From Kathmandu to Lochranza

On Saturday June 8th, the Nepalese Ambassador, Dr Chalise, was at the Lochranza Distillery to open an exhibition of work by sixteen Nepali children who had worked in a two-month-long project with Gordon Davidson. Also present was Sunita Podder, the newly appointed Consul for Scotland. Gordon’s own evocative paintings of Nepal combined with the children’s work to create a strong impression of this mountainous, beautiful country.

Gordon, who has a house in Corrie, is a world traveller of the best kind, and has a history of involvement in schemes to help local people. The current one arises from an exhibition for the ‘Nepal 2011 – Year of Tourism’ celebrations, aimed at getting people to come back to Nepal after their civil war. It was held in the Gurkha museum in Winchester and went very well, and the following year, the Gurkhas asked Gordon if he could set up an art project with the Happy Children Home in the small town of Budhanilkantha, north of Kathmandu in Nepal.

With touching honesty, Gordon admits that he’d ‘never really liked wee kids’ – and to make things harder, they spoke no English and he spoke no Nepali and had to use an interpreter. None of it mattered. Throughout November and December he worked with the sixteen children ‘harder than I’ve ever done in my life’ and says, ‘it turned out to be an amazing adventure.’ Some of them had great ability but they knew nothing about drawing and mixing colours because art is not taught in Nepali schools. They didn’t have toys or TV, either, so ‘Art was a big change for them.’ Gordon adds, ‘Every day something would come along that made you want to cry it was so sad… but every day we laughed eight or nine times over something really funny.’ To his surprise, he came to love the children, who clearly adored him. ‘They were such poor wee things, you could help but like them … The day I left most of them cried, which was very sad.’

Gordon brought back 80 of the children’s paintings to sell throughout the year, raising money that will go back to the Home and pay for further art materials, enabling the project to keep going. He stays in touch with the children through Skype, and hopes to hold further exhibitions of their work every year. He has sent photos of the Lochranza show to them, and says they are ‘really amazed.’