Kirsty Cohen And Alan Macdonald

13 Sep 2005 in Highland, Visual Arts & Crafts

Kilmorack Gallery, By Beauly, until 30 September 2005

Orkney Cliffs by Kirstie Cohen.

KILMORACK GALLERY’S latest show by local artists Kirsty Cohen and Alan Macdonald offers two very different approaches to painting.

Cohen, well known for her misty, romantic landscapes has developed a kind of “signature” work. Her painting is a painstaking process where multiple layers of paint are delicately applied to create space, depth and movement in land and seascape.

Whilst this latest body of work offers exploration of colour and light and the paintings are atmospheric, moody and evocative, their uniqueness is lost as the whole series is viewed. Essentially there is nothing that we have not seen before in her work.

Her technique is accomplished, and while I have no doubt that Cohen is a talented artist, the glimpse of spirit and development seen in her drawing in Kilmorack’s ‘Works on Paper’ show was strangely absent from these paintings. I feel that she is capable of so much more than this body of work would suggest and that her talent is lost in the ether of her technique, with predictable results.

One or two of these paintings standing alone have infinitely more impact than half a gallery of them. ‘Mountain waterfall’ and ‘Hill Snow II’ are good examples of Cohen’s signature, the first shrouded in mist depicting the elemental flow of water over landscape and the second creating depth through finely executed layers of paint.

The artist’s work tends not to be bound to specific places but is part of a more “carthartic” process. This makes ‘Orkney Cliffs’ quite interesting in its actual attachment to a location. Although Cohen is successful in exploring visually ideas of “diffusion, suspension and reflection” through her approach and technique, this body of work left me feeling indifferent. While I can respect the time, energy and effort of her technique, one painting ran very much into the next.

What struck me most about MacDonald’s work is the sense of his exploration of his materials and the art of painting that made me want to see more.

Alan MacDonald held more surprises for me and a variation of paint handling that is both powerful and sensitive. Included in the exhibition are a series of portraits which reveal a more delicate handling of paint than that seen in many of his landscapes.

‘Shona’ (oil on canvas) and ‘Claire’ are two examples of great observation and technique combined with the individual human qualities of the sitters. While ‘Claire’ is the most subdued of the portraits in terms of colour and feeling, it demonstrates beautifully the interior mood of the subject with an artist sensitive enough to see and capture it.

Macdonald does not have to use strong colour or an energetic paint-caked surface to get our attention. ‘Claire’ may be a downcast painting but it is certainly a memorable one.

His portrait “Sarah” with its strong side lighting and arresting frontal gaze (though more obvious) is also impossible to walk past. Similarly a small figurative work ‘reclining’ (oil bar on watercolour) is a beautiful piece that beckons contemplation.

Among the landscapes ‘White Out’ is a painting that seems to lead your imagination into it with its invisible peak, the treatment of the foreground primarily of yellow ochre is contrasted with the vertical brushstrokes of the midsection of water leading the eye into the mountain beyond. Use of colour is accented by the glass over oil framing and the strength and atmosphere of this painting invites you to linger over this work.

Three paintings stood out for me in terms of their handling and use of colour. ‘Liathach’ uses stratified layers of paint like rock to achieve a sense of the climb and a sense of distance. ‘Nocturne Diabaig’( also behind glass) is a shimmering work of midnight blue and aqua, layers of bark and water highlighted by starlight, and ‘Winter Sun, Torridon’ (oil on canvas) contains complimentary blues and oranges, impasto yellow ochre and aqua to great effect.

All three prove that a violent Hawkins-esque riot of colour isn’t always necessary in contemporary landscape painting. It is this kind of fine tuning rather than empty flashy effects that makes viewing MacDonald’s painting such an intriguing experience. This artist is on a very interesting journey.

What struck me most about MacDonald’s work is the sense of his exploration of his materials and the art of painting that made me want to see more. He can more than hold his own solo show, and demonstrates a varied approach to different subject matter that is both engaging and satisfying.