Summer Cityscapes:
Summer CityScotlandArt.com’s 16th ScotlandArt’s 16th
Annual Summer
Annual Spring Exhibition
exhibition
For the great Frank Lloyd Wright, whose creative genius still breathes through the streets of almost every major city in America, architecture was ‘the mother art’. ‘Every great architect’, he believed, was ‘necessarily a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.’ In a city which counts Rennie Mackintosh foremost amongst its artistic heroes, these words convey a truth which is readily apparent.
At Scotland Art, we are therefore delighted to dedicate our latest summer exhibition to works inspired by the city. Here, you will see some of Scotland’s most talented painters reimagining and recreating a number of our most familiar views, imposing their signature style upon locations we have come upon many times before – Ashton Lane, George Square, and Merchant City; Edinburgh Castle, and Calton Hill.
Yet we also take great delight in juxtaposing these impressions with those taken from other cities around the globe. From quiet Venetian canals to the lights of the Big Apple, or Parisian boulevards to London's beloved landmarks – here we present Scottish art in a global context, a wide-ranging celebration of urban beauty.
Above: ‘Late Summer Evening, Venice’ by Fiona Wilson. Oil on canvas, hand-finished grey frame, 70cm by 50cm, £2,500. All works featured in the programme are available to view and purchase via our website at www.scotlandart.com and are listed alphabetically by artist name.
Lesley Banks Banks is one of the foremost artists working in Glasgow today, to which her exhibition of works in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum depicting Glasgow tenements, ‘39 Weeks and Waiting’, is testament. We are delighted to display her powerful renditions of Christmas fireworks at George Square - fabulous exercises in capturing the effects of light upon smoke against the famed backdrop of Glasgow's beautiful City Chambers - alongside a number of more intimate paintings from the West End. Below: ‘Jellyhill, Day’, oil, cream frame, 42cm by 38cm, £695
Above: ‘Fireworks—Blue and Orange’, oil, dark brown carved frame, 112cm by 112cm, £5000
Right: ‘Looking inward—Misty Morning’, oil, white box frame, 80cm by 105cm, £4500
Alicia Dubnyckyj Viewed from afar, Dubnyckjy's striking panels appear almost an exercise in photorealism, capturing famous city vistas the world over with absolute fidelity. It is only when we see the paintings a little closer that we realise they are cunningly constructed of small, abstract shapes - prepared digitally from photographs, yet lent a satisfying sense of variety and chance through the process by which gloss paint is applied to board, governed by the eye of the artist. Alicia's career is definitely one to watch with her paintings featuring in galleries throughout Europe and North America, as well as in private collections the world over.
Right: ‘Above Westminster X’, Gloss on board, unframed panel, 122cm by 100cm, £4700
Above: ‘Above Westminster IV’, gloss on board, unframed panel, 122cm by 100cm, £4700 Below: ‘Gooderham Building’, gloss on board, unframed panel, 122cm by 91cm, £4500
Lesley Ann Derks Derks declares herself profoundly influenced by ' the lights of the manmade industrial scene', and the 'subtleties of movement, light and sound' such a subject makes available for the artist. Her striking method of layering oil and enamel paint on canvas cleverly recreates these subtleties in her richly textured, nuanced works that are best appreciated in person; the sleek gloom of street-lit cars beautifully offsets the bright, austere facade of the 'Hotel de Louvre, Paris'. Below: ‘Princes Street, Reflections’, oil and enamel on canvas, unframed box canvas, 40cm by 50cm, £695
Above: ‘Hotel du Louvre, Paris’, oil and enamel on canvas, unframed box canvas, 60cm by 90cm, £1595
Below: ‘London Eye by Night’, oil and enamel on canvas, unframed box canvas, 50cm by 60cm, £796
Andrew Hood Daubs of colour jostle for our attention in these new paintings by Andrew Hood, to evoke the chaotic bustle of a Parisian crowd or a lively boulevard, leading to the French Riviera in Nice. Hood demonstrates again his singular and striking ability to instil the viewer with a real sense of motion and flux, of order imposed upon chaos. Below: ‘Cote d’Azur—Nice’, oil on board, white floating frame, 110cm by 70cm, £2100
Above: ‘Walk in the City’, oil on board, white floating frame, 100cm by 100cm, £2300
Ronnie Russell With a distinctly impressionist style, Russell's paintings reveal an artist adept at capturing the posture or the motion of a foreground figure, or the essential character of a building, with just a few brushstrokes. Time and again, we see his awareness of light's interaction with architecture conjured in bright acrylics, and especially in 'Puddle Reflections, Glasgow' - a piece with which the artist is particularly enamoured - we see the artist subtly merging a bold, Buchanan Street facade with its more freely defined reflection before us.
Right: ’Puddle Reflections, Glasgow’, acrylic, gold frame with cream slip, 32cm by 42cm, £295
Above: ‘Edinburgh from Calton Hill’, acrylic, gold frame with cream slip, 58cm by 42cm, £450 Below: ‘ Reflected Blue, Kelvingrove’, acrylic, gold frame with cream slip, 27cm by 27cm, £175
Karen Cairns In her own words, Cairns’ colourful recreations of streets and monuments in watercolour represent attempts to 'explo it the paint's natural freed o m '. With loose outlines, and fearless application of bold colours, she dexterously conjures in our minds the essential impression of a host of familiar locations. We see this especially as the luminous shape of St Paul's merges with its reflection in the Thames in 'Big City Lights, London from the South Bank', or else as the glow of the sunset over Ashton Lane in 'West End Girls' finds a perfect counterpoint in the radiant colour of the girls' hair, bottom left.
Right: ‘West End Girls’, watercolour, black with cream mount, 33cm by 42cm, £285
Above: ‘Glorious Glasgow, Campsies from Queen’s Park’, watercolour, dark brown curved frame with cream mount, 78cm by 47cm, £1100 Right: ‘Wee Pokey Hat’, watercolour, black frame with cream mount, 33cm by 42cm, £285 Below: ‘ Big City Lights, London from the South Bank’, watercolour, dark brown curved frame with cream mount, 57cm by 100cm, £1600
Fiona Wilson We have noted before Fiona Wilson’s preoccupation with ‘faded glamour’, yet this was in reference to the portraits and nudes which are a familiar feature of the gallery’s collection. In her reflections on Venice, we see the same muted colouration depicting intricate architectural structures, and find the effect strangely and intensely moving; for all the glorious late sun of her ‘Late Sunday Evening, Venice’, the piece appears calm, reflective, almost wistful. Below left: ‘Curved Door, Venice’, Oil on canvas panel, grey hand-finished frame with cream slip, 30cm by 30cm, £1200 Below Right: ‘Blue Door, Venice’, Oil on canvas panel, grey hand-finished frame with cream slip, 30cm by 30cm, £1200
Above: ‘Chiesa di San Rocco’, Oil on linen, grey hand-finished frame with cream slip, 50cm by 60cm, £2300
Margaret Evans Evan's expert, highly popular portrayals of fleeting, fickle Highland skies in pastel and gouache are familiar to us at the gallery; it is hugely exciting to see those same skills focussed upon the waters of Venice. Her proficiency in conveying mood through shadow transfers excellently to these new subjects; the dark, murky figures of the gondolas in 'Midnight...' are intensified by the dim, reflected light we see strewn across the canal. Below Left: ‘Midnight II’, pastel, dark grey frame with silver slip, 48cm by 58cm, £895 Below Right: ‘Midnight III’, pastel, dark grey frame with gold slip, 43cm by 57cm, £895
Above: ‘Chiaroscuro’, pastel, dark grey frame with silver slip, 35cm by 45cm, £695
Adrian McMurchie McMurchie's style may well be familiar to anyone living in Glasgow, as his studies in ink and watercolour feature in establishments all over town. They expertly toe the line between absolute fidelity to the subjects expressed, and a certain looseness in their depiction; free -hand lines and swiftly sketched figures in his panoramas belie the intimate, and comprehensive knowledge of the location's architectural character which the artist displays. Below: ‘Graduation Day’, watercolour and ink, brown wood stained frame with cream mount and brown slip,93cm by 71cm, £565
Above: ‘Atlantic View, Lisbon’, watercolour and ink, limed wooden frame with cream mount, 91cm by 63cm, £545 Below (left): ‘Early Morning Stroll, Merchants’ City’, watercolour and ink, metallic frame with cream slip, 48cm by 58cm, £395 Below (right): ‘Pisa Baptistry’, watercolour and ink, limed wood frame with mount, £365
Ron Eardley Eardley’s background in book illustration is discernible in the ‘George Square’: loosely sketched birds against the backdrop of the likewise freely rendered City Chambers. Yet his proficiency with various different painting styles and subjects is evident from the mesmerising reflection of the ‘Palazzo Sagredo’; disparate pinks and blues merging harmoniously in the Venetian waters.
Below: ‘George Square, Glasgow’, mixed media, white frame with gold slip, 37cm by 37cm, £335
Above: ‘House for an Art Lover’, mixed media, white frame with gold slip, £385 Below: ‘Palazzo Sagredo’, mixed media, white frame with gold slip, 39cm by 39cm, £335
Thankyou for visiting ScotlandArt ScotlandArt.com is a dynamic art gallery based in the centre of Glasgow, boasting a diverse and wellrespected collection of works by some of the most accomplished contemporary artists based in or inspired by Scotland. Alongside our gallery space we also arrange mixers and networking events for local businesses and societies, lease artworks on a short term basis for commercial and domestic use and offer a professional advice and facilitation service for those looking to commission original artworks for their homes and offices. Email enquiries to join our mailing list by emailing enquiries@scotlandart.com and receive invites to our gallery events.