Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, until 20 September 2008

Petrolia by Bronwen Sleigh (etching)

CURATED by Highland Print Studio Manager Alison McMenemy, this exhibition celebrates the art of contemporary printmaking, placing the work of Highlands and Islands artists in a national context in a way that is long overdue. Touring Highland Council Exhibition venues in Wick (now over), Inverness, Kingussie and Thurso, Original Print is a wonderful opportunity to view a diverse range of techniques by some of Scotland’s finest artists.

Works on loan from Glasgow Print Studio, including hand made prints by Steven Campbell, Adrian Wisniewski, Stuart Duffin and John Byrne, can be seen beside works by artists based in the Highlands and Islands, such as Michael Stuart Green, Ian Westacott, Sue Jane Taylor, John MacNaught, Jon Macleod, Brian MacBeath, Kathleen Lindsley and Evelyn Pottie.

The manner of bringing work together through loan and selection (via open submission) is an excellent model for future showcases and I hope that this will be the first of many exhibitions initiated by HPS.

The show provides valuable insight into the unique qualities of each printmaking technique with a display of tools, plates and descriptions of each process in the adjacent small gallery. Viewing this show the profound difference between photographic or mechanical reproduction of art work and original prints will be apparent even to those who have had little or no contact with the medium.

The quality of mark and depth that can be achieved through various printmaking processes is richly evident throughout. The main gallery presents a varied and inspiring selection of work including lithography, wood and linocut, screen print and intaglio techniques.

Some of the most interesting works are those where traditional techniques have been layered with digital technology. ‘Culture’ (Linocut and Digital Print) by John MacNaught, ‘Stornoway Icon’ by Jon Macleod (Mixed Media) and ‘Downfall 2′ (Woodcut and Digital Print) by Michael Stuart Green are excellent examples.

The seamless use of old and new techniques are particularly potent in MacNaught’s political comment on the administration of culture and its effect on the artist. Equally fascinating is Stuart Green’s work which suggests a dialogue between the man made and natural world. ‘Downfall 2′ employs the striated cutting technique of the woodblock to permeate each strata of the image from abstract sky to human construction to the layer of mountains beneath.

The gentle palette of pinks and blues is unexpected and subtle, a marking of landscape and buildings that grafts the two irreversibly together in what feels like a state of decline. The mountains, traditionally a site of aspiration, occupy the lowest part of the picture plane. Woodcut printing is a physical process and the marks made by human hands seem to have a greater symbolic function within this work, the artist choosing the perfect fusion of traditional art and technology to convey meaning.

Sutherland-based artist Ian Westacott’s collaboration with Australian artist Raymond Arnold, ‘Blasted Oak- An Englishman’s Thinking of Sutherland’, is a great example of the etching technique. A vast chaotic tangle of growth and decay, every fine detail is rendered in a fashion which suggests macro and micro forms, a whole landscape within a single section of earth and tree roots in sepia and black.

In contrast with this minutely detailed vision Bronwen Sleigh’s ‘Petrolia’ and ‘Over Nigg’ exhibit her characteristic use of scored and accidental marks as part of the etching process. Industrial subject matter provides the raw material for superbly balanced abstract compositions grounded in her observations of landscape and industry around the Cromarty Firth.

Judith MacLauchlin’s ‘Late Evening Early Spring’ is a wonderfully evocative abstract screen print that allows saturation of colour to create depth of field. The layering and registration of each colour during the print process are key to how we read the work in rich blocks of purple, orange, cerulean blue and ultramarine. A strong composition is achieved in the use of both colour and geometric form clearly inspired by the landscape.

Another fine example of the screen print technique is Evelyn Pottie’s ‘West Gate’, where layering and architecture are used to great emotional effect. The print is on an intimate scale in jewel-like shades of blue and turquoise, deepened by umber. The open gate in silhouette is like stepping across a threshold of memories. Figures like images from a family album surface from the overlapping ground of colour, suspended in time. ‘Bridge’ functions in a similar way, with the technique and architecture forming a link between past and present.

There are many other highlights in this show including Adrian Wisniewski’s beautifully mythic and Picassoesque woodcut ‘Whispering Hag’, Stuart Duffin’s ‘In A Place of Dreams and Killing Time’ (Lithograph) and John Bryne’s superbly drawn ‘Boy With Carp’ (Lithograph). Printmaking is revealed as a vital artistic process highlighting the integrity, craft and skill of the handmade.

Currently located in the Longman Industrial Estate, HPS is an open access studio providing facilities for printmaking including intaglio, relief printing, screen printing and digital media. In addition the studio coordinates a program of regular classes and workshops in printmaking, life drawing, painting and portfolio preparation and facilitates education and outreach work in schools and with community groups in the Highland region.

With such a wide remit, limited resources and throughout a significant period of consolidation it has not been possible for the organisation to stage regular exhibition programmes alongside the studio and outreach activity. This show is hugely exciting and encouraging because to me it heralds the potential emergence of the organisation into a new phase, together with recognition for the art form and its practitioners in a professional and national context.

The exhibition can also be seen at Iona Gallery, Kingussie, from 27 September – 25 October, and Swanson Gallery, Thurso, from 1-29 November 2008.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Highland Print Studio
• Inverness Gallery & Museum