Four artist connected to Ullapool come together to exhibit their work at an talla solais Ullapool Visual Arts. Four Views  will be open from 30th September – 16th October 2011.

Dick Lindsay, Rhona Joan MacLeod, Simon Mackenzie and Pam Macdonald, an talla solais is exhibiting these four artists this October, together as an exhibition of local artists whose work is largely inspired by the local environment and landscape.

Dick Lindsay
Dick Lindsay lives in Ullapool. He has been exhibiting with an talla solais for many years in our open exhibitions. Dick has been painting since he was aged 12, now in his 90s he has developed a vast body work: the work on show in this exhibition is part of that, a retrospective of his life’s work so far. Dick responds to the local landscape of the Higlands. He works predominantly with pen and ink and with pastel to develop gentle, sensitive and intricate atmospheres of the places he represents.

Rhona Joan MacLeod
Rhona Joan MacLeod is origanally from Ullapool. She now lives in Inverness, where she is inspired by the buildings and architecture of the city. “I really started to draw and paint in 2003. I found that I particularly liked to draw pictures of buildings. In the studio we had a book of line drawings in ink of Inverness, by the late John Pearson. I liked them very much and did some line drawings based on his work. My favourite materials are pencil, paint, wash and pen. I love colour and mix my own shades. I now draw from photographs or from sketches I have made. I also have made prints from some of my pictures in the Highland Print Studio.”

Rhona is currently looking at landscape as well in her work, responding to a Highland landscape. Her work is held in various privet collections as well as in the collection of The Highland Council in Inverness Town House.

Simon Mackenzie
Simon Mackenzie, originally from Ullapool lives and works here. He has been drawing since he was 5, He remembers first drawing boats with his father and siblings. This early introduction to drawing and mark making led onto a serious interest in the subject. Through school Simon developed an keen interest in painting, which he has continued avidly since.

Simon’s work often abstract, references landscape at times, but it is experimentation and freedom with materials that gives life to his work and its vibrant character. Simon works with mixed media, often incorporating textural materials into the paint and on to the canvas: plaster and mod rock are imbedded in acrylic, layers of glue and wax: build up the textures and depths of his images. This engagement with material and surface manifest both with his two demential work, and also in sculptural pieces.

Pam Macdonald
Pam Macdonald is Dick Lindasy’s niece, she is a regular visitor to Ullapool, coming every year. Her work in this exhibition has taken Dick Linday’s drawings as a source of inspiration.

“Dick Lindsay’s drawings appeal to that quieter side of my nature – his technical skills are quite incredible but it is when I hone in on the variety and delicacy of the mark- making in his drawings that his work really speaks to me. Last February I came up with the idea of taking small parts of his drawings and scaling them up before translating his lines to stitch.

There is a duality to my work and one strand cannot function without the other. I work with intense colours and ornament at the same time as producing monochromatic work concerned with mark making and memory. It is as if I need to empty myself of colour and excess before I can say something in a much quieter reflective way.

My work is very craft based – stitching, painting, dyeing, printing, papermaking, paper clay, felting, quilting, knitting, crochet, bookmaking to name but a few things I am involved in, all of which seem to be leading me to the knowledge that drawing underpins and informs everything I do. Learning to draw has been the greatest challenge of all, the smallest amount of progress is akin to blood from stone. I expect that I will be learning to draw for as long as I can hold a pencil!”

an talla solais Ullapool Visual Arts, Market Street, Ullapool, IV26 2XE
Web: www.antallasolais.org , Tel: 01854 612310

Source: an talla solais