Timespan, Helmsdale, until 4 July 2006

Over Land, Under Sea by Wendy Sutherland.

NOW IN ITS third year, the Visual Arts Sutherland Open Studio Trail, which runs until the end of June, is an ideal way of meeting artists and seeing their work in situ. This is a popular and successful idea with similar models in other parts of the country where distance and dispersal make it essential to create a focal point.

Timespan in Helmsdale are therefore hosting an exhibition of around 30 VASu members to mark the Studio Trail, and the result, as might be expected, is a varied show, both in terms of artistic media and merit.

The work ranges from painting and etching to sculpture, textiles and ceramics. Printmakers Ian Westacott and Sue Jane Taylor (both of whom are based in Dornoch) show examples of work which demonstrate professionalism and a high degree of skill.

Westacott’s unframed double etching ‘Charmstone’ is typical of this talented Australian’s oeuvre, with fine, precise, sensitive lines which bring out the inherent mystery of this ancient object. His partner, Taylor, is well known as a documenter of Scotland’s oil industry, and her conté and charcoal drawing ‘RAT –John Ellis Piper Field’ reveals an abundant talent and ability to capture the human figure at work.

Meg Telfer’s collagraph ‘Survivor, Birsay’ shows an intriguing form in an abstracted landscape and seascape composition, and is a well-wrought, technically robust work which typifies Telfer’s on-going love affair with places on the edge of life and experience.

As such, her works are also internal landscapes of the mind. Ishbel Macdonald’s monoprint ‘Whooper Swan’ has a similar compositional boldness to Telfer’s, and it too speaks of isolation and that unique genus loci which is so much part of the experience of northern Scotland.

Indeed, it is worth noting how many of these artists use their experience of place as an integral part of their art. Another example of this approach is Mark Edwards’ technically assured oil ‘The White House’, which reveals his background as an illustrator but also confirms his status as an accomplished artist.

The image of the isolated Highland dwelling is symbolic of the weight of history which one inevitably feels in this part of the world. Wendy Sutherland also communicates loss, history and a feeling of human frailty in her subtle and thoughtful landscape ‘Over Land, Under Sea’

Jacqueline Walters large, suspended textile form brought to mind the work of the great Polish textile artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, but rather than politics and the weight of history, Walters work speaks of gentler things such a landscape and nature.

This show, therefore, serves as a useful complement to the VASu Open Studio project and is well worth seeing.

© Giles Sutherland, 2006

Links

• Visual Arts Sutherland
• Timespan