Rattray ahoy as Pirate Oor Wullie drops his anchor
The popular Rattray Art Festival was back for a seventh year at Rattray Hall on Balmoral Road last weekend - with a very special guest of honour!
Iconic cartoon character Oor Wullie graced the festival on his bucket thanks to local artist Suzanne Scott, of Whimsical Lush.
The former Rattray Primary and Blairgowrie High School pupil is the coordinator of the popular Oor Wullie bucket trail – a major free public arts event that is currently taking place in and around Dundee.
Suzanne, a previous exhibitor at the Rattray Art Festival, brought her pirate Oor Wullie to the festival, to the delight of visitors.
Suzanne said: “It was high time that Wullie came to Rattray. That’s where I went to school, so he had to come back!
“The bucket trail has been amazing, people have really embraced it and made it their own. It’s all about raising money for the Archie Foundation and the new children’s theatre suite at Tayside Children’s Hospital and they are beyond delighted with the response it has received.
“I got involved when I was commissioned to do the first Oor Wullie in December last year, which was the ‘Adventure of Discovery Never Ends’ Wullie.
“Then the artist coordinator post came up, which I was encouraged to go for by various people, and since then I have done two big Wullies, one of which I collaborated on with Peter Davidson – the current illustrator for Oor Wullie – which was very cool to be able to do.
“I also have a ‘roving Wullie’, one of a number of smaller Wullies that schools got to do, and he has been to family centres, nurseries, community groups, Brownies, even the Unicorn on Pirate Day – all sorts of places across the region.
“Because I have been so busy with the bucket trail this year I couldn’t exhibit at the art festival, so I was delighted when I was invited to bring Wullie along instead.”
The two-day arts festival was this year organised by a new team comprising local artist Tina Gliddon, Lesley McDonald and Ella Stewart, with support from Anick Pitcher and event founder Johanna Frampton.
Billed as a ‘Highland Fling’, the festival featured three invited artists.
These included Hilary Barker from Callander, with her portraits of Highland cattle; Janet McCrorie from Haddington, whose paintings of Highland dancers were very popular with east Perthshire art lovers, and Keith Brown from the Solway Firth, who specialises in beautiful wildfowl paintings.
Janet McCrorie told the Blairie: “I was absolutely delighted to be asked to take part in the Rattray Art Festival and would like to thank the committee for inviting me and for making me feel so welcome.
“The standard of work here is extremely high and it’s a great venue in a lovely town.
“For a small community and for artists like myself events like this are very important in terms of allowing us to showcase our work and meet people, as well as seeing what other artists are doing and being inspired by that.
“It is also hugely valuable in terms of encouraging young people to get involved with art and enabling them to see that it can be a viable career option and you can make a living from art.”
As well as the featured artists, there was also a range of over 20 local artists and previous exhibitors showcasing their work at the event, including Tina, Ella and Anick themselves.
Chair of the Rattray Arts Festival, Andrew Hodge, said: “I would like to record Rattray’s debt to Johanna Frampton for all her hard work establishing this wonderful festival, and also to all the artists and craftspeople who have taken part and generously donated a percentage of their sales to two very worthwhile local causes.”
The participating artists donate 20% of any sales they make to good causes, which in previous years has seen recipients receive substantial donations. This year’s charities are Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance and Rattray and District BMX Club.
Greg Morgan, from the BMX club, said: “We are very grateful to Johanna, Tina, Ella and Lesley - and all the artists - for supporting us and our fundraising efforts for the BMX track by nominating us to be one of their chosen charities this year.
“It will all go towards helping us achieve our total target of £40,000 for the new track, of which we have raised about a quarter so far through various donations and fundraising.
“If anyone would like to sponsor the track and make a donation, they can contact us through social media or our website.”
Organiser Tina said: “It was a great event with a really good turnout - and the quality of work on display here just keeps getting better and better.
“We were busy throughout the weekend with a steady stream of visitors, and everyone - artists and visitors alike - seemed to enjoy the exhibition.
“Pirate Oor Wullie was very popular with lots of people taking selfies with him, and the homemade cakes and refreshments on offer this year went down really well too.
“We’re already planning next year’s event and have got lots of ideas, and artists, in mind for an even bigger and better Rattray Art Festival in 2017!”