CLAIRE HARKESS
A Wilder Place
CLAIRE HARKESS
A Wilder Place 4-28 APRIL 2018
16 DUNDAS STREET EDINBURGH EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk scottish-gallery.co.uk
Front cover: Resting Stag (cat. 14) (detail) Left: Lynx Portrait ii (cat. 47) (detail)
A WILDER PLACE Claire Harkess has all the expressive and technical gifts essential for the wildlife painter and her powers of observation and recollection are given full reign in her latest exhibition. But as the title suggests in A Wilder Place she accesses past, present and future; the shared, romantic idea of our country once fully inhabited by ancient lineages of wild animals; the reality of the survivors we have seen or at least know are alive in remote vastnesses and the possibility of the return of lynx, wolf, boar and bear in the visionary rewilding programmes in which she has become involved. In a Harkess painting the animal is real, as experienced; a silhouette, camouflage patterns against patterned background foliage, seldom the whole animal but always its whole spirit. She has engaged with the ecology of the animal’s histories, once inextricably linked to our own, ritually recorded by our Neolithic ancestors on cave walls, brilliantly realised in her Regeneration series. In other paintings like The Eagle and the Wren she draws on the folk tales of the Highlands to add poetry to her subject. The deft certainty of her mark has an oriental sensibility whether framing the forest presence of the wild boar or the etiolated delicacy of a pair of common cranes. The value of these animals is in their ecology and also in their presence, often just a trace, their very wildness and inaccessibility defining their value, and it is this trace which is so poignantly and beautifully encapsulated by the artist. GUY PEPLOE March 2018 The Scottish Gallery
Right: Claire in the Perthshire hills searching for red squirrels, January 2018 2
TREES REMEMBER WOLVES I am captivated by the idea that one day, in a reforested Scotland, stretching from coast to coast, I can spot the track of a large beast. I am even more thrilled that I can walk out tomorrow and come across the print of a Scottish wildcat. This is highly unlikely but knowing there is hope and knowing there are people across the country dedicated to conserving vulnerable species gives faith and optimism that a wilder world can thrive.
The film How Wolves Changed Rivers tells a story of the wolves reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park. Missing for 70 years their presence is impacting on hundreds of other species and transforming the landscape. This was the spark that led me to wonder what is happening in the UK – the species lost, the reintroduced, the endangered, the reestablished and what may return (be returned) in the future.
The process has started. Future forests are being planted, the sea eagle, capercaillie and beaver have been reintroduced, red squirrels are being translocated, escaped wild boar are thriving, cranes have returned themselves, migrating back to the UK. Talk now turns to the top predators, those missing for centuries.
The term Rewilding at its simplest is to ‘Restore (an area of land) to its natural uncultivated state (used especially with reference to the reintroduction of species of wild animal that have been driven out or exterminated)’ Oxford dictionary.
The exhibition looks at wildlife that has been lost in the UK, what is now back and what could be again. This is the story so far – there is still much to do.
There are parts of the rewilding story that are romantic, parts practical with successes and failures and then there are the realities of the situation. A straightforward definition quickly leads to complex issues of restoration and the rebalancing of entire eco systems. It is political, legal and logistical, involving the coming together of many areas: landownership, land reform, land management, deer numbers, government policy, risk to livestock, money, livelihoods, to name but a few.
CLAIRE HARKESS February 2018
REWILDING BRITAIN Reintroductions are a key component of rewilding particularly given the challenge an island such as Britain presents to certain species in reaching our shores. Rarely without toil or controversy, assisting the return of a species needs to be well considered.
Claire Harkess’s paintings allow us to glimpse species such as the wildcat, now rarely seen in Scotland, and experience the thrill of the possible. Whilst pragmatic management approaches are necessary Claire’s exhibition allows the observer to abandon the practical considerations and wonder at the species we might one day see return.
Some of the species captured in this exhibition, we need to learn to live with once again. Whilst morally their return would right some of the wrong in the past, biologically it provides the chance to restore missing habitats, behaviours and connections.
SARAH ROBINSON February 2018 Trustee of the Board, Rewilding Britain
Right: Trees Remember Wolves (cat. 2) (detail) 4
1
Regeneration – Blaeberry watercolour • 74 x 54 cm 6
2
Trees Remember Wolves watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 7
3
4
Deer Study ii
Deer Study i
watercolour on Chinese paper • 29 x 35 cm
watercolour on Chinese paper • 36 x 36 cm 8
5
Regeneration – Pine Cones and Crested Tit watercolour • 74 x 54 cm 9
6
Regeneration – Rowan watercolour • 76 x 56 cm 10
7
Regeneration – Creeping Lady’s Tresses watercolour • 74 x 54 cm 11
Regeneration – Caledonian Forest The deer skull motif has many meanings. Antlers shed and re-grown each year are a symbol of regeneration and the life and death cycles of the natural world. In Scotland it can be the hunters’ trophy or represent overgrazed hillsides and the destruction of the environment.
8
Regeneration – Caledonian Forest watercolour • 74 x 54 cm 12
13
9
All Eyes on the Monarch watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 14
15
10
Regeneration – Dormant Forest ii watercolour • 74 x 54 cm 16
11
Regeneration – Twinflower watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 17
12
13
Deer Study iii
Deer Study iv
ink on Chinese paper • 22 x 22 cm
watercolour on Chinese paper • 20 x 22 cm 18
14
Resting Stag watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 19
15
Regeneration – Dormant Forest i watercolour • 82 x 57 cm 20
16
Memory of Wolves watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 21
17
Twin Wolf watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 22
18
Portraits of the Pack iii watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 23
19
Hunting Pack watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 24
20
Last Wolf, 1743 watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 25
21
Portraits of the Pack ii watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 26
22
Portraits of the Pack i watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 27
23
24
Wolf Portrait i
Wolf Portrait ii
watercolour • 30 x 30 cm
watercolour • 30 x 30 cm
25
26
Wolf Portrait iii
Wolf Portrait iv
watercolour • 30 x 30 cm
watercolour • 30 x 30 cm 28
27
Wolf Wood watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 29
‘TREES REMEMBER WOLVES. The oldest pines, the three-andfour-hundred-year-olds, know the brush of wolf fur, the soft, deep slap of their footfall on the forest floor. They hand down the sense of wolves to the wolfless generations of young trees, and these grow older remembering the sense of wolves so that they are ready for the wolves’ return.’ The Last Wolf by Jim Crumley (Birlinn, 2010)
28
Wolf Portrait v watercolour • 30 x 30 cm 30
29
Portraits of the Pack iv watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 31
30
Cry Wolf watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 32
31
Natural Predator watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 33
32
Reindeer watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 34
33
Elk – Lost 1900 BC watercolour • 56 x 76 cm 35
Ursus Arctos Our relationship with large wild animals is confined to history, legend or behind the bars of an enclosure. Long extinct in the UK, it is hard to imagine the possibilities of encountering a brown bear in the forests of Scotland. Painting a thought, however, it can loom large – a bear mountain. Isolated populations across Europe are estimated at 25,000. Globally, the total number of brown bears is thought to exceed 200,000.
34
Eurasian Brown Bear – Lost c.1000 AD watercolour • 70 x 105 cm 36
37
35
Boar ink and watercolour on Chinese paper • 50 x 76 cm 38
36
Sow ink and watercolour on Chinese paper • 50 x 76 cm 39
37
38
Boar Study iv
Wild Boar – Lost c.1260 AD
ink on Chinese paper • 32 x 34 cm
ink on Chinese paper • 51 x 67 cm 40
39
Family Pair, Wild Boar ink on Chinese paper • 67 x 100 cm 41
40
Wild Boar Study i ink on Chinese paper • 30 x 98 cm 42
43
41
Highland Tiger watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 44
42
Scottish Tiger watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 45
43
44
Lynx Portrait iv
Lynx Portrait v
watercolour • 38 x 56 cm
watercolour • 38 x 56 cm 46
45
Remember Lillith watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 47
46
Lynx Portrait i watercolour • 38 x 56 cm 48
47
Lynx Portrait ii watercolour • 38 x 56 cm 49
48
Eagle Owl i watercolour • 70 x 102 cm 50
49
Eagle Owl ii watercolour • 70 x 102 cm 51
50
Sea Eagle – Lost 1916, reintroduced 1975 watercolour • 70 x 105 cm 52
51
Red Kite Cry watercolour • 71 x 105 cm 53
The Sea Eagle and the Wren A tale from the Western Highlands. All the birds of the air held a contest for sovereignty, deciding to settle it by seeing who could fly the highest. Just when the eagle, almost predictably, declared his triumph, the tiny wren popped out from its hiding place amongst the eagle’s feathers and flew that bit higher and won the contest.
52
The Sea Eagle and the Wren watercolour • 68 x 100 cm 54
53
Erne (Sea Eagle) watercolour • 71 x 106 cm 56
57
54
Oak and Jay watercolour • 54 x 74 cm 58
55
Red Squirrel and Hazel Leaf watercolour • 74 x 54 cm 59
The Beaver’s Wake ‘The equation of animal and vegetable life is too complicated a problem for human intelligence to solve and we can never know how wide a circle of disturbance we produce in the harmonies of nature when we throw the smallest pebble into the ocean of organic life.’ GEORGE PERKINS MARSH, 1864
56
The Beaver’s Wake watercolour collage • 78 x 118 cm 60
61
57
Diver watercolour on Chinese paper • 23 x 25 cm 62
58
Beaver – Lost mid 18th Century, officially reintroduced 2009
Beaver Feeding
watercolour on Chinese paper • 37 x 27 cm
watercolour on Chinese paper • 23 x 20 cm
59
63
60
Chaffinch watercolour on Chinese paper • 30 x 21 cm 64
61
62
Crossbill, female
Crossbill and Pine Cones i
watercolour on Chinese paper • 33 x 20 cm
watercolour on Chinese paper • 43 x 50 cm 65
63
Common Crane – Lost 1542, re-established 1979 watercolour • 99 x 55 cm 66
64
Capercaillie – Lost 1785, reintroduced 1837 watercolour • 71 x 53 cm 67
65
66
Male Caper iii
Male Caper iv
ink and watercolour on Chinese paper • 33 x 33 cm
ink and watercolour on Chinese paper • 26 x 39 cm 68
67
68
Female Caper i
Female Caper ii
watercolour on Chinese paper • 31 x 39 cm
watercolour on Chinese paper • 26 x 33 cm 69
69
Crossbill and Pine Cones ii watercolour on Chinese paper • 34 x 35 cm 70
70
Crossbill, male watercolour on Chinese paper • 33 x 29 cm 71
CLAIRE HARKESS 1988-93 2005
BA (hons) Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art Elected member RSW (Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2018 A Wilder Place, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2016 High Arctic, The Strathearn Gallery, Crieff 2013 Indian Tigerlands, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2010 Queen’s Gallery, Dundee 2009 Worn Tracks, New Marks, Kenya, Strathearn Gallery, Crieff 2008 Galapagos, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2007 St Kilda, Plockton Gallery @ The Manse 2005 ‹Antarctica›, Strathearn Gallery, Crieff 1997, 2004 Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr 2003 Green Gallery, Aberfoyle 2000 Outback and Beyond, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 1998 Edinburgh Zoo 1998, 2000, 05 Tolquhon Gallery, Aberdeenshire 1997 University of York 1997 Crosskeys, Perth REGULAR GALLERIES Castle Gallery, Isle of Bute Fotheringham Gallery, Bridge of Allan Frames Gallery, Perth Gallery Q, Dundee Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay Wade Gallery, Elie PUBLIC COLLECTIONS The Walter Scott Art Collection Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council Royal Scottish Geographical Society The Dick Institute, East Ayrshire Council, Kilmarnock INVITED ARTIST 2014 David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year, Mall Galleries, London 2004 Dunkeld Cathedral Annual Exhibition 2004 Perthshire Art Association, Perth Museum and Art Gallery Left: Claire in the Perthshire hills searching for red squirrels, January 2018 73
AWARDS/ COMPETITIONS 2017 Wildlife Artist of the Year, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation 2017 ‘The Artist’ magazine Award, DSWF 2014 RSW Summer Show: The Walter Scott Purchase Prize 2013 RSW Summer Show: The Fotheringham Gallery Award 2013 RSW Council Award 2011 Runner Up, Wildlife Artist of the Year, DSWF 2011 Wildlife in Action, DSWF 2010 Riverside Gallery Award, RSW 2006 SAC, Perth and Kinross Artists’ Award 2002 Windsor and Newton, RSW 1996 Arches Winter Painting Competition (wildlife) RESIDENCIES 1998 The Royal Zoological Society, Edinburgh TEACHING 1999- 2015 1998
Dollar Summer School Summer School, Edinburgh College of Art
TELEVISION 2002 1998
Landward, BBC: Art and Nature The Zoo, BBC: The Artist-in-Residence programme
STUDY VISITS 2015 Svalbard 2014 Greenland 2010 India 2009 Kenya 2008 The Galapagos Islands 2007 St Kitts, Nevis 2006, 07 St Kilda 2006 Australian Outback 2005 Grenada, Tobago 2004 Antarctica + South Georgia 2003 Caribbean Islands: Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad, Cuba 2003 Mexico: migration of the Monarch Butterfly 2002 Letterewe Estate, Wester Ross: Commissioned paintings for book A Highland Deer Herd and Its Habitat pbl Red Lion Press, London 2000 Australia: three months travelling the Eastern and Central regions
Right: Portraits of the Pack ii (cat. 18) (detail) 74
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition CLAIRE HARKESS A Wilder Place 4 – 28 APRIL 2018 Artist acknowledgements: With thanks to The Scottish Gallery, Sarah Robinson, Iain Valentine, Heather Hamilton, Eric McCabe, Graeme Pallister, Dominic King, Alastair Lumsden, David Hetherington, Heather McVean, Hugh Goring and all who helped with this project. Extra special thanks to John, always. The exhibition and current available works can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/claireharkess ISBN: 978 1 910267 76 9 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography by Paul Reid Printed by J Thomson Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
Right: Red Squirrel and Hazel Leaf (cat. 55) (detail) 76