is so exciting! You can also go straight to my Pozible link.

And I'm currently working on three paintings simultaneously, having finished the portrait of Scottish fiddle pin-up girl Emma Nixon.

Emma is the driving force behind the mass playing of Scottish fiddle music in Brisbane, Australia, having started the Brisbane Celtic Fiddle Club (brisbanecelticfiddleclub.com), and leading celtic ensembles in schools and at the Young Conservatorium. She is the recipient, with Chris Stone, of the 2012 National Folk Fellowship and they have just this week completed a new album of Scottish fiddle music from the collection of the National Library of Australia, which they will launch at the National Folk Festival in two weeks.