Castle Gallery, Inverness, until 31 August 2007

Bronwen Sleigh's 'Petrolia'.

THIS LATEST summer exhibition features glass, jewellery, paintings, ceramics, original prints and sculpture by Castle Gallery regular exhibiting artists together with a selection of new creative talent.

Works by Johnathan Shearer, Katy Spong, Vega, Karolina Larusdottir, Tom Mabon, Eoghan Bridge, Will Shakespeare, Gunta Krummins, June Carey, Trevor Price, Hilke MacIntyre, Bronwen Sleigh, Illona Morrice, Lyn Beckett, Blandine Anderson and Joseph Davie are joined by Maggie New, Aimee Birnbaum, Gareth Watson, John Brunsdon and Jenny McLaren.

One of the Castle Gallery’s strengths is consistency in terms of quality and the introduction of new work by emerging artists, and there is always something new to be discovered.

Maggie New’s oil on board technique which varies in density from thin wash over grain to layers of blues, greens and oranges heightens the intensity and saturation of colour. “Spring Tuscany” glows with light and strong hues while “The Bell Tower” exhibits scraped and drawn marks with the suggestion of landscape and architecture.

It is effectively a mood, or what the artist describes as an “inward looking experience”, which is captured, through luminous colour rather than descriptive details. Explorations of “energy, light, source, transience and change” are central to her work. Originally from Great Yarmouth Maggie lived and worked in York before settling in Moray in 1996.

Etchings by Aimee Birnbaum are a great addition to the range of original prints on show. “Spirits of the Dance” is a beautifully drawn figurative work in purple and sepia while “Jacob’s Ladder” is drawn in light much like the etched surface of medieval glass.

A number of etchings by John Brunsdon are also represented. “Sango Bay” and “Ben Nevis” both display great draughtsmanship in an almost graphic style, organically softened by the etched surface texture.

Moray College graduate Jenny MacLaren’s star piece in this exhibition is “Nesting”, a mixed media work in beeswax, ink and collage. The golden glow of wax bathes the whole piece in melancholy twilight, the shadow of moths and aged decay permeate the work.

It is a complex work of many layers. “Harness” is less convincing with its cut out silhouette of a horse and carriage while “Freedom and Sacrifice iii and iv” a mixed media diptych utilise this technique to greater effect. The artist’s use of found material including old lace, text and imagery cause the viewer to reflect on human memory and loss.

Hilke MacIntyre’s unique ceramic relief panels are both humorous and whimsical. “Chocolates” ed 16 and “Chess” ed 17 are excellent examples. “Dishes” ed7, with ceramic literally stacked all around the central figure, rejoices beautifully in the everyday. These small low relief sculptural works are a natural extension of her work as a printmaker, especially with regard to linocut technique, also on display in the gallery.

Bronwen Sleigh’s distinctive work presents an alternative view of the Highlands. The expanse of a work like “Cromarty Firth” ed 21 (Hand coloured etching) displays her characteristic accidental and drawn surface marks together with carefully accented touches of colour.

“Petrolia” ed1” merges industrial design with fragile line, abstract geometric shapes and accidental marks in a strong and supremely balanced composition. Colour and form exist in counterpoint and although this relationship is controlled (there is always a strong sense of draughtsmanship present) the presence of accidental marks remain, making each work thoroughly original and unique. Evidence of a human hand in relation to the industrial subject matter is unexpected and compelling.

My sincere apologies to Staffordshire based artist Paine Profitt who I mistook as an ironic pseudonym for local artist and printmaker John MacNaught! Profitt’s style bears an eerie though softened resemblance to MacNaught’s relief prints of football related subjects.

“Caley over Scotland” (acrylic on canvas), with its surreal combination of aerial perspectives, the floating player drawing back a curtain of night, shares a graphic quality in dominant black, white and blue with wood or lino cut.

“Not Forgotten” (acrylic on canvas) depicts monk-like players elevated above the field each clasping a white ball to their chests in an act of near religious obsession. A selective palette of black, white and purple is extremely effective.

Two watercolours by Gareth Watson display an amazingly subtle and controlled response to landscape with a gradation of steely blue and grey emerging from the surface. “Carn Mairg No 2” is a great example which depicts serene majesty in spite of its relatively small scale and without the riot of colour associated with a dominant style of Highland landscape painting in oils and acrylics. Less is definitely more in this respect and the result is an image of calm contemplation.

As always there is a huge amount to see, with glass by Will Shakespeare and works by Scott Irvine a strong feature on the second floor. “Sleeper Case” (Sycamore with in laid fused glass) and “Fused Glass Wave Sculpture” (Ash with in laid fused glass) are two excellent examples of the Irvine’s complimentary approach to the unique qualities of glass and wood.

On the ground floor “Autumn Leaves Bowl” by Uredale Glass is a beautiful large piece in swirling green and dominant crimson with a hint of dying yellow.

Consistency in terms of quality and access to a range of diverse practice is extremely important in the context of our developing city, and the work of commercial galleries such as the Castle Gallery highlight the shortcomings of cultural provision in the Inverness area.

The Castle Gallery and Tore Art Gallery will be presenting a collaborative fringe exhibition from 7 September to 30 September to celebrate visual arts in the Highlands and to ensure that there is “a voice for the Visual Arts in the Year of Highland Culture”.

Like the Draft Culture (Scotland) Bill, the official Highland 2007 programme seems to have forgotten who are primary providers of access to art in the region. In the absence of public gallery spaces, private galleries and the activity of artists’ groups fulfil a vital role in the area. Commercial galleries run by local artists’ groups are raising the bar of expectation in the region.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Castle Gallery
• Additional images from the Castle Gallery Summer Mixed Exhibition