A friend sent me this picture taken “In a little village in Borneo” … it made me laugh so I thought I would add it into my Blog!! Business Art is expanding (more of that very exciting news later…) but I can assure you its not into catering or cafes!

David Cass, a young Edinburgh based artist Business Art works closely with has just won the RSA John Kinross scholarship to Florence – David will spend up to 3 months studying and painting in Florence, soaking up the atmosphere and culture and visiting lots of galleries! We would like to wish David the very best of luck and say that we are very envious of his forthcoming trip!

Business Art has been working with Art in Healthcare recently to place artwork in healthcare facilities around Scotland.  The organisation aims to improve healthcare environments and improve quality of life for patients.  They have a large collection of original artwork mostly by Scottish or Scotland based artists which can be rented. You can find out more about them at their website – http://www.artinhealthcare.org.uk

Sarah at the Royal Academy

I’m just back from London where I went to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy.  I absolutely loved the exhibition!  If you look closely in the picture you can just about see me photographing myself in one of the sculptures at the entrance to the RA.  Inside the most popular piece by far is the enormous cannon which is loaded up with shells of red wax and fired at 20 minute intervals, when it goes off its really loud and shoots the wax across the other side of the room into a small room, which now about six weeks into the exhibition is gradually filling up with red wax all over the floor, ceiling, walls etc, you have to be careful that bits sputtering off the cannon don’t hit you!

The other main attraction is Svayambh which occupies all five galleries.  This piece is a vast red wax block which moves slowly like a giant train though all the galleries slowly depositing wax on the arches, walls and floor of the galleries as it makes its progress backwards and forwards.

You can find out more about the exhibition at www.royalacademy.org.uk  the exhibition is on until the 11^th December and I highly recommend it, it’s unlike anything you will ever have seen.

For those of you who have seen the new car and its bright new livery you may have also noticed a new number plate BS51 ART. We were photographing the car for our next newsletter (out next week – watch out for it in your inbox) and while I had remembered the hot Starbucks for the photographer I did not remember to bring the double sided tape in order to attach said new number plate to the car (my dad was lined up to change them over the following weekend!) … BWM First Aid kit to the rescue – we duly stuck on the plates with a combination of plasters, suture strips and some medical tape! I think you could in fact perform surgery with the stuff that’s in these kits, hopefully we will never need to find out!

The livery on the car follows a long tradition of the BMW Art Car with cars designed by the likes of David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. See the following website for more information http://tinyurl.com/bq7nub.

Thanks to Will at Almond for designing the livery and to OPG Graphics for putting it on the car.

I loved reading this week that McDonalds is to open at The Louvre in Paris amid protests and outcry! You can see more at http://tinyurl.com/yazrmoa

When Starbucks opened at the Louvre last year they placated outraged staff and supporters of the museum by providing a ‘cultural corner’ or catalogues and brochures inside the café. Mona Lisa and chips anyone?

Apologies for the severe lack of blogs …. Business Art has been away on its holidays!! But we are back and ready for our next project.  The thing that’s mostly on our mind is the ASB Young Business of the Year Award being held in Glasgow tomorrow night – please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Life continues apace at Business Art – it’s certainly been a busy summer. Thank you to everyone who came to view the exhibition at Quartermile, we had over 500 people through the doors while the exhibition was on, word of mouth encouraged lots of visitors so thanks to all of you who encouraged your friends and family to come along. A few good sales helped the exhibition along too!

The Business Art car is getting a new look next week, some of you will remember the Mini with its colourful rainbow stripes! In keeping with our new image the new car will be “wrapped” next week! Look out for our “ART” number plate too!

Our Gallery at Quartermile has been open since Friday last week and I’m glad to say we have had lots of people through the doors!! There is still a chance to see the exhibition which is open until Sunday 9^th August.  We are showing paintings and sculpture by some of Scotland’s most talented young artists – you can see more in the news pages on Business Art’s website.  The apartment where the exhibition is being staged is stunning, with great views right across Edinburgh – I can see various acts setting up on the Meadows for the start of the Edinburgh Festival as I sit and write this from the roof top penthouse at Quartermile! 

On a completely different note, Lord Attenborough is selling around 50 of his works of art at auction later this year. His collection which includes works by LS Lowry, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, is likely to raise about £2million. I was interested to read his comment that “art belongs to no one – some of us are simply its temporary, fortunate and delighted custodians” – certainly an interesting point of view!

Exciting news – Business Art have been shortlisted as finalists in the Association of Scottish Businesswomen’s Young Business of the Year 2009 – results are out in September, please keep your fingers crossed for us!!