Breeze, which owns four art galleries in Scotland, is to launch an exciting interactive art event with something for everyone from toddlers to art aficionados.
As well as demonstrations by a range of contemporary Scottish artists, visitors will be able to plant a colourful handprint on an iconic “Cow Parade” cow which will be auctioned for charity.
Live Art at the Festival is the brainchild of Breeze founder Bob Corsie, who is delighted to be setting up in St Andrews Square, a hub for public art since it was opened to the public in 2008 after a dramatic makeover.
Bob said: “We are all about making unique art accessible to the public and engaging people with the processes artists go through in creating their works. This is going to be a riot of colour, a lot of fun and the perfect way to help anybody at all connect with art.
“Where better to do it than in the heart of Edinburgh during the biggest arts festival in the world?
“It’s a real coup for us that we were able to get into St Andrew’s Square because this end of town will be buzzing this year, with the newly reopened Assembly Rooms and the relocated Spiegel Tent on George Street.
Key draws of the event include an exhibition artwork by the feted Irish artist Terry Bradley, whose work has been likened to that of Scots artist Peter Howson.
Already a household name in Ireland, his works featuring characters inspired by Belfast’s docklands area and the New York burlesque world, sell for more than £20,000 in the US and his celebrity followers include Bono and Ronan Keating.
Breeze Galleries have the exclusive right to sell Bradley’s work in Scotland, and this will be the first time the artist’s work has been publicly displayed on this scale in Scotland.
Meanwhile an impressive roster of Scottish-based artists will be running daily demonstrations to engage with the public.
West Coast landscape artist Andrew Peutherer is appearing alongside Philip Raskin, coastal and harbour artist Nick Potter and portrait artist Bob Harper. Sculptor Aldona Juska and Nigel Cooke, famed for his New York cityscapes complete the all-star line up.
Another major crowd puller will be the hand-painting, particularly aimed to encourage children. They will be able to plant colourful handprints on specially made postcards and have them sent anywhere in the UK.
They will also be able to put a handprint on one of the cow statues which became a popular sight across Edinburgh when the Cow Parade came to the city in 2006. The finished cow will be auctioned off and the proceeds, as well as the money raised from the handprint painting will be donated to CHAS, the Scottish children’s hospice charity.
Bob added: “As well as watching prominent artists at work or viewing tremendous pieces of works by artists of the quality of Terry Bradley, we will be having a lot of fun and allowing kids to get messy in aid of charity.
“The handprint postcards will be hanging on lines to dry and I expect that is going to be one of the most colourful sights in Edinburgh over the next month.”
Two specially designed marquees will form the centrepoint of the event, with a pop up art gallery to showcase a range of Breeze artists with the work professionally hung and beautifully lit.
A large part of Breeze’s business is holding events to engage with the wider public with Live Art At The Festival being the latest example.
Bob and his team also deliver a range of other events to connect artists with their audiences – and in September art lovers will be given the opportunity to meet towering, enigmatic Russian artist Anna Razmovosky who is currently taking the art world by storm. That event will take place in Blythswood Square Hotel in Glasgow.
Breeze Art (http://www.breeze-gallery.co.uk) is a Scottish firm founded in 2004 in Peebles that now also operates in House of Fraser in Glasgow, Loch Lomond and in Jenners in Edinburgh.
The company’s mantra is “art for all”, which it champions by supplying unique and collectible work at affordable prices from more than 100 established artists.
Live Art At The Festival is running from Friday 17th August to Sunday 2nd September on St Andrews Square.
