One more spin round the Sun
A wee party, a special birthday offer of a limited edition print + 50% discounted Founding member subscription, and news for next year
Hello friends
It’s my birthday this week! I’ve made it around the sun one more time!
And The Life Boat is a whole 18 months old! I’m so grateful for the buoyancy, reslience, community and small but valued income this little Life Boat has offered.
I’m also drawing towards the close of an intensive year of painting, thanks to receiving the RSA MacRobert Trust Art Award for Painting about this time last year. As I tidy up and wrap the last of the new paintings ready to ship (more on this in a moment) it’s time to reflect, take stock, and pause gratefully before moving on to thoughts of next year.
To celebrate thiese milestones, I’m offering a signed, limited edition giclée print and a 50% discount on all new Founding level subscribers until the end of the year.
These prints are an homage to the exquisite drawings of the biologist Ernst Haeckel, setting his detailed illustrations of microscopic waterborne radiolaria alongside my own complex sponge-like honeycomb forms, created through repetitive hand-drawn lines.
In an edition of just 25 copies each, printed in intense, velvety black fine-art quality ink on heavy, archival watercolour paper, each print is individually signed and numbered and will be sent to you rolled in a sturdy cardboard tube early in the New Year.
Hit the button below and under “Subscription” you can choose the Founding member tier for the heavily discounted price of £100 until December 31st (It’s normally £200).
Send me a message with your postage details and let me know if you have a preference for Float #1, #2 or #3 (subject to availability). I’ll get your print on its way to you as soon as I can.
The Life Raft Christmas party!
Our little group of Life Raft co-workers has become such a valued part of my creative week every Wednesday afternoon, and I love how it has gently and organically grown into an international gathering of creative souls. Normally we just chat briefly, and spend most of our time quietly working in our shared online space. But this week we’ll have a chance get to know each other a bit more, with a bit of an office Christmas party vibe and breakout rooms for conversation. This session won’t be recorded. Just click the link below at 3pm GMT on Wednesday to join us. Party hats are not required! If you would like to access last week’s recording you can find it in the paid subscriber chat.
Exhibition in the New Year
I’m delighted to share that I will be exhibiting a series of new paintings made this year at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh early in the New Year. The exhibition ‘In Orcadia’ opens from January 25th to March 2nd and will also feature Orkney-inspired works by Anne Bevan, Frances Pelly, Barbara Rae, Victoria Crowe and Frances Walker. What a roster of artists to be sharing wall space with!
I will be hosting an evening event of words and music in the glorious Upper Galleries of the RSA with mezzo-soprano Taylor Wilson and poet Garry Mackenzie on February 6th. You can book tickets for this event below.
And finally, thank you so much for your company this last year as a subscriber to the Life Boat. I truly value your comments and responses, and the conversations and creative relationships that are gently growing out of this newsletter. It really does feel like a Life Boat for me and I hope it does for you too.
The Life Boat will be going into dry dock over the festive period, but she will relaunch in the New Year. I look forward to voyaging onwards with you, whatever storms and turbulence may rock our little vessel.
In the meantime, I wish you a peaceful and restorative holiday season!
Bye for now!
- Sam
Happy birthday, Sam!
Happy birthday, Sam! And Happy Holidays!