Awakening
ScotlandArt’s 16th
Annual Spring Exhibi on
Spring has always arrived with the promise of profusion – of ‘infinite variety’, bred by miracle from the uniform dank of the winter – and with it, the awakening of a keener, quicker consciousness than that which has carried us through the darker months. It is with ‘variety’ firmly in mind that we have approached Awakening, our 16th Annual Spring Exhibi on here at ScotlandArt. We have been collec ng works from thirteen of our ar sts over the last few weeks, among whom we are delighted to include, for the first me, the Carlisle-based sculptor Mark Gibbs. We have endeavoured, in this programme, to present a few reasons for why we find some of their works’ so cap va ng. But each piece of art does, of course, invite con nuous reinterpreta on, and we very much hope you will enjoy le ng your minds wander over the collec on.
Above: Chris ne Clark’s impressive ‘Rise’; mixed media on canvas, £1800. All works featured are available to view and purchase via our website at www.scotlandart.com and are listed alphabe cally by ar st.
New Sculptural Works Images below by Mark Gibbs
Mark Gibbs In his own words, Gibb’s animal sculptures ‘evoke strength and masculinity’ while nonetheless hin ng ‘at delicacy and vulnerability’; we find in these works a fascina ng tension also between the ar st’s highly-accomplished realism, and yet his clear commitment to allow the materials he uses to speak for themselves - wire skeletons protrude from the skin; thick brushstrokes evoke hair. This is perhaps most evident in his innova ve choice of plinths, such as the saw over which the reindeer in ‘Barren Ground’ tenta vely peers – a powerful comment on the dangers of over-logging, with the saw’s teeth perhaps even auguring the jagged, rocky slope to which the reindeer’s forest habitat may one day be reduced.
Main Room –
Surrealism and Landscapes
Image below ’Dismantle the Sun’ by Chris ne Clark
Chris ne Clark Clark makes no secret of the poet W.H. Auden’s influence on this latest collec on of works, naming ‘Dismantle the Sun’ a er his famous ‘Funeral Blues’ (known to many from its appearance in a certain Richard Cur s film), and quo ng further from the poem on the side of the canvas. But the way in which these works evoke growth, with the branchlike fingers rising from the various obscure, somewhat skeletal forms penned against the cool wash of blue, speaks perhaps to the apocalyp c influence of Auden’s contemporary, T.S. Eliot: ‘April is the cruellest month,/ Breeding lilacs out of the dead land...’
Heather Blanchard
Since her move to Scotland six years ago, Blanchard's work in oil has gone from strength to strength, and one of her vivid snow scenes was featured on the cover of ArtMag last winter. In this new selec on of work, the subtlety with which the cool, crisp lines of blue and grey upon the whites of ‘Mel ng Snow’ lead the eye towards the wonderfully hazy horizon, bounded by forest, is complemented nicely as spring emerges with shots of vibrant yellow and green among the bright haze of ‘Early Spring Limes’.
Margaret Evans Evans has championed the use of pastels in fine art for a number of years; this latest selec on of work displays, we feel, her proficiency in portraying flee ng, fickle Highland skies in this medium.
The moody blend of purple and yellow in such pain ngs as ‘Ardvasar and Beyond’ faithfully evokes those dark days up north when the sky seems to merge with the earth; we likewise find the shadows creeping down the ‘Kintailcaps’ – a sense perhaps of dawn’s warmth conveyed with the red-browns of the mountainside – enthralling.
Chris Forsey Forsey began his career as a watercolourist, achieving eminence that was recognised in 2010 with his elec on to the The Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, but his recent work has led him to a thrilling combina on of media.
The barren cliff face upon the edge of the earth threaten a gloomy scene, but the exquisite draughtsmanship of Forsey’s ‘Cliff Edges and Bouquet’ is such that the cool purples of the sea and its shadows exert a calming influence, while the vibrant arrangement of flowers, picked out in acrylic and pastel and reflected in the dappled sky, brings the composi on empha cally to life.
Marion Thomson Thomson’s characteris cally loose, free style, in these new works, is rich with nuance. Her ‘Blustery Day, Iona’ subtly blends the so greens, greys and blues of the foreground hillock, beach stretch and the immediate sea with the much deeper masses of distant mountains and blue sky; the faint forms of bright wild flowers in the bo om right are complemented and contrasted by the dark stormclouds entering the scene top-le .
Finally, as we catch the hint of white wave ecks, glin ng in the middle distance, the scene shudders into movement.
Sarah Carrington
Carrington is a master of the sea. A painterly painter, her impressive use of media so varied as to include household emulsion, oil, sand, varnish and even – as in ‘Rocks and Sand, Iona’ – shots of gold leaf makes for a rich, and deeply textured feel upon the canvas, while the loose pencil marks with which she picks out the foreground imbue her pain ngs with a remarkable dynamism.
Pat Kramek
The exci ng new selec on of Pat’s work we are displaying shows to the full her innova ve use of bold colours and thickly textured paint to construct her landscapes. We range from her ‘Paps of Jura’ – evincing the characteris cally nuanced balance of seagreens and blues and beach whites with the deep purples, blacks and reds of the distant mountains – to the much warmer composi on of ‘The Puffer’, an exquisite and expressive study in orange and purple.
Ma hew Bourne Ma hew declares an aim to create ‘a tension in my pain ngs between spontaneity and risk and a more measured controlled approach’.
In his most recent work, we can really see such a goal come to frui on; the loose and impulsive sense which his thick impasto conveys gives the lie to the much more careful and intricate crea on of landscapes within these seemingly abstract composi ons. We are impressed at ďŹ rst with the fun, vibrant interplay of colour upon the surface of the canvas, but as we look into the pain ng, mountains and lakes seem to emerge from great depths; a mass of countryside awakens.
Small Room – Figura ve & S ll-Life mage below ‘Canary Yellow’ by Fiona Wilson
Fiona Wilson Wilson declares that she is ‘drawn to places that exude a faded glamour’. In both of the new portraits on display – ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Canary Yellow’ – the alluring, bright headdresses provide a stark contrast to the muted backgrounds. It is a compelling tension, upon which the complex expressions of the profiled faces are strung. We find her style conveys a depth of inner consciousness, which rises even from the very stance of the nude with her back to us (‘The Morning A er the Night Before’).
Andrew McNeile Jones Image below ‘Bending the Tops of the Trees’
What we no ce most of all when we range across McNeile Jones’ pieces, is the manner in which the various scenes – some sugges ng a narra ve taking place ‘in the wings’, others more simple s ll lives – are rendered with great faithfulness, yet at the same me ins lled with enormous aesthe c potency. Whether it is the glowing reflec ons of the ‘Lemons on Damask Cloth’, or the lively and suggesve bulges and divots of fabric (‘And So, This Is How It Would Be’), this is life, but seen more clearly and brightly through the lens of the ar st’s eye.
Lesley McLaren Variety is a key characteris c of McLaren’s s lllives. They are detailed and they are profuse; as she has it, ‘a showcase of my quiet observa ons’.
With the diversity of colours and objects on display in ‘The Story of the Stars’, the piece does indeed provide endless opportunity for piecing together a rewarding narra ve; the moonlit deer bounds towards the open window, to the bright and beau ful haven it seems to proffer. Her par cular manipulaon of perspec ve brings the scene to life, and we can imagine the ar st at work, ‘watching and wai ng for a glimpse of drama’.
Lisa Pe ersson
Pe ersson’s striking employment of acrylic paint on coloured paper ensures that pieces which are so disparate as to include the strong, symmetrical pa erns of her two 'Flight' pieces, and the bold childhood ďŹ gures in 'Birthday', 'Secrets', and 'Feeding the Chickens', are nonetheless united by a strong sense of individual style.
Walter Awlson Walter’s stunning, classic sculptures strongly inspired the selec on of the ‘Awakening’ theme for our exhibi on this spring. In sculpture he likes to leave the mark of the finger in the clay and in paint leaves a fairly painterly brushstroke, in both instances showing the making process while at the same me producing a faithful realism.
The sculpture featured above, en tled ‘Awakening’, encapsulates the sense of contempla on and focus that is brought to us with the spring season. This striking image underlines the skill, care and beauty that Walter renders through his work and explains his enduring popularity as one of ScotlandArt’s most popular ar sts.
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