Painting Challenge

If you're wondering what to do on a miserable Saturday afternoon why not pop in to the library for a bit of inspiration?

Stromness is of course a community full of creativity, and as regular readers will know there are often exhibitions of the many talented artists in the town.

But for those of us for whom a paintbrush is more of a DIY tool than a means of self expression, the recent BBC television series The Big Painting Challenge may have sparked an interest in exploring our own inner artist. 

If you're looking for a bit of guidance then we can help, we may not be able to offer artistic advice but we can certainly find you a book that can. With titles from 'Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Oil Painting' to 'Reader's Digest Guide to Drawing and Painting' there should be something to help you choose the right materials and tackle your first masterpiece. 

While you're in the library you can also pick up an entry form for The Little Painting Challenge. Create a drawing or painting on the blank side of the postcard and then send in your entry for the chance to win a prize and perhaps even see your work exhibited in the newly refurbished Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester from the 4th of May 2015. 

Entries close on April 2nd so you still have plenty of time to find your muse and get creating. 

Betty's Reading Room

Phot by Alison Miller 

Regular listeners to BBC Radio 4 may have heard Orkney being mentioned on last week's Saturday Live show,  when the programme included a piece on Betty's Reading Room. A derelict bothy at Tingwall has been converted into a cosy reading space by Craig Mollison and Jane Spiers in memory of their good friend, Betty Prictor.

You can still listen to last week's edition of Saturday Live here on BBC iPlayerRadio and if you  can't make it to Tingwall you can watch the BBC Scotland report filmed earlier this year. 

Our very own Reader in Residence, Alison Miller, has also blogged about her visit to Betty's Reading Room and you can read about her visit and enjoy her lovely photos on her Reader in Residence Blog.

Photo by Alison Miller http://readerinresidenceorkneylibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/bettys-reading-room.html

The Last Lighthouse Keeper

 http://www.fairisle.org.uk/FIT/1998/April/18th/18th.htm

Thanks to one of our members for drawing our attention to another BBC Radio 4 broadcast with a Stromness connection. The episode of the obituary programme Last Word, broadcast on Friday 31st May, featured the late Angus Hutchison - Stromness resident, former Islands Councillor and the last Principal Lighthouse Keeper in Scotland - who sadly died in March this year. 

The programme features archive recordings of Angus speaking about the automation of the Fair Isle South lighthouse, the last Northern Lighthouse Board manned lighthouse to be automated, and his role as the last principal lighthouse keeper in Scotland. The programme also speaks to Angus's daughter Gail.

You can listen to to the programme on the BBC iPlayer here.

Princess Anne with the LAST SHIFT at FAIR ISLE SOUTH LIGHTHOUSE
Keepers ANGUS HUTCHISON,
JIM WATT and ALAN CHAMBERLAIN with Angus' wife YVONNE. http://www.fairisle.org.uk/FIT/1998/April/18th/18th.htm

The Fair Isle Times edition of 18th April 1998 is available online and includes a piece on the last shift at Fair Isle South, when Princess Anne visited the lighthouse to mark the change over to automation.

http://www.nlb.org.uk/ourlights/automation.htm

GMB on the BBC

Yesterday we alerted you to a book launch and today we have a radio program we think you should know about. For tomorrow (Sunday 28th April) at 7.45pm on BBC Radio Four you can hear Claire Knight read George Mackay Brown's story 'The Wireless Set'.

This will be the first of three stories to be broadcast over the coming weeks from GMB's second volume of short stories A Time to Keep which has recently been reprinted by Birlinn - the other stories to be broadcast are 'The Five of Spades' and 'The Masked Fisherman'.

As part of the BBC publicity around the series our very own Reader in Residence Alison Miller was asked to write a blog post for the BBC Radio 4 blog, and you can read more about the broadcasts  and Alison's BBC blogging on her Reader in Residence blog.

So tune in tomorrow to hear 'The Wireless Set' and listen out for the opening music which will be "Shapinsay Polka" by Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley, taken from their album Mither O' The Sea. 

It goes without saying of course that copies of both A Time to Keep and Mither O' The Sea are available for loan from Stromness Library.