Inchmore Gallery, near Beauly, until 15 March 2009

A GRADUATE of Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, in 2006 and runner up in the Jolomo Awards for Scottish Landscape painting in 2007, Ingrid Fraser’s first solo show at Inchmore Gallery presents an investigation of human intervention in the Highland Landscape.

The result of an eighteen month exploration of the hydroelectric industry in the region, it is refreshing and encouraging to see a line of enquiry that extends beyond the persistent romanticised vision of the Highlands as remote, untouched wilderness.

Whilst this mythology is celebrated by many landscape artists in the region, often in technicolor, Fraser’s approach, like that of printmaker Bronwyn Sleigh or Sutherland-based artist Sue Jane Taylor, facilitates a reassessment of the “natural” environment in the Highlands, focusing on industrial and human marks upon the landscape.

This is a potent subject for further enquiry and an important, indeed necessary, part of a cultural revisualisation of the Highlands. Whilst there are aspects of Fraser’s potential that shine through in this exhibition both in terms of technique and ideas, the overall statement is diluted by a series of oils on canvas that achieve varying degrees of success.

Well executed works such as Carving Indelible Lines or Beyond The Power Lines 2 sit rather uncomfortably alongside less convincing work such as Flutter which reads as a flat insubstantial study, or Where Men Have Walked, where the handling of the figure does not equal the artist’s landscape technique.

The illuminated use of under-painting and script in Carving Indelible Lines is beautifully executed but could be developed much further, with exploration of painterly technique providing an impetus for a deeper penetration of the subject matter. Similarly Fraser’s use of texture and layering in Beyond the Power Lines (1 & 2) demonstrates adept paint handling that demands a larger scale of investigation.

The introduction of red into the dominant blue, black and white palette of Beyond the Power Lines 2 is handled extremely well, contributing to the energy and immediacy of the work by allowing the foundations of the image and under-painting to remain visible. This freshness and a more gestural approach are displayed in Flutter 2, quite different stylistically to the majority of larger works on show.

Although a spirit of experimentation is always to be applauded, here the inclusion of some of the smaller square format works add to the sense of fragmentation, interrupting the overall flow of the exhibition. Since a certain theme is being explored here, and I strongly suspect that throwing the viewer stylistic wildcards was not part of the artistic intent, it may have made a stronger statement to pare down the exhibition and allow the central works to develop a more coherent relationship between them. In a solo show it is important for the artist’s vision to resonate within works, but also between them.

In the strongest show of an artist’s work at any given point in time, exploration of ideas consistently equal technique. Smirr – Loch Loyne offers a tantalising glimpse of ideas begging for further development in relation to the execution. Here individual marks in the landscape, the piles of stones left by individuals in the foreground within a gentle landscape of pale yellows and blues are overlaid by the grey tracery lines of an ordinance survey map.

Whilst individual and collective human action is suggested by this overlay, the chosen technique barely scratches the surface in terms of ideological/artistic investigation of the site. The line of enquiry here is fascinating but the paint handling seems insipid in comparison to stronger works in the show and unable to penetrate the painterly surface image.

Beginnings is a more successful piece of work with the foundations of an electricity pylon sitting starkly in a landscape of pink, blue and ochre. The stark white grey and sienna impasto in the foreground sharpen our focus on the industrial base form, whilst writing scratched into the sky creates a poignant feel to the whole scene.

The subtle handling of script in this work is contrasted by a somewhat clumsy overlay in Ode to Ghosters, where the addition of text feels laboured in comparison, piped on as an afterthought rather than being integral to our reading of the landscape. It is how we read the landscape that is potentially one of the most compelling ideas presented in this show, and in this sense Fraser’s exhibition represents an exciting beginning.

She is a promising young artist and it is encouraging to see a local gallery supporting emerging talent in this way. A solo exhibition is an important opportunity to communicate with an audience and to assess currents within the work, both technical and ideological, that are worthy of the artist’s exploration in the future. There are strong currents at work here and I hope that as Fraser’s work continues to develop her unique voice will resoundingly emerge in future shows.

Also currently on display in the downstairs galleries are delightfully fluid and energetic watercolours by Mary MacLean and a superb selection of new mixed media works by Emma Noble, Ian Reddie and Maggie Mowbray.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

• Ingrid Fraser