AS A small independent museum situated in the Black Isle village of Rosemarkie, Groam House Museum is an internationally significant resource, housing a collection of Pictish sculpture and Celtic art, together with the Celtic works and archive of George Bain, donated by his family to the museum in 1998.

In 2008 Groam House was one of three Scottish museums selected for a Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures Award, which has enabled further development of the George Bain Collection in the context of the Celtic Art Revival; purchasing and conserving work related to Bain, delivering an extensive outreach programme and curating exhibitions throughout 2011-2012 at venues in Iona, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ullapool.

George Bain's Hebridean Rug

George Bain and the Celtic Art Revival is part of this exhibition programme, with Iona Illuminated – 100 Years of Celtic Art: Celebrating the Work of George Bain, Alexander & Euphemia Ritchie & Iain MacCormick, also currently on show on the Isle of Iona until 22nd October, and George Bain Master of Celtic Art opening at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh from 15 October 2011 to 13th February 2012. True to Bain’s statement that “theory may inform but practice convinces”, Groam House Museum is successfully extending its reach beyond the Black Isle and actively raising awareness about the indigenous visual traditions of the Highlands and Islands in a global Art History context.

Cover of George Bain's classic Celtic Art - The Methods of Construction

Inspired by his study of illuminated manuscripts such as The Book of Kells, Book of Durrow and the Lindisfarne Gospels, Celtic metalwork, jewellery and early Christian cross slabs, George Bain worked as an artist and educator, deciphering methods of design construction and producing a series of six booklets on Celtic Art Construction published in 1945, followed by the single volume publication Celtic Art – the Methods of Construction in 1951.

Although Bain’s vision of establishing a College of Celtic Cultures in Drumnadrochit was not realised, his seminal text is still used by artists and designers today, and Bain is widely regarded as the “Father of Modern Celtic Art” through his prolific work in Art, Design and education. His life’s work highlights the rich visual culture of Scotland, encouraging consideration of the composition and visual grammar of ancient designs and their use in contemporary times.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the current Groam House exhibtion, featuring silverware, jewellery, print publications, textiles, leather work, sculpture and large scale designs used by Bain for teaching, are the connections between objects.

When looking at a Victorian Silver and Malachite Brooch with domed circular openwork and engraved detailing, the timeless strength of the interlocking design derived from Celtic knotwork and striking contrast of materials makes the connection with revivalism as a source of artistic innovation and renewal in the Celtic tradition. Equally, the placement of an adjacent work, a reproduction of an 8th/9th Century Annular Brooch popularised by Queen Victoria as the “Cavan Brooch” or “Queen’s Brooch” draws the viewer’s attention to a more ambiguous set of associations; the appropriation of key elements of Highland culture in relation to Empire and the meaning of design.

The joy, energy and dynamism of Bain’s low relief plaster cast Kirkcaldy Greets Alesund (1945) symbolically commemorates the friendship between Norway and Scotland during WWII. This intricate pattern of interlaced knotwork with zoomorphic designs and emblems of place, extends use of ancient symbol into a design specifically sited in the context of world history and the emotional resonance of that moment.

When traced through a series of objects of different periods the timelessly enigmatic Pictish symbols of Cresent and V Rod seen downstairs at Groam House on the 8th century Rosemarkie Cross Slab and visually disseminated in Stuart’s The Sculptured Stones of Scotland (1856) and Romilly Allen and Anderson’s The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (1903), have been reinterpreted by subsequent generations of artists. A silver brooch by Iona silversmiths Alexander Ritchie and Iain McCormick, the first to use the historic Cresent and V Rod design, jewellery by Douglas Scott of Tain Silver and commissioned work by Kevin Allen of Orkneyinga Silversmiths reveal the timeless inspiration of these mysterious ancient symbols.

George Bain's Health & Vigour of the Elements

Some of the most beautiful objects of domestic and ritual silverware, including a reproduction of the Iona Nunnery Anointing Spoon by Alexander Ritchie and Coffee Spoons by Iain MacCormick, are distinctive for the quality of their craftsmanship, a tradition that still continues in the work of artist Mhairi Killin and Aosdana on Iona today.

The nature of Craft can also be contemplated in the relationship between three objects revealing different aspects of place and identity: George Bain’s designs for a Hebridean Rug in pencil and watercolour, the rug itself manufactured by Quayle & Tranter Ltd, c1950, and an advertising leaflet for the Hebridean Rug revealing the symbols, qualities and associative meanings of its complex design. The rich colours of the carpet in vibrant red, Lapus lazuli blue, emerald green and ochre that reads like the antique gold of an illuminated manuscript, together with the advertising text celebrate the unique placement of the work in a geographical and cultural context.

The origins of the carpet design as described by the Quayle & Tranter leaflet – the knotwork border “seen on the fragment of an enamelled bronze buckle found at Valtos in the Isle of Lewis”, four guardian angels “seen in the Book of Kells and in Celtic stones” “indicat[ing] the deep religious character of the Hebridean people”, Celtic galleys “depicted on stones found in Iona and Argyll exemplify[ing] love of the sea and adventure” and the key pattern on the outer border “taken from Celtic manuscripts and stones, imply[ing] everlasting safety of everything within it – define the object’s lineage and authenticity. Natural and mythological elements such as fish, seaweed, interlacing birds, shells and waterhorses also anchor the domestic object to ideas of place, tradition and heritage.

The complexity of association between Bain’s original design inspired by ancient source material, the domestic manufactured carpet and the advertising text promoting its sale is one of the most intriguing dialogues in the exhibition, raising important and relevant questions about place, identity and the nature of Craft and Design as a cultural signifier.

An extensive programme of lectures, workshops and events have also been scheduled throughout 2011/2012 coinciding with the exhibition programme curated by Groam House Museum, including a week long Festival of Celtic Arts on the Black Isle from 1st – 8th October featuring music, storytelling, craft and design workshops and a lecture by Murdo MacDonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art, University of Dundee on Celtic Revival Art from Ossian to George Bain at Fortrose Community Theatre at 7.30pm on Thursday 6th October at 7.30pm.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

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The pride of the collection is the magnificent Rosemarkie cross-slab, decorated with enigmatic Pictish symbols.

BACK IN THE summer I saw Bob Pegg perform his one-man show The Last Wolf to a packed audience at Ardross. I saw it again as was part of this year’s ‘Tales at Martinmas’ Festival in Ross-shire, and found it equally enthralling.

This time out, Bob was joined on the floor – one hesitates to write stage, for there wasn’t one – by harpist Bill Taylor. The performance took place in the Groam House Museum in a chamber dedicated to the symbolic sculpture of the Picts. The wolf was, and perhaps remains, as mysterious as these distant ancestors.

The Picts would have known the wolf, of course. There were still plenty of them around then. Bob told some of the legends surrounding the demise of the wolf in the Highlands. There are several contenders for the place where the last one was killed, a contest that will never be won in my view, but one that has generated some colourful stories.

Did the last wolf fall to McQueen the mighty hunter at Darnaway? Or was it bludgeoned into extinction by a woman with a skillet in Strathglass? Or was it stabbed to death by Polson in Glen Loth?

At the start of the show Bob tapped out a rhythm and sang about primitive hunters huddling around their fire, safe in their cave, while outside in the night the wild wolves howl. He deployed some dramatic imagery here, talking of red amber eyes glowing in the firelight.

He did not let pass the irony that the wolf, like mankind, is a social animal that cares for its young. Perhaps it is this similarity as much as the danger the wolf presented that led our ancestors to see significance in the wolf. The wolf, said Bob, is a mirror in which we see some of our greatest aspirations and our greatest fears as individuals.

It has also become a symbol of mankind’s destruction of nature. Its re-introduction to the Highlands remains, however, a proposition requiring careful examination.

The 75-minute show incorporated tales and music. The former included the Norse legend of the binding of the wolf Fenrir in the magic chain Gleipnir, the fable of the wolf and the bear, and an Arthurian story from thirteenth-century Wales.

The songs included a ballad about the wolfers, the wolf hunters of the Wild West, ascribed by Bob to a writer and versifier Ernest MacArthur, and a werewolf ditty that became a rare single record in its day.

Bill Taylor provided a backing for Bob’s stirring, at times dramatic, at times humorous, presentation with appropriate music on lyre and harp. Since moving to the Highlands in the early 1990s, Bill has become a familiar figure at many cultural events. As well as making harps and teaching the instrument with Ardival Harps in Strathpeffer, he plays regularly with Coronach, with James Ross in the duo The Art of Music, and with the Belgian quartet Quadrivium.

Tales at Martinmas 2003 is part of the Merry Dancers Storytelling Project, a 3-year initiative by The Highland Council in Ross and Cromarty, supported by RACE and made possible by a generous award from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund.

© Jim Miller, 2003