Loft Gallery in St.Margaret’s Hope, South Ronaldsay, until 11 September, 2007

Autumn Landscape (detail) by Tessa Charles.

SCAPA FLOW is an iconic stretch of water. It separates many of Orkney’s islands, but is also the means of bringing them together. Joining Hoy and South Ronaldsay at the moment, across the Flow, are four Hoy-based artists – Leslye Budge, Tessa Charles, Stephen J. Seymour Clancy and Chloe Jowett – who are exhibiting a range of paintings, watercolours, prints and drawings at the Loft Gallery.

The four artists not only share an island home, but their work also shares a resonance, with their focus on island landscape. Each artist approaches the subject very differently and via a personal and individual journey, and their works complement and strengthen each others when placed in the intimate exhibition space at The Loft.

All the works displayed here (19 or so) are of a similar scale, and despite being quite large pieces there is no jostling for space. The gallery itself seems larger with these pieces in it, and each work or series of works can be viewed with space, and a level of calm, surrounding them.

In ‘Ancient Land: Secret Places’, Leslye Budge presents the viewer with a series of four landscape paintings focussing on a particular view. Throughout, familiar shapes, colours and marks are repeated – working as a narrative from one piece to the next. Arching hill shapes dominate the horizons, and hidden within the vibrant layers of paint are printed tide tables – bringing land and sea even closer together.

Budge’s colours sing through each other, with bright reds and blues shining through darker impasto layers. A slightly ominous landscape, it does have routes through and out – if not obvious, then at least implied by the structures and shapes sculpted on each canvas.

Tessa Charles’ subtly coloured linocuts also deal with island landscape, its flora and the seasons. Her flowing, organic line takes the viewer on a journey around each work – the colours blending and calmly moving from one to another – reflecting the slow shift of colour from season to season.

Stylised textures and patterns appear amongst these landscapes, defining each area with a clarity and sense of fun. A welcome touch of the exotic joins the Autumn, Summer and Winter works in the form of ‘Creeper’ and ‘Succulent’ from Hamilton Island.

The landscape of the mind plays a major role in the works by Stephen J. Seymour Clancy. In amongst references to the built landscape – abstract and architectural – Clancy immerses the viewer in a world of myth and history. His works on paper are populated with texts and dates – possible clues to the narratives within the works.

Three large, gestural oil paintings face the viewer as you enter the gallery – drawing you in to the exhibition as a whole (‘Island Home’, ‘Island Painting’ and ‘An Island Question’) – which are complimented by two large detailed and colourful ink drawings at the other end of the gallery.

Chloe Jowett displays a collection of large watercolours – abstracted and segmented views of the building blocks of the land and shore – in an exquisitely muted palette. A range of soft greys, blues, greens and purples flow through her work – divided here and there by the stark white of the paper – especially in her works such as ‘Shoreline’ and ‘Rocks’.

Her paintings work viewed at a distance or very close-up – offering the viewer several interpretations of the subject. In Jowett’s watercolour ‘Plants’, the island landscape is present in the background, through a window behind the plants of the title – and is no less important for that.

The Loft Gallery has moved away from its usual summer selling exhibition this year, and instead is displaying the work of four artists whose work manages to tell four very different stories, though immersed in the same subject area.

Each of the Hoy artists has a differing interest in island landscape and all make that exploration with strong, mature, and thoughtful work. For those based in South Ronaldsay, we should be glad that these artists have crossed the Flow. For those from further a field it is well worth crossing the barriers, the Firth, or the Flow, to see.

© Rik Hammond and Clare Gee, 2007