Kilmorack Gallery, by Beauly, until Christmas 2006

Gathering Swell by Allan MacDonald

THIS LATEST mixed exhibition combines excellent work by regular Kilmorack artists such as Eugenia Vronskaya, Peter White, Ingebjorg Smith, Helen Denerley, Leonie Gibbs, Robert McAulay, Allan Macdonald, Angus Clyne and Lotte Glob with new work from Eduard Bursudsky, Paul Bloomer, Allison Weightman, Helen Fay and Mo Farquharson.

One of the great pleasures of viewing work on a regular basis is seeing progression in an artist’s work and evidence of their creative skill at its height. This is certainly true of Allan Macdonald’s latest work “Sea Surge Strathy”, a magnificent painting which reveals superb handling of oils and a direct engagement with the power, delicacy and energy of nature.

The salt encrusted texture and vibrant brushwork combine flecks of liquid green under painting with gouged white spray against the permanence of solid rock and sky. This combination of elements and the skill of the artist are of equal measure.

“Moonstruck Melvich” (Oil on Board) is another example, a smaller scale but no less potent. Here the brush marks take on a finer quality, like that of an etching. This delicate texture offset by moonlight and a hint of red in the sky are deeply poetic and beautifully rendered.

Though known primarily for his landscape work, I hope to see the same skilled eye and creative energy in the artist’s next solo show, particularly in relation to his figurative paintings and portraiture. Further development of the creative intensity in his latest landscape work realised in his treatment of the human figure would elevate Macdonald’s work to yet another level.

Angus Clyne’s exquisite bowl in Burnt Ash with an incised inner relief pattern looks almost as if it were perfected by ancients in bronze and dug out of the earth. It is satisfying to see this sculptural element entering his work more literally in “Hole” and “Oak Forms”, but the star of this group of work is a bowl in Burnt Oak.

This blackened sculpted form reads like the rectangular cross section of a reverberating monumental droplet of liquid through the grain of the wood. It is a masterful piece of work and Clyne continues both to defy and raise expectations about the art of woodturning.

Sharmanka artist Eduard Bersudsky’s Burr Elm sculpture “Mermaid” is naturally languid in the bend of wood and tail. Known primarily for his kinetic sculpture the exhibition also contains examples of more typical fantastic figures with moving elements. “Mermaid” extends the sculptor’s use of the found object into the natural world and is a beautifully formed stand-alone piece.

Lotte Glob’s “Paper Clay Prints” are a great companion to her “Flower Pools” of varying scale. These slabs of molten solidity have the same mysterious quality as her fused books of rock, stone and clay. Like uncovering a slice of fossilised markings the surface of these two clay prints are both intricate and bold.

Peter White’s “Lanscape IV, V and VI”, a series in mixed media, are compact expressive pieces with slate-like layers of encaustic texture. Another strong series of small scale drawn heads are equally engaging and provide an intimate contrast to larger scale works previously exhibited by the artist at Kilmorack.

Another Ullapool based artist, Allison Weightman, displays some of her superb Raku works as part of the exhibition. Her pod-like vase and pierced pillow forms in ceramic are distinctive in their simplicity and elegance. These works contrast strongly with her shotgun ceramics as powerful statements of human vulnerability in clay.

It is wonderful to see the mixed media work of Shetland based artist Paul Bloomer as part of this latest show. “Winter Beach” with its high horizon, ebbs of foam and glint of sand through the painted surface it is a richly evocative work. “Midnight Snow”, with its strong brushwork, depth and bands of liquefied colour beneath frozen opaque white, is another example of emotive natural elements captured in layers of mixed media. An accomplished figurative painter and printmaker, I hope to see more of this artist’s work exhibited locally.

Winter is the perfect excuse to spend a couple of hours indoors exploring new work. This is a varied and enjoyable exhibition that enables the viewer to see new aspects in the work of the gallery’s regular artists and the opportunity explore previously unseen work.

© Georgina Coburn, 2006

Link

• Kilmorack Gallery