A Wee Weegie Walkabout

It's mid January in Glasgow, it's supposed to be a sunny dry day with clear skies. 

It is not. 

The clouds look decidedly dark and the sun, although trying, is struggling to come out from behind them. I zip up my coat as I wait in the bus station for the No.285, I have a plan, I am sticking to it.

I am always on the look out for views and scenes that are just right for my artwork. For this reason I constantly take photos on my phone. Sometimes its an unloved gable end wall covered in tags, sometimes its the view down a side street I've walked passed hundreds of times but never seen and other times it's a stunning sunset or moody cloudscape. 

But every now and then I go on a proper photography excursion. I consult my running list of art ideas, get out google maps, look things up on the internet and plan a day out. It's for this reason that I get off the bus next to a tower block at the entrance to a less than welcoming park in Springburn in Glasgow on a gloomy Tuesday morning. I walk through the gates and up into a set of curved paths set out around some ornamental ponds. Its was clearly once a lot grander but now its pretty grim, covered in rubbish and run down. I quicken my step a little. I skirt around the side alongside a dilapidated cast iron fence. I turn a corner and the park opens up into a large open space. A classic victorian park, with mature trees, wide spaces, avenues and taking pride of place, off to my left, my first target of the day.

A victorian ruin set to a backdrop of 3 high-rise blocks of flats. Seven steel lattice arches rise from a redbrick wall, two greenhouse wings extend from one flank. It's covered in graffiti, it has no glass. I walk through the unlocked modern gate in a fenced off area that encircles the one side of the structure and enter the building through the greenhouse. Inside weeds cover the overgrown floor. Broken, rusted staircases at each end rise up to balustraded balconies that run around the top of the walls. As I look up several pieces of cast iron dangle dangerously from the arches. Its beautiful. I walk around inside and out snapping away trying to get the perfect angle of the building and by the time I am finished I have muddy shoes and a the rain has started. 

Then it's back on the bus to my next stop - I am planing to check out the Claypits, the canal and Partick Thistle football stadium. I am not quite sure where I am going, my phone is playing up and seems to be almost out of battery, its still raining and I am walking through Ruchill Park feeling a bit lost but I drop down the hill right behind the stadium and decide to take the canal path that winds around the back of the stadium. I double back after educating myself of some local history from an info board on the canal basin (I love an information board!) The main old building of the stadium is pretty run down but I try my best to get some good shots and then head on to the main rd. Unexpectedly, at the top of a large flight of steps, with a slide and a footbridge over the same canal I find the entrance to the Claypits park. I cross the footbridge into the park which sits on the top of the hill. Stunning views across the city greet me when I turn around. I take a round trip about the park discovering a beautiful modern nature reserve in, as the name suggests, a former industrial site. The sun is trying hard to come out and drenching the city in a beautiful haze.

I am now quite hungry and I have had nothing since breakfast so I head back down to the steps, past the stadium and stumble across Café D'Jaconelli (a beautiful old fashion cafe) and the Mackintosh Queens Church. The first is busy with a funeral party, I get some photos of the church with the stadium in the background and then happen upon the lovely Toshie's Community Cafe for a late lunch and coffee.

After lunch I hopped down to the well known Ashton Lane in the westend to check out the Grosvener cinema but this was a bust for my purposes so I called time on my photography for the day, grabbed a pint in a local bar and checked through my days haul of photos.

I had had a wonderful day discovering new parts of Glasgow. I was full of inspiration for some new work and a little more prepared for my upcoming art retreat. 

Tips for the day? Get off the beaten path and make sure you've charged your phone!