The Scottish Gallery Summer Show
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham | A Life in Colour John Brown | My Garden Jake Harvey | Honed Kurt Jackson | The Burn – A Scottish Millstream Alex Knubley | The Growing Season Alice Fry, Ann Little, Lina Petersen, Jo Pudelko | Kaleidoscopic
Contents
30 June – 23 July 2022
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Welcome to Summer
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Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE, HRSA, HRWA, HRSW | A Life in Colour
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John Brown RSW | My Garden
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Jake Harvey RSA | Honed
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Kurt Jackson RWA | The Burn – A Scottish Millstream
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Alex Knubley | The Growing Season
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Alice Fry, Ann Little, Lina Petersen, Jo Pudelko | Kaleidoscopic
16 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk scottish-gallery.co.uk
SUMMER SHOW
Welcome to Summer
As we race through our 180th year, we have brought together a series of vignette solo exhibitions from past and present artists, which is a modern version of our traditional summer show. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912–2004) is one of Scotland’s greatest modernists, her practice was rooted in the Edinburgh School which informed her journey into abstraction from her homes in St Ives and St Andrews. A Life in Colour appropriately explores ‘the warmth of the sun’. We have a new series of paintings by John Brown – My Garden explores nature’s rhythms and cycles in structured harmony. We are delighted to have Jake Harvey’s first solo exhibition with The Gallery, Honed. Based in the beautiful Scottish Borders village of Maxton, Jake is a distinguished art educator and an important and influential figure in the field of sculpture and conceptual art. Meanwhile, we welcome the return of Kurt Jackson with The Burn – A Scottish Millstream, which is a series of paintings and sculpture completed in 2012 when the artist followed the Mull of Kintyre in Argyll and Bute down to its southern end near Campbeltown ‘to arrive by a glinting, rushing burn between banks of celandines and kingcups…’ Artist and horticulturist Alex Knubley has painted from the Outer and Inner Hebrides and larger format works nearer to home in and around South Queensferry. Alex is also responsible for our gallery gardens – this year our environment has been greatly enhanced with the addition of our new basement garden at the front, which adds to the summer celebrations inside and out. — Christina Jansen
The Scottish Gallery Garden, May 2022 3
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE, HRSA, HRWA, HRSW (1912–2004)
A Life in Colour Made over a period of over 40 years, and ranging over a broad sweep of naturalism to abstraction, these works by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham all share an origin in the close observation of the natural world, as well as very summery shades of orange, yellow and brown redolent of sunshine and sand, and heat – of what Tom Cross described as ‘painting the warmth of the sun’. In 1985, Barns-Graham noted that she found the dividing line between making works based on what she described as ‘inward perception’ and ‘outward observation’ increasingly blurred. This group encompasses works from both ends of this spectrum, as well as the less distinct area in between which Barns-Graham identifies. The earliest work is of an olive tree near San Gimignano in Tuscany from 1954. Drawn en plein air, in front of the motif she observes, the coloured background is however totally unnaturalistic, yet conjures up a sense of the dusty heat she may have experienced at that moment. Three works include in their title ‘Porthmeor’ – the magnificent beach in St Ives over which Barns-Graham’s various studios overlooked for 60 years. Each depicts a different time of day, with different weather, atmospheric and tidal conditions – decades of observation of this specific location meant Barns-Graham was attuned to the both subtle and dramatic changes and rich variety of conditions that could exist on the beach, and select particular moments she, in different ways, wanted to capture. Pen and ink line drawings and relief collages within the group show Barns-Graham representing experience of the phenomenal world, particularly of water and geology, though in a more abstract form, through the filter of her ‘inner perception’. These works capture something of the quality of the sea or rock forms that so fascinated her, without them being tied to specific places or times. International trips, inspirational journeys which punctuate Barns-Graham’s career, are represented here by two works from her last sustained group of ‘travel’ works. She visited 4
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Lanzarote for five consecutive and highly productive years from 1989–93 and used a wide variety of scale, media and styles to capture the extraordinary landscape of the island’s volcanic interior and the distinctive architecture of its small towns and fishing villages. —Rob Airey, Director, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Syracuse, Sicily, 1955
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1. Olive Tree, San Gimignano, 1954 pencil and tempera, 42.5 x 54 cm
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2. White Forms on Lemon, 1971 acrylic on paper, 31.6 x 23.1 cm
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3. Wave 2, 1967–70 acrylic on board, 61 x 61 cm
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4. Line Movement 07, 1982 pen, ink and oil, 9.8 x 13 cm
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5. Confluence, 1984–87 pen, ink and oil, 15.3 x 22 cm
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6. Crail 4, 1984 acrylic on card, 12.7 x 18.1 cm
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7. Summer Day, Collage 20, 1985 oil and acrylic on card, 30 x 39.8 cm
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8. Movement in Time No. 1 Porthmeor, 1988 gouache, 58 x 75.6 cm
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9. Three Images Underwater White, Red and Yellow Drifting, 1982 pen, ink and oil, 27.2 x 19.9 cm
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10. Salt Pans No. 5 (Lanzarote), 1990 acrylic on card, 28 x 21 cm
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11. Water Movement II (Series 2D), 1990 gouache, 27.5 x 37.3 cm
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12. Maguez, 1989 acrylic and pencil on paper, 37.8 x 56.5 cm
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13. Fun Day No. 4, 1990 pen, ink and acrylic, 19 x 26 cm
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‘In my paintings I want to express the joy and importance of colour, texture, energy and vibrancy, with an awareness of space and construction. A celebration of life – taking risks so creating the unexpected.’ — Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 2001
14. Porthmeor, 1992 gouache, 57 x 76 cm
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W I L H E L M I N A BA R N S - G R A H A M C B E , H R SA , H RWA , H R S W (1912 –2 0 0 4)
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, known as Willie, was born in St Andrews, Fife, on 8 June 1912. Determining while at school that she wanted to be an artist, she set her sights on Edinburgh College of Art where she enrolled in 1932 and graduated with her diploma in 1937. At the suggestion of the College’s principal Hubert Wellington, she moved to St Ives in 1940. Early on she met Robert Borlase Smart, Alfred Wallis and Bernard Leach, as well as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo who were living locally at Carbis Bay. She became a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists and St Ives Society of Artists but was to leave the latter in 1949 when she became one of the founding members of the breakaway Penwith Society of Artists. She was an early exhibitor of the significant Crypt Group. Her peers in St Ives include Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton and John Wells, among others. Barns-Graham’s history is bound up with St Ives where she lived throughout her life, and it is the place where she experienced her first great successes as an artist. Following her travels to the Grindelwald Glacier, Switzerland in 1949, she embarked on a series of paintings and drawings which caught the attention of some of the most significant critics and curators of the day. In 1951, she won the Painting Prize in the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall Festival of Britain Exhibition and went on to have her first London solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1952. She was included in many of the important exhibitions on pioneering British abstract art that took place in the 1950s. Her first solo exhibition in Scotland was with The Scottish Gallery in 1956. In 1960, Barns-Graham inherited a family home near St Andrews which initiated a new phase in her life. From this moment she divided her time between the two coastal communities, simultaneously establishing herself as much as a Scottish artist as a St Ives one. Balmungo House was to become the heart of her professional life and from where she engaged with the Scottish art world. In 1987, she established the Wilhelmina BarnsGraham Trust which works to advance awareness of her life and work, while using her legacy 24
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to support young people and other individuals to fulfil their potential in the visual arts. Barns-Graham exhibited consistently throughout her career, in private and public galleries. Though not short of exposure throughout the 1960s and 1970s, her next greatest successes did not come until much later in life. Important exhibitions of her work at Edinburgh City Art Centre (a touring retrospective in 1989), Tate St Ives (1999/2000 and 2005) and the publication of the first monograph on her life and work, Lynne Green’s W. Barns-Graham: a studio life (2001; 2nd updated and revised edition 2011), did much to change critical and public perceptions of her achievements and confirmed her as one of the key contributors of the St Ives School, and as a significant British modernist. She was made a CBE in 2001, and received four honorary doctorates (St Andrews 1992, Plymouth 2000, Exeter 2001 and HeriotWatt University 2003). Her work is found in major public
SUMMER SHOW
SELECTED COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums British Council Collection City Art Centre, Edinburgh The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Glasgow Museums Government Art Collection Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries The Hepworth Wakefield Jerwood Collection, London Leeds Art Gallery The McManus, Art Gallery & Museum, Dundee Manchester Art Gallery Pallant House Gallery, Chichester The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Southampton City Art Gallery Tate Britain, London Wolverhampton Art Gallery York Art Gallery
collections throughout the UK. She died in St Andrews on 26 January 2004.
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John Brown RSW (b.1945 )
My Garden The subject of this exhibition concerns the cycle of growth and the promise of regeneration. Sweet Peas have always been a passion of mine. They last only one season from seed to flower, often grown in a trellis or support on which they climb, forming a screen of pattern and colour. I love their structure and an endless supply of blooms. As an artist, I am inspired by the 2D geometry of the support juxtaposed with the organic shape of growth. The seven large paintings in this series address this challenge of marrying organic shapes against a flat abstract background. The textural surface of the painting is built up of layers of washes with the addition of collage in some cases. The paintings were constructed in an asymmetrical composition. Empty panels balance complex ones, the starting point is often the central shape. Colour in most places is reduced to a monochromatic palette. — John Brown, 2022
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John Brown in his Edinburgh studio, April 2022
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‘My studio in Edinburgh is less than fifty metres from my house, across a pebble path, past a pond full of tadpoles and a wild area with Silver Birches. Gardening for me is a happy companion to painting. It is a similar passion and process, albeit a slower one. My morning inspection of the garden leads to the door of my studio, the walls filled with drawings from my travels, the floor littered with collage material waiting for the Brown magpie to discover a gem that becomes a good starting point.’ — John Brown, May 2018
15. Sweet Peas in the Studio Garden, 2021 acrylic and collage on board, 122 x 150 cm
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‘The wall, the trellis, the picture plane support the climbers. Flowerheads and seedpods and mark making. They are interdependent.’ — John Brown, 2022
16. Passion Flower and Sweet Pea Pods, 2021 acrylic and collage on board, 122.5 x 149 cm
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17. Bunch of Anemones, 2022 acrylic on board, 28 x 28 cm
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18. Apple Blossom, 2022 mixed media, 76.5 x 81.5 cm
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‘How do I resolve painting textural surfaces with close observation?’ — John Brown, 2022
19. Seed Pods, 2021 acrylic and collage on board, 122 x 150 cm
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20. Wisteria, 2022 acrylic on board, 102.5 x 125.5 cm
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‘I have enjoyed taking familiar images down a transitional path from representationalism towards abstraction.’ — John Brown, 2018
21. Acanthus, 2022 acrylic on board, 94.5 x 122.5 cm
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22. Terraced Garden, 2022 acrylic and collage on board, 28 x 25.5 cm
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23. Midsummer Garden, 2022 acrylic on board, 25 x 30 cm
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24. Geums and Lupins, 2022 pastel, 30 x 22.5 cm
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25. Nasturtiums, 2022 pastel, 30 x 23 cm
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26. Path through the Garden, 2022 acrylic on board, 29.5 x 30.5 cm
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27. Study for Lupin Seeds, 2022 pastel, 20 x 30 cm
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28. Acers in Autumn, 2022 pastel, 22.5 x 30 cm
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29. Studio Garden in Winter, 2022 pastel, 22.5 x 30 cm
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30. The Gardener, 2022 pastel, 22.5 x 30 cm
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‘Hollyhocks were among the first flowers to be planted at Giverny. They seed themselves freely and whether they are pulled out or left depends on the goodwill of the gardener.’ — Vivian Russell, Monet’s Garden, Frances Lincoln, 1995
31. French Hollyhocks, 2022 acrylic on board, 122 x 213.5 cm
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32. Dark Anemones, 2022 acrylic and collage on board, 25.5 x 28 cm
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33. Princess Irene Tulips, 2022 acrylic on board, 61 x 73 cm
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34. Spring Flowers, 2022 acrylic on board, 61 x 65 cm
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J O H N B ROW N RSW (b.1945)
John Brown studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1963 to 1968, where he was awarded travelling scholarships from the School and the Royal Scottish Academy during his postdiploma year. He worked as the Director of Arts at Fettes College and the Edinburgh Academy. He now paints full-time and is a long-standing exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, winning many awards including the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Association Residency, which formed the basis of his 2011 exhibition at The Scottish Gallery. His work is characterised by a rich and vibrant palette and varied use of acrylic, mixed media, and collage. His subjects are often based on particular foreign travel, and his last shows at The Scottish Gallery have included works influenced by trips to Venice, Kerala, Mekong and Cuba. John Brown in his Edinburgh studio. Photography: Pietro Cenini
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JOH N BROWN | MY GARDEN
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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
2018
Aida Cherfan Gallery, Beirut British Steel, Lincolnshire Dunfermline Building Society The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Hugh Martin Partnership, Edinburgh John Menzies plc Korean Embassy, Edinburgh Kuwait Royal Family Lillie Art Gallery, Glasgow Royal Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh Scottish Life Assurance Co. Ltd, Edinburgh University of Edinburgh
2015 2014 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1996 1992 1979 1976 1970
Towards Abstraction, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Stafford Gallery, Wimbledon Centro Habana, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Collioure, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Mekong Life, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Lemon Street Gallery, Truro Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Fabrics of Kerala, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Richmond Hill Gallery, London Venice, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh John Davies Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold Richmond Hill Gallery, London Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh The John Davies Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London The Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh Moray House, Edinburgh Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
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Jake Harvey RSA (b.1948)
Honed Jake Harvey presents his first solo exhibition with The Gallery this July. Harvey is a sculptor of elemental works imbued with stillness, sense-stimulus and a sophisticated Zen-like simplicity. He carves granite, basalt, marble and limestone, often placing the simple abstract forms directly on the wall or floor, or sometimes on shaped bases that can be set indoors or outside within a landscape. After studying sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art (1966–72), Harvey went on to become the Head of School of Sculpture for eleven years. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Sculpture and lives and works in Maxton in the Scottish Borders. Increasingly intrigued by the relationship of man to the earth and enthralled by the shaping of earth by man and vice versa, his sculptures retain the indexical mark of the maker and often subtly imply an indeterminate use or function. ‘My creative stimulus comes from many sources but frequently evolves from drawing things seen and imagined, from lived encounters with the landscape and, in the reductive process of carving, from embracing the tangential ways of making that evolve. ‘The title of this exhibition of sculptures carved in basalt, granite, marble and gabbro relates to a material and a way of working it. In a broader context it links to my aim to create simple sculptural forms; works of distilled essence that invite deliberation from the viewer; sculptures made by a process of paring down and refining in terms of both form and concept.’ — Jake Harvey, 2022
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Jake Harvey outside his studio in Maxton, Scottish Borders, March 2022
‘each stone is “an encapsulation of time”’ — Isamu Noguchi
From left to right: 35. Limit, 2022, basalt, H18 x W25 x D5 cm 36. Surge II, 2022, basalt, H20 x W26 x D5 cm 37. Margin, 2022, basalt, H21 x W19 x D5 cm 38. Land, 2022, basalt, H18 x W28 x D6 cm 39. Two Curves, 2022, basalt and enamel paint, H18 x W26 x D5 cm 40. Night Hill, 2021, basalt, H17 x W21 x D5 cm 56
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‘Geologically formed hundreds of millions of years ago, the structure of these stones carries an echo of their formation and deep time. I’ve come to know that stone not only has the capacity to carry the memory of creation, but when worked, evidence of the maker and function is also recorded.’ — Jake Harvey, 2022
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From left to right: 41. Narrow Gate, 2021, basalt, H18 x W25 x D5 cm 42. Knowe II, 2021, basalt, H19 x W29 x D6 cm 43. Two Lines II, 2022, basalt and enamel paint, H18 x W26 x D5 cm 44. Geologist’s Book, 2022, basalt, H15 x W29 x D5 cm 45. Four Lines, 2022, basalt, H18 x W27 x D5 cm 46. Land II, 2022, basalt, H18 x W28 x D5 cm 58
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‘Formerly street setts (cassies), kerbstones and causeway stones, these were initially quarried and then chopped and carved to an approximate usable dimension. Each stone still possesses the decision-making and mark of those original masons. In use, further shaped by the elements and those people, animals and traffic who have traversed them for hundreds of years, they carry that memory too. In adding my own intervention and mark-making another trace and layer is added.’ — Jake Harvey, 2022
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Jake Harvey’s garden in Maxton, Scottish Borders, October 2021
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‘I have lived and worked from my studio in the rural landscape of the Scottish Borders all my life: a landscape, geologically configured in deep time, utilised, worked, and modified throughout human existence. Our reliance on earth’s stone is deeply embedded in my consciousness. I have travelled widely to seek out and experience sites of archaeological significance and have visited museums and the studios of contemporary practitioners to explore and record how human beings over millennia, have used stone to create art, architecture, tools, and artifacts. ‘Stone, the matrix of our planet, variously formed through explosion, fusion, deposition, compression, and heat, in some cases subducted and reconstituted before being erupted and injected onto and into the earth’s crust and then ubiquitously carved by the actions of wind, water and ice to form individual stones and natural landscape, is an enduring source of inspiration.’ — Jake Harvey, 2022
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Jake Harvey in his studio, Maxton, Scottish Borders, March 2022
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JAKE HARVEY | HONED
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47. Arc, 2018, white marble, H18 x W17 x D4 cm 48. Layer, 2020, white marble, H18 x W18 x D5 cm 49. Torc, 2018, white marble, H18 x W18 x D5 cm 50. Fold, 2020, white marble, H18 x W18 x D5 cm
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JA K E H A RV E Y R SA (b.194 8) 1948
Born Kelso, Scottish Borders
EDUCATION AND AWARDS 1966–1972 1971–1972 1972 1972–2010 1999–2010 2010
Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art Postgraduate Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art Established first studio in Scottish Borders Teaching, School of Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art Head of the School of Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art Emeritus Professor, University of Edinburgh/Edinburgh College of Art
1989 William Gillies Bursary, travel and research in India 2003 Lead Artist, AN TURAS commission for the Isle of Tiree 2008–2010 Principal Researcher, awarded a 3-year AHRC research grant, STONE – A Legacy of Craftsmanship and Inspiration for Art SELECTED COMMISSIONS 2015 Chieftain, Robert Burns Museum, Alloway 2013–2014 The Kelsae Stane, Sainsbury-funded public art project, Kelso 2000–2003 AN TURAS, Lottery-funded Art and Architecture project, Isle of Tiree 1999 Fallen Moon, Eda Garden Museum, Tokyo, Japan 1998 Shift, public sculpture, Bon Accord Street, Aberdeen 1996 Tools for the Shaman, The Hunterian Museum, Glasgow 1991 Poacher’s Tree, Maclay, Murray and Spens, Edinburgh 1989 Compaq Symbol Stone, Compaq Computers, Bishopton, Glasgow 1987 Newcraighall Mining Sculpture, SAC funded public art commission, Newcraighall, Edinburgh 1982–1984 The Hugh MacDiarmid Memorial, public-funded art commission, Langholm 1980 Charles Mackintosh Sculpture, City of Glasgow SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
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2022 2018 2013 2012 2010 2009 2004 2000 1998–9 1998 1998 1998 1994 1994 1993 1993 1993 1991
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Honed, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Seen and Sensed, Zembla Gallery, Hawick Equilibrium of Opposites, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford Stone, Art First, London Stone Project, Pier Arts Centre, Orkney; The Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood Yorkshire Sculpture Park Milestone, International Art Festival, Edinburgh Recent Works, Art First, Cork Street, London Scottish Sculpture, Odapark, The Netherlands Transistors, Hashimoto Kansetsu Garden & Museum, Japan Ground, Crystal Gallery, Morioka, Japan Ground, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Signifier, Art First, London Recent Works, Old Gala House, Galashiels Scandex, Aberdeen Art Gallery; Stavanger, Norway; Lulea, Sweden; Kemi, Finland Jake Harvey Sculpture 1972–93, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh North, Magnus Festival Exhibition, Pier Art Centre, Stromness North, Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen Sculpture and Drawings, Border Arts Festival, Robson Gallery, Selkirk
SELECTED COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums City Art Centre, Edinburgh Contemporary Art Society, London Eda Garden Museum, Tokyo, Japan The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Grampian Hospitals Art Trust The Hunterian Museum, Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Kulturtoget Collection, Lulea, Sweden North Lanarkshire District Council Scottish Arts Council Scottish Borders Council University of Edinburgh
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Kurt Jackson RWA (b.1961)
The Burn – A Scottish Millstream In the spring of 2012, I followed the Kintyre peninsula down to its southern end near Campbeltown to arrive by a glinting, rushing burn between banks of celandines and kingcups. I stayed in a big, solid, ancient water mill complete and in perfect working order but still and silent, every functional cog and wheel unworked for 50 years, situated on the north bank of that noisy, bubbling brook; beneath soaring golden eagles and skylarks. I trailed the stream from its loch high on the moor with its prehistoric rock carvings and roaring windfarm, past the mill and down to that dark coast with my pencil line and paintbrush strokes, tracing every curve and meander, overhanging tree and washed rock. So a journey for the Tangy Burn [and for me] from the source to the sea of only four kilometres but as resonant and diverse as any River Thames, Clyde or Forth; a small world but encompassing all those bends and twists, river cliffs and flood plains; all those falls and eddies, rushes and cataracts. Black water, white water, ochre water, clear water. Moorland, farmland, woodland, coastland. On a small scale but not of insignificance – every boggy mire of draining moorland bank and flower clad valley side, every stretch holds its own riparian story of evolution; supporting its own pertinent biodiverse communities – colonies of plants and animals clinging to the banks and bathing in those waters. A world in microcosm. —Kurt Jackson, 2022
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Kurt Jackson painting in Argyll, 2012
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‘A painting of layers both topographically and physically in paint. Made in the studio from a series of studies painted in situ looking down from a vantage point inland to the sea, where the sun breaks through piercing the undergrowth and lighting up the waters behind.’ — Kurt Jackson, 2022
51. Sunlit, 2012 oil and mixed media on canvas, 122 x 122 cm
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‘Jackson’s landscapes are redolent with the echoes of past voices and traces of bygone human presences: the shifting historical relationship between mankind and nature provides a central theme that runs throughout his work.’ — Bill Hare, Kurt Jackson, A New Genre of Landscape Painting, Lund Humphries, 2012
52. There is Only Me and a Crow on this Beach, Below Tangy, Evening, Distant Jura and Ireland, 2012-2022 mixed media on museum board, 60 x 60 cm
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53. Primroses in a Mug from Tangy Mill, 2012 mixed media, 12 x 16 cm
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54. Morning Burn Mutter, 2012 mixed media on paper, 37 x 16 cm
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55. Tangy Watermill, 2013 unique bronze on slate and oak base, H35 x W20 x D15 cm
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56. In the Balance, 2013 unique bronze on slate and oak base, W32 x W20 x D17 cm
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57. Port na Tangy, on the Rocks above the Incoming Tide, Dodging the Showers, 2012–2022 mixed media on paper, 57 x 62 cm
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‘The eagles looked down on me just as I looked down into the stream’s waters. The small valley was dressed in pink and bracken filled waiting for the Spring’s greenery to burst forth. I painted this canvas spread out on the bank beneath that eagle, next to that stream in between the seasons.’ — Kurt Jackson, 2022
58. Golden Eagle Above Me, 2012 mixed media on linen, 183 x 122 cm
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KU R T JAC K S O N RWA (b.19 61)
Kurt Jackson was born in Dorset in 1961 to artist parents. He studied Zoology at the University of Oxford, and attended painting courses and the Ruskin College of Art. He has been exhibiting extensively across the United Kingdom and internationally since the 1980s. In 2015 Kurt Jackson and his wife founded the Jackson Foundation in their home of St Just in Penwith, exhibiting contemporary exhibitions in partnership with a variety of environmental and non-profit organisations. Kurt Jackson’s artistic practice ranges from his trademark visceral plein-air sessions to studio work and embraces an extensive range of materials and techniques including mixed media, large canvases, printmaking and sculpture. He focuses on the complexity, diversity and fragility of the natural world. This has led to artist-in-residencies on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, the Eden Project and for 20 years he has been artist-in-residence at Glastonbury Festival. Five monographs on Jackson have been published by Lund Humphries depicting Jackson’s career so far, he regularly contributes to radio and television and was the subject of an award-winning BBC documentary, ‘A Picture of Britain’. Jackson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DLitt) from Exeter University. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford and an academician at the Royal West of England Academy. He is also an ambassador for Survival International and frequently works with Greenpeace, WaterAid, Oxfam and Cornwall Wildlife Trust and a patron of human rights charity Prisoners of Conscience.
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RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
2022 2021
2021
2020
2019
Mermaid’s Tears, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Kenidjack: A Cornish Valley, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall Biodiversity, Oxford University Museum of Natural History Clay Country, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall Mermaids’ Tears, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall Biodiversity, Southampton City Art Gallery The Green Ways, Messum’s Yorkshire and Messum’s Wiltshire, Tisbury, Wiltshire Wheat: Plough to Plate, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall Clay Country, Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum, St Austell, Cornwall Clay Country, Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum, Worcester Biodiversity, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Mermaid’s Tears, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Kenidjack: A Cornish Valley, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall Orwell’s Jura, Morag’s Skye, Messums, London A Prehistoric Cornwall, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall Fonthill, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury, Wiltshire Port Quin, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury, Wiltshire Art/Music/Activism – Kurt Jackson and Greenpeace at Glastonbury Festival, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall The Stour, Messums, London. Frenchman’s Creek, Jackson Foundation Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
2020
Tideline & Ground, Messums Wiltshire Festival of Drawing, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro Unsettling Landscapes: The Art of the Eerie, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington Unkempt, Messums Wiltshire Royal West of England Academy The Seasons: Art of the Unfolding Year, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington, Hampshire Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS The Box, Plymouth The Met Office, Exeter New County Hall, Cornwall Penlee House Gallery & Musuem, Cornwall Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Slate Valley Museum, Granville, New York Southampton City Art Gallery St Peter’s College, University of Oxford Tate Britain, London University of Edinburgh University of Exeter Victoria and Albert Museum, London Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum
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Alex Knubley (b.1969)
The Growing Season I continue to try and reflect the light, mood and changing seasons evoked by the inspirational landscape of Scotland. Holidays in the Outer and Inner Hebrides and long walks with my dog and family in and around South Queensferry to local beaches, woodlands, waterways and private estates are what make my heart sing and inspire me to work. Over the past couple of years I have started work on four larger paintings. They have involved a build up of washes and layering with beeswax mixed paint, selectively excavated back to reveal the hidden colours and chance textures beneath. This method of addition and reduction helps both the conscious and subconscious to work together as one creative voice. It is a time consuming, meditative process that cannot be rushed. The drying time can sometimes take more than a month depending on the thickness of the paint and quantity of wash applied. These enforced periods of reflection are arguably as critical as any active participation with the painted surface. While I still work tending and shaping beautiful gardens like The Scottish Gallery garden and more recently Carlowrie Castle – they are not direct influences on my work. They do, however, give me a perspective on colour and light and ground me for extended periods in an ephemeral environment. My palette remains a mix of blues and turquoises but I have moved to include hot pinks, reds and oranges for some later pieces. I am keen to experiment with my mark making, loosening up and allowing colour to be the method of expression alongside texture and composition. I can’t help losing myself in the paint and tools I use and yet sometimes find myself tightening up again. But I do appreciate this contrast, which paradoxically, leads to a finished state both on the painted surface and in my being that is both contemplative and immensely satisfying when at last the journey reaches its end. — Alex Knubley, 2022 Alex Knubley in The Gallery Garden, May 2022 82
‘The lake at Dundas Estate takes on a variety of guises throughout the seasons and it never fails to inspire, bring joy and enthral. I revisit regularly at different times of the day throughout the year. The reflective light and subtly evoked moods are never quite the same.’ — Alex Knubley, 2022
59. Autumn Leaves, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 95 x 100 cm
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‘The process of painting and exploring the landscape through the application of texture, colour and form allows access to the memory and sense of that space in time. Somehow this quiet strength never fails to transmit a sense of peace and inner calm.’ — Alex Knubley, 2022
60. Solitude, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 85 x 90 cm
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61. Woodland, Hopetoun Estate, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 16.5 x 8 cm
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62. Reflections, Dundas, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 18 x 13 cm
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63. Rocks at Dalmore, Isle of Lewis, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 29 x 30.5 cm
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64. High Tide, Mid Afternoon, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 25 x 30 cm
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65. Surf's Up, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 12 x 12 cm
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66. Dunes, Uig Sands, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 10 x 10 cm
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67. Rock Pool, Bosta Beach, Isle of Lewis, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 20 x 22 cm
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68. Morning Haar, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 13 x 12 cm
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69. Low Tide, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 15 x 14 cm
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70. Sleeping Giants, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 9.5 x 13 cm
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71. Paradise Found, Isle of Lewis, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 23 x 21.5 cm
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72. Flood, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 30 x 20 cm
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73. Winterwalk from Long Green, 2021/22 oil and beeswax on canvas, 25 x 16.5 cm
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74. Hidden Treasures, 2021 oil and beeswax on canvas, 25 x 30 cm
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ALEX KNUBLE Y (b.19 6 9)
Alex Knubley was born in 1969 and is a graduate of Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. She employs a distinctive technique of working in oil and beeswax building up multiple layers of colour to create a rich, sculptural surface. Her paintings evoke the open landscapes of the Hebrides, architectural subjects, and the deep woodlands of the Scottish Borders and West Lothian. This exhibition represents Knubley’s fifth with The Scottish Gallery. A trained horticulturalist, Knubley divides her time between painting and gardening and has been managing The Scottish Gallery Garden since 2015. Knubley has won awards from the Royal Scottish Academy and is represented in a growing number of significant collections including Art in Healthcare and Hospitalfield House.
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Alex Knubley in her studio, 2020
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Alice Fry, Ann Little, Lina Petersen, Jo Pudelko Kaleidoscopic Kaleidoscopic features a bold collection of jewellery and silversmithing from four makers who each explore the joy of colour in a variety of unique materials; from carved wood to plastics and resins, traditional enamel to experimental Niobium. Kaleidoscopic features work from jewellers Ann Little and Lina Peterson, as well as new names to The Scottish Gallery – jeweller Jo Pudelko, and silversmith Alice Fry.
Ann Little 75. Folded Earrings, 2022 vitreous enamel and white metal, D1.5–1.8 cm
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Ann Little 76. Coloured-In Necklace, 2022 vitreous enamel and white metal, L44 x W2–2.5 cm
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Lina Peterson 77. 5 Necklace ‘Ova’, 2022 carved and painted lime wood, waxed finish, sterling silver and aventurine beads, cotton and silk cord, H12 x W1.5 x L32 cm
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Lina Peterson 78. Ova Brooch, 2022 carved and painted lime wood, waxed finish, white precious metal, stainless steel, H7.7 x W7.5 x D1.5 cm
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Jo Pudelko 79. Cloud Periphery Earrings, 2022 powder coated steel, acrylics, sterling silver, H5.5 x W4 x D1.2 cm Photography x 2: Stacey Bentley
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Jo Pudelko 80. Cloud Cover Necklace, 2022 powder coated brass, Jesmonite, acrylic, electric cable, H6 x W10 x D1 cm
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Alice Fry 81. Niobium Green Rock Brooch, 2021 silver and niobium, H3 x W2 cm Photography x 2: Jerry Lampson
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Alice Fry 82. Niobium Crystal Rock Brooch, 2022 Silver and niobium, H3 x W4.5 cm
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Jo Pudelko 83. Slice Brooch I, 2022 powder coated brass, Jesmonite, acrylic, H8 x W5 x D1.5 cm Photography x 2: Stacey Bentley
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Jo Pudelko 84. Slice Brooch II, 2022 powder coated brass, Jesmonite, acrylic, H8 x W5 x D1.5 cm
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Alice Fry 85. Amethyst Niobium Box, 2021 sterling silver, niobium, H3.7 x W44 cm Photography x 2: Jerry Lampson
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Alice Fry 86. Crystal Landscape Vessel, 2021 Silver and niobium, H7 x W9 cm
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Published by The Scottish Gallery, July 2022 Exhibitions can be viewed online at scottish-gallery.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-912900-52-7 Printed by Pureprint Group 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.
16 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk scottish-gallery.co.uk
Cover John Brown, French Hollyhocks, 2022, acrylic on board, 122 x 213.5 cm (detail) (cat. 31) Inside front cover Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Wave 2, 1967–70, acrylic on board, 61 x 61 cm (detail) (cat. 3) Right Alex Knubley, Autumn Leaves, 2021/22, oil and beeswax on canvas, 95 x 100 cm (detail) (cat. 59)
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