Tore Art Gallery, near Inverness, until 16 July 2012.

PAINTERLY responses to the West Coast and the Hebrides are the focus of Tore Gallery’s latest exhibition.

THE show includes works by Clare Blois, Gwen Black, Linda Smith, Isabell Dickson, Michael Stuart Green, Margaret Cowie, Fiona Matheson, Edward MacMillan, Helen Robertson, Gillian Pattison, Elaine Davis, Jane MacRae, Janis Mennie, Elizabeth Joss and John Nicholson.

Land and seascapes of the Highlands and Islands are undoubtedly popular subject matter for both recreational artists and professionals, and Tore Art Gallery has a high concentration of both on every available surface! What separates the wheat from the chaff in this genre is arguably the artist’s ability to reveal more than just a pleasing view. The best work in the exhibition is by artists equally invested in both the art of painting and their chosen subject matter. It is especially pleasing to see evolution in the work of individual artists in this show, pushing the boundaries of their own practice, expanding their vision of the Highland landscape and that of the viewer in the process.

Isabell Dickson - Breakers

Isabell Dickson’s work has developed significantly in recent years, especially in relation to her rendering of seascapes. In Breakers (Oil), the artist engages with the rich fluidity of her chosen medium in a turbulent composition of greys and steely blues. There is a burgeoning sense of movement between sky, sea and rocky shore communicated in her paint handling which conveys an immediate, visceral response to this ever changing environment.

While the artist’s mountain scenes are more static and less convincing, an adjacent work, Tide Out, Munlochy Bay, gives another tantalising glimpse of promise in a composition as contemplative for its plastic elements – Dickson’s treatment of pigment and mark making – as it is a serene image of the shoreline. The subdued palette and scratched marks in oils retain the freshness and immediacy of a drawing, encouraging the viewer not just to look at a view of the landscape but to feel it texturally, communicating not just optically but emotionally. The artist’s investment in her craft and attitude to her subject is positively reflected in her increasingly confident paint handling.

Edward MacMillan - Rainclouds Over Rodel

A spirit of experimentation can also be found in Edward MacMillan’s works in watercolours. Although this is not yet a leading element, it will be exciting to see how the essential dynamic between design and intuitive or accidental mark will shape future work. Images such as Northern Beach, Harris are well executed in vibrant, robust colour with details such as the striated seaweed sensitively rendered. Similarly The Old Lighthouse, Harris is a densely layered and technically adept design, particularly in the handling of natural textures such as stone and lichen. It is however the introduction of less deliberated marks in the composition that frees the image from being purely illustrative and allows it to become more interpretative.

In Rainclouds Over Rodel the artist introduces a violent splatter of raincloud in contrast to the more formal handling of the stone wall and cottage, introducing accidental marks into the creative process. MacMillan clearly understands his chosen medium and to his credit does not rely on tried and tested technique to depict the scene, allowing the viewer to feel the weather through his handling of watercolour, expanding the parameters of his individual practice as a result.

Edward MacMillan - Luskentyre Shoreline

Similarly, Luskentyre Shoreline, Harris, with its delicately bled pigment operates in counterpoint with more formal elements of the composition. There is a real sense here of the artist actively grappling with his own technique, ultimately the key to a change in perception both for the artist and the viewer. MacMillan’s selection for exhibition at the Royal Watercolour Society’s Open exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in London in 2011 and the 132nd Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour exhibition at the RSA in Edinburgh earlier this year, reflects ongoing development of his work in this challenging medium.

Linda Smith - Far Island

Linda Smith has contributed a series of beautifully atmospheric paintings to the exhibition exemplified by Far Island and Archipelago (Oils). In Far Island, Smith leads the viewer into a psychologically charged landscape or dreamscape, achieved through heightened tonal contrast and a reduced palette, creating an almost mythic interior vision of landscape. The foreground of creviced rock and a lone tree with its De Chirico-like elongated shadows, red fruit or flowers fallen to the ground, is enigmatic and surreal. The dark territory of the ocean and shadowy landmass on the horizon give the image a distinct mood of unease, the tree itself like a lone figure on a precipice of knowing.

Linda Smith - Archipelago

Less conducive to associative narrative but no less potent is Archipelago, an island thrust out of the sea with a shadowy tower of rock behind it. The subject sits intriguingly between the world observed and imagined in the artist’s dream-like rendering of the subject, defined in shadows and ethereal light. Smith’s understanding of the emotional potential of chiaroscuro not just to define the subject but to explore layers of meaning within it is one of her core strengths as an artist.

Clare Blois - Sun on the Sea

Sun On The Sea by Clare Blois is one of the most resonant and joyous paintings in the exhibition, with its thick impasto of cadmium yellow against reverberations of intense blue. The spark of life is in the subject but also in the paint handling – both feel like affirmations in every mark made by the artist’s hand.

Although there is great variation of skills in the exhibition as a whole, there is also evidence of leading elements both within the work of individual artists and within the wider Highland Visual Arts community which is encouraging to see. The exhibition would have benefited from further selection in order to really showcase these qualities, allow them to breathe in the exhibition space and encourage further development of work by both recreational and professional artists alike.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

Links

• Tore Art Gallery