Tore Gallery, Tore, until 31 August 2007

THIS EXHIBITION incorporates “Take Three”, focusing on work by three stylistically varied local artists: Gwen Black, Clare Blois and Christine O’Keefe.

Recipient of the J.D. Fergusson Award and Director of Tore Gallery, the work of Clare Blois is characterised by strong colour and impasto brush and knife work. “Glow” depicting a stretch of field in France, is typical of her style with a wide sweep of sky framed by built up layers of yellow, orange and red impasto in the foreground and accented by flecks of cool turquoise.

Flooded with light and colour, the painting pulses with heat. “Mist Rising” (oils) is another example with a great swathe of field in greens and blues while “Towards Grey Woods”, a smaller work, reveals a more subdued palette with flecks of red under painting.

This tendency towards a more controlled palette is a new development in the artist’s work, soon to be showcased in an exhibition featuring Hebridean seascapes at the Morven Gallery on the Isle of Lewis next month.

Greater strength of form and composition is evident in this latest studio work and rather than being seduced by colour the viewer is held by paint handling, more subtle colour relationships in greys, purples and blues, and by the shifting elements of sea, sky and shore. It is a strong beginning to a new body of work and a healthy sign of evolution in the artist’s practice.

Edderton-based artist Christine O’Keefe displays her distinctive interpretation of Highland landscape in watercolour, ink and mixed media. “The Rock Face” in heather like shades of purple-brown reveals the artist’s skill in the depiction of natural forms and running water.

“The Rock Strewn Bed” (mixed media) is a more robust example with loose brushstrokes and spatter technique more often equated with the use of watercolour and masking fluid in her work. This more delicate hand is revealed in “Deep in the Forest” with accents of trees in white shining through layers of ink, watercolour and delicate gradations of greens, blues, browns and purples.

“A Place to be Alone” (mixed media) a large scale scene with a dominant expanse of bled pink and grey blue sky is a rain soaked to the last clod of earth. The turn in the deserted road is defined by the dark rain sodden foreground and dark brooding hills. The scene is lonely and atmospheric capturing the shifting mood and weather as it moves across the landscape.

Heavier use of mixed media can be seen in “First light Over the Loch” a riot of violent white brushstrokes over russet and blue tones. In contrast “Bluebells on the Roadside” depicts leafy green woodland alive with purple with white flecks of dappled sunlight shining through the trees.

An Honours graduate from Grays School of Art and co-director of nearby Inchmore Gallery, Gwen Black’s working method naturally utilises the art and creative process of printmaking. Building up layers with Perspex plates, wood blocks, acrylic paint, beeswax and oil pastel each element or layer evolves “in direct response to the last”.

“Far From Here” is an example of this technique, striated pattern marked across the abstracted landscape with under painting in blue, pink and purple. “The defined lines and strict angles of man made structures (are) juxtaposed with the ebb and flow of natural growth”.

This softened quality visible in the natural world is depicted in “Rock Face” where gradual seepage of colour reads like the affect of water on copper in delicately rendered strata of colour and texture.

Larger scale abstract compositions by Gwen Black also feature as part of the exhibition. “Tempest” (mixed media) built up in layers of gauze and paint, frosted grey and white sinks into an unsettled atmosphere of deep black and red.

“Brooding Sunset” (mixed media) reads like low relief sculpture encrusted with blood or earth beneath a blacken horizon with the feint glow of gold fighting between the weighted layers of sky and land.

By far my favourite piece in the exhibition, however, is Black’s “Rush”, a bold abstract composition perfectly patterned over a carefully constructed ground of burnt orange giving way to Prussian blue. The strength of the design and the fine textures are beautifully balanced with a great understanding of colour as ground.

Willingness to experiment through use of mixed media and printmaking techniques has resulted in a strong marriage of elements in each original work.

The contrast between three prominent local artists in response to the natural environment will be complimented by a changing display of pottery, silverwork, prints, sculpture and paintings throughout August, with work by Isabell Dickson, Margaret Mckay, Daniel Kavanagh, Alan Baille, Andy Cordy and Janis Mennie.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Tore Gallery
• Additional images from Tore Gallery exhibition