The Contemporary Scene
Visual Art
Douglas Heggie – painter
Douglas, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, began his teaching career at Greenock High School then moved to Banff Academy. In 1990 he became Head of Art and Design at Keith Grammar School and after early retirement from there in 2009 he now pursues his new career as a full time artist.
This was launched by a ‘one man’ exhibition in 2010 in Edinburgh entitled ‘The Barley and the Brine’ depicting the landscape and seascape of the Northeast. Having exhibited in numerous galleries he has now opened his own gallery, for invited artists, in Huntly under the business name of Douglas Heggie FINE ART.
Derek Gray – paintings and drawings
Derek, who has lived all his life in Foggie, showed great interest in Art at school and contributed strip cartoons to the school magazine. All his life he has been a prolific painter of scenes from Marnoch and further afield.
In 2009 he contributed line drawings to The Book Of Banff published by Banff Preservation & Heritage Society. He is also in demand as a caricaturist.
Jenny & John
Book Of Banff
Celtic Gods
Fiona Michie
A Foggie quine, Fiona graduated from Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen and did further studies in London. Thereafter for several years she lived and exhibited in Amsterdam and Berlin before returning to Scotland. She is now based in Turriff and is a regular exhibitor of rather spooky drawings which emerge from her imagination.
Photographer
Colin Heggie
photographer and graphic designer
Brought up in Aberchirder, Colin graduated in photography from Sunderland University. After working as a freelance photographer and graphic designer based in Edinburgh, he has returned to his roots and lives in Whitehills.
He continues to photograph and design for publications and projects throughout the country. He made a major contribution to the Foggie 250 celebrations in 2014, now recorded on this website.
Crafts
Donna Wilson – textiles designer
Growing up on her parents’ farm at Turtory beside the River Deveron, Donna developed a love for the natural landscape, wildlife – and making things, mostly from textiles using handcrafted techniques.
She then headed for London, and the Royal College of Art, where she knitted her very first creatures and began selling them to local shops in the city. Today she has a busy studio in East London, packed with her curious creatures, where she and a team of six make a range of home accessories which now sell in over thirty countries worldwide.
Music
David Ward – classical composer
David Ward (born 1941) is a composer who lives near Foggie, where he moved from Shetland in the late 1990s. He studied composition with Alexander Goehr.
His published compositions range from solo sonatas to operas, three of which have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. As the northernmost concert in the 1992 EEC sponsored European Arts Festival, his hour-long symphonic cantata Beyond the Far Haaf about a 19th Century Shetland fishing disaster was performed in Lerwick by the BBC SSO and broadcast on Radio 3.
In late September 2016 he provisionally completed a three act opera to a libretto by NZ poet Kevin Ireland derived from the Gilgamesh epic.
Further information from http://www.composers-uk.com/davidward where there are also sound-bites from several pieces.
Live music is occasionally on offer locally at these local venues:
New Inn – www.facebook.com/newinnfoggie
Aberchirder Bowling Club – www.facebook.com/Aberchirder-Bowling-Club-1484203205237967
And further afield:
Keith Folk Festival – http://tmsakeithfestival.blogspot.co.uk/
Salmon Bothy – http://www.salmonbothy.org.uk/whatson.html#music
Aberchirder & District Community Association
