THIS latest exhibition upstairs at the Inchmore Gallery features recent work from the First Line creative partnership of artists: Gwen Black, Mark Lomax and Janet Soutar.

EACH artist has explored the concept of “journeys” through the creative process, exploring the relationship between visual art and text through artist books, painting, mixed media and sculptural work.

Book by Janet Soutar

Janet Soutar’s Genome series of altered books transform familiar objects into sculptural meditations, playing with the idea of hereditary information and the “small changes in the genome which make every living thing different”. Each mark, fold and added pigmentation renders each found publication unique. Genome 4, with its golden metallic edges and origami-like folds, presents the viewer with a precious individual object, rather than one of a multiple, in this case a intimately pocket sized edition of Burns. The found object is distilled and transformed as raw material in a creative process of reappraisal, drawing a parallel between written language as poetry and evolving visual grammar.

Genome 5, with its circular form and bluish green washes feels almost like a living organism, the curvature defying the object’s original geometry and functionality. Parts of the text are visible but it is the physical and perhaps metaphysical presence of the object that is felt, rather than the transmission of information through text, traditional forms of visual narrative or through our genetic code.

This transmission of knowledge rather than information is also inferred by Genome 3, an altered book whose cover is displayed outstretched like wings. Dappled with earthily russet pigment, a folded central mass of form links visibly to words such as “mankind”, “moral” and “grief. The object suggests a figurative, human presence in the work in the relationship between form and text, a quality also subtly present in Soutar’s Winter in Ashaig.

Here, beneath a mixed media landscape composition of ultramarine, naples yellow, green and opaque white, collaged newsprint and drawn pencil marks emerge, a human presence in an otherwise unpopulated landscape. Other works such as B2 and Red Cuillins in Autumn are more exploratory in terms of mark rather than text. It would be interesting to see further investigation of the dynamics between visual art and text prevalent in the altered books series by this artist in the future.

Gwen Black - Standing Still

Gwen Black’s artist books and mixed media works combine investigation of life’s journeys with the journey of creative process. The strongest works are those which combine Black’s skills in abstract composition, with multi-layered printmaking techniques, collaged found materials and text. Wild and Wonderful is a good example, a beautifully balanced image of form, line, colour and texture where fragments of text, like the plastic elements of the composition become catalysts for association/contemplation. The words “Wild and Wonderful” in a font suggesting a lifestyle magazine headline are juxtaposed with the linear portrait of a middle aged woman and the adjacent words “this is the life you have chosen this is the life you must lead”. The subdued palette of olives, greens and greys adds to the ambiguity and contradictions within the image in terms of freedom and confinement of the individual.

In Single Entity the human figure appears in a model magazine pose, silhouetted as cut out text against a wonderfully textural collaged background. What is written on the body or on the individual in terms of viewer/ audience perception is also present in Standing Still, where three figures poised in adolescence are placed within an abstract set with the words “it looks like I’m moving but I’m standing still”. The central figure of silhouetted text, hands in pockets with a sideways glance out of the picture plane is repeated and contrasted with one semi-shaded and one linear figure. The eye is lead convincingly into the composition to contemplate these elements by the abstract design and Black’s accomplished multi-layered technique which encourages closer inspection.

In contrast Where to Fit In and This Life feel a little clumsy in their exploration of identity and of the pictorial surface by comparison. In This Life a young woman’s catalogued outline upon a grid of pastel colours with the hint of a landscape in the background resists multiple readings; instead the text reads very much like a label, especially alongside the idealised female figure. The balance achieved between technique and ideas in works such as Wild and Wonderful or Standing Still, where arguably a more complex world of association or journeying into the nature of image is created, present a more compelling relationship between image and text.

Mark Lomax - The Alchemist's Stone

Mark Lomax’s three dimensional sculptural works and wall panels in mixed media invert the physical/ creative process of excavation seen in his last solo exhibition, Discarded Thoughts, in May 2012, exploring the mind’s capacity for concealment of what lies beneath the surface reality, thought or image. The artist’s handling of materials and the relationship between the title text and art object illuminates this idea. In Beyond The Surface, Lomax articulates this dynamic of conceal and reveal in caked layers of mixed media where encoded sign, symbol and signature text are scratched into the surface, revealing under painting in crimson and oxidised green like fragments of memory. Another panel, Ghosts of Past Conversations (Mixed Media, Decayed Fragments), with its graffiti-like marks also presents a surface of the mind, etched in concrete form where the absence of traditional narrative makes us aware of the process of erasure and obliteration over time.

In The Naming of Things, the artist alludes to the impossibility of precise language and absolutes, presenting a textural, multi-layered surface where man-made and natural marks become blurred. The need to construct meaning is played out not in terms of traditional visual narrative or illustration, but in the mental and physical processes of creation, in the manipulation of raw and found materials and the entire foundation of “painted, stained and obliterated” marks beneath. In human terms this feels akin to Soutar’s exploration in the Genome series, although here an entire inheritance of vision is suggested, concealed and revealed within the picture plane.

Wall mounted sculptures such as Buried Deep (Mixed Media, Thought Stone) with opaque layers of written and drawn elements have poignancy in their natural rock-like form. There is an inference of weight in this visualisation of human memory, the suppression of thoughts which inevitably resurface carrying emotional gravitas. The Source of the Splash develops this idea further with the art object or stone the source of disturbance, or ripples of expansive thought. Lomax’s The Alchemist’s Stone alludes to the transformation of matter by the artist, maintaining the ambiguity and mystery in an object which refuses to entirely give up its secrets. Creative process as text presents another dialect to the viewer.

Journeys is a fascinating exhibition in its exploration of visual language/ ideas which beg further development and it will be interesting to see how the dialogue between this trio of artists and their work will evolve in future shows.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

MARK Lomax’s latest exhibition, Discarded Thoughts, successfully expands his practice in its engagement with new materials and techniques, presenting a very fluid relationship between sculptural, painterly and conceptual elements.

SINCE the artist’s last solo show, Ephemera at Inchmore Gallery in July 2008, Lomax’s work has continued to evolve, combining a variety of disciplines in his exploration of altered maps and books. While this latest body of work is thematically consistent, it strides out into new territory in terms of scale and materials, feeling somewhat contained by the current exhibition space.

Mark Lomax, The Underlying Substance of things as opposed to their Attributes

Discarded Thoughts (printed paper, paint, filler and glue), a linear series of 16 crumpled forms or ideas, is a pure marriage of process and object. It is also the starting point for an exhibition that moves progressively from the embryonic concealment of these closed forms to reveal the inner life of human imaginings dormant or forgotten. Intricate layers of paper, filler, pigment and glue are built and excavated on a ground of shaped aluminium metal, fragments of human consolation through text and diagram breaking through the surface.

This fluid consciousness is characteristic of an artist that consistently reflects the human condition not in terms of absolutes but the elusive nature of knowledge. This shifting reality is visualised and experienced in Lomax’s choice and handling of materials. The artist’s use of collaged text and drawn images from discarded encyclopedias and reference books are combined with successive layers of evocative texture.

The presence of this found material is perhaps an interesting reference to a tactile tradition of inherited knowledge increasingly absent in a digital age. Surfaces are coated, scratched and filled, blurring the distinction between drawn, found and organic marks. Form is shaped from malleable light-weight metal, with the later addition of thin washes of acrylic paint. This stain of pigment cleverly accentuates the contours of form in each work and provides often delicate patination of the surface, inviting a variety of interior readings.

Mark Lomax, A Minor Role in Something More Important

In Monocline,for example the colouration feels delicately leached rather than applied, creating a subtly varied and nuanced emotive surface, while in The Underlying Substance of Things As Opposed to Their Attributes painting enhances the dynamism and rhythm of the whole composition. This expressive and painterly quality is particularly evident in The Belief That Things Can Change. Here subtle tonal gradations and abstracted geometric forms are overlaid on fragments of text and thought. The choice of text book with its “rational functions”, “complex functions as transmissions”, equations and exercises is strangely emotive, revealing a methodology of scientific thought with hope at its core. The artist colours our reading of this layered material in form and hue, together with the chosen title as potent triggers of association.

Elevation of The Incidental is equally humane in its abstract visualisation of human knowledge and memory emerging from beneath the surface. Two beautiful smaller scale framed constructions, Polynominals and Illustrated Point (Printed paper, paint and filler on recycled metal) reach out of the frame, physically and psychologically, begging closer inspection.

The impermanent material of paper immortalised in metal, the texture of the background evocative of a found site in grain, line and mark are combined with techniques of collage, assemblage, painting and sculpture to produce a highly ambiguous sculptural objects. The structure and detail of these works are finely executed, while the manner of display demands consideration of discarded or incomplete elements of human thought and aspiration.

A Minor Role In Something More Important feels very much like an idea unfurled in its arc-like form, the contrast between its shiny metallic interior and corroded outer surface reflecting the artist actively pushing the boundaries of his own technique.

Mark Lomax, The True Nature of Being

The potential for larger scale “painted sculptures and sculpted paintings” is certainly suggested by this show, together with the possibility of such work being seen in a variety of different contexts, including outdoors. The True Nature of Being (Industrial Mixed Media) is a good example; a hung piece that looms off the wall as an eternal question into the viewer’s physical and imaginative space, equally effective outdoors as a floating sculpture. Seen in the current exhibition, this work is richly evocative of human origins, with its yellow ochre and charcoal-like pigmentation as if marked by fire and ritual. A central white elliptical form like a piece of found prehistoric art or graffiti is mysterious and provocative. The inner life of the work creative process visualised as an elusive and essential quest for completion and perhaps even redemption.

Lomax’s work is stimulatingly cryptic and immediately tactile in its cross-disciplinary approach. There is something quietly subversive about this work which is appealing in a world of contemporary art addicted to the screamingly obvious. Driven by the artist’s exploration of new techniques and materials this latest exhibition displays exciting signs of evolution that will no doubt contribute to further distillation of the artist’s visual language in future exhibitions.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

Links

• Discarded Thoughts
• Inchmore Gallery

FOLLOWING an initial opening event earlier this month at the Scotland Russia Forum’s Edinburgh premises, Inchmore Gallery is currently hosting Reactions To Vysotsky, featuring work by Highland based artists Vicky Stonebridge and Allison Weightman in collaboration with singer, songwriter and translator Tommy Beavitt.

As part of a wider long term project to interpret and perform the work of the Russian Bard Vladimir Vysotsky (1938-1980) it is an exciting beginning with great potential for future international cultural exchange and further creative development. Parallels between national Bards which Beavitt has explored through performances of the work of Robert Burns in Russia and of Vysotsky in Scotland actively present the Bard as a contemporary figure with global resonance.

Opening night brought image, music and text together with performances of Vysotsky’s songs by Tommy Beavitt in Russian and English accompanied by projections of the visual work, also seen in their original form in the downstairs gallery.

Vicky Stonebridge - Wolf

Inspired by Vysotsky’s songs, Vicky Stonebridge’s paintings blend Pictish/ Celtic influences with Russian Folk Art and graphic illustration. This latest work is a natural extension of her participation in the Yelabuga International Art symposium in Tatarstan and subsequent exhibition at the Shishkin Gallery (2010). Narrative scenes such as Lyricale are depicted in the manner of a fairytale, in a rainbow of soft colours with a combination of imagery spanning imaginative fantasy, the natural world and interlaced Celtic design.

It is, however, the more stylised work, playing with perspective and with form, that has the most impact in this exhibition. The circular canvas The Wolf, for example, with its outer rim of skeletal trees framing what feels like an entire world within a concave eye-like lens. The wolf‘s body redesigned within this space is fluid with movement and life, bisected in the background by a symbolic line of red flags.

Freedom and containment is also explored in Hunting The Wolf, a rectangular composition of frozen cobalt with wolves corralled by soldiers. The select palette and design of these two compositions distil the image which coupled with Beavitt’s performance of Vysotsky’s song in both Russian and English reveal the potent political content of the imagery.

Vicky Stonebridge - Hunting the Wolf

A folk hero in both Russia and the UK, Stonebridge’s image of Robin Hood is a multilayered work encompassing three ages of man and the idea of escape and freedom in the forest. The detail and delicate handling of light in this acrylic on canvas create an interesting perspective, like a tunnel of time between worlds rural and urban. This type of imagery begs further exploration both ideologically and stylistically.

Arguably while a literal illustration of a lyric or story effectively communicates a particular narrative to an audience, it also leaves less room for imaginative expansion of the originary work in the mind of the viewer. There is a balance to be struck between literally illustrating a particular scene and seizing the thematic guts of the story and its emotional core universally resonant with an audience irrespective of language. Stonebridge’s best work in this show involves manipulation of perspective, stylised design and confinement in terms of the actual form and ground of the painting, linked to the thematic content of the work that inspired it.

Vicky Stonebridge - Horses

Alison Weightman’s interpretation of Vysotsky’s Cupola visualises human form symbolically in its actual material and in the aspirational form of a tower, crowned with a golden dome. Humanity as clay linked with ideas of creation and divinity take on sculptural form, with wired wings of white ceramic bursting from the dome and suspended in multiple from above in various stages of flight. The seemingly brittle vulnerability of ceramic wings carry emotional weight and the contrast of colour – deep earthy brown at the base of the architecture together with the golden ideal of the dome – express the core of the Vysotsky’s song. The idea of humankind burnishing itself to be visible to God is communicated in sculptural form, together with the frailty of human nature. The artist successfully invests her materials with the sentiment of the song, allowing amplification of the Bard’s voice.

The combination of musical performance and visual work on opening night provided a wonderful opportunity to discover Vysotsky, perhaps for the first time for Highland audiences, and prompt further exploration and appreciation of his work. Tommy Beavitt’s performance of songs with acoustic guitar in Russian and English in dialogue with the paintings and ceramic work gave insight into the collaborative and creative process of the exhibiting artists. It will be fascinating to see how this interdisciplinary cross cultural exchange continues to develop, with discussions underway for staging events in 2012 exploring the concept of “Two Bards One Soul” in Moscow and Scotland.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
• Balnacra Arts
• Allison Weightman
• John Mikietyn
• Global Village Bard

A SELECTION of work from the third annual UHI HNC Contemporary Art Practice exhibition currently on display at Inchmore Gallery presents a diverse range of paintings, photography, sculpture, installation and mixed media work from this year’s graduating students.

The HNC Contemporary Art Practice course is delivered by Inverness College and Perth College within the UHI network, and this exhibition represents an important opportunity for students from Inverness College to display their work in a wider context. There are some very promising works in the show which beg further development, and it will be interesting to see how these individual artists evolve in the future.

Work by Donna Polson

Barbara Jamison MacAskill’s single mixed media work Sam McGee displays a wonderful sense of paint handling in its flaked layers, rubbed, scraped and assembled on a ground of weathered textures. It is a portrait of age both in terms of the subject and use of materials which is extremely effective, the rich painterly surface a combination of vermillion, cadmium red, yellow and fleshy hues with the face defined primarily in disintegrating fragments of white and grey. The marriage of subject and materials shows a great deal of promise in its experimentation with the painted surface and in how the medium potentially holds and communicates visual information to the viewer.

Charlotte Wilson’s exploration of feminine beauty using found images and mixed media juxtapose the airbrushed perfection of advertising with visceral interior images of flesh. In Beauty is Skin Deep and Revealing Beauty sections of the image are torn away to reveal raw meat beneath, imagery which would benefit from further exploration and development. The treatment of collaged and stitched images such as Disguising Beauty; overlaying the face of a fashion model with a stitched mask, contain more visual irony and punch- perhaps alluding to the current preoccupation with cosmetic alteration to pursue a popular ideal, ironically obliterating the possibility of real beauty.

Work by Charlotte Wilson

Physically stitching through the image actively alters our perception of it in the artist’s work on a level that collage alone does not. The sewn element is on an intimate, personal scale which prompts contemplation of the subject in relation to the individual. Sculptural work such as Hidden Emotions is less successful, the communication of idea in three dimensions out of balance with the manner of execution. The body cast as a vessel with a darkened interior feels clumsy and obvious in relation to the more layered exploration of beauty in a work like Disguising Beauty.

Digital photography by Kaleigh-Jade Gribbins successfully combines restrained use of colour and variations of scale to create an interesting dialogue between human and natural elements in the artist’s work. Petticoat Morning recalls the work of Moira Third in its singular use of colour against dominant black and white, a garment suggesting a human presence within the image. The pink organza petticoat, hanging like a ghostly ethereal presence in the ruin of a stone cottage has a dreamy, atmospheric quality. It is an evocative image of shifting light and transitory human habitation.

Digital photography by Kaleigh Jade Gribbens

Drought , a colour image of a model house marooned at the entrance to a sea cave, juxtaposes stark white and red human architecture in miniature with a natural setting of larger scale; the pebbles and boulders creating an interesting dynamic between man-made and natural elements. Presenting the viewer with the unexpected juxtaposition of two familiar images within the photograph succeeds in triggering a set of more complex associations and this expansive sense of enquiry is a promising element in Gribbins’s work.

Jodie Kelly’s set of interactive papier-mâché sculptures encourages the viewer to playfully rearrange them into new combinations. Suggestive of forms inspired by natural flora and fauna, each individual piece made from everyday materials can be hybridised and reimagined, constructing unexpected forms. Unusually the viewer is given creative licence in this exchange, an experience not always encouraged in a gallery setting.

Jiri Krystilik’s mixed media objects A Simple Math Box and Our Society is Run by… are fascinating explorations of recent world events. A Simple Math Box is the more successful of the two, both in the quality of construction and in the less obvious juxtaposition of text and image in the service of political meaning. It is an engaging piece of work which immediately begs closer investigation.

Work by Jiri Krystlik

At first the viewer is confronted by an open box containing two rows of numbers on wooden blocks in sequence 1 to 9 and zero, followed by a middle layer of potential equation symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and equals, then a repeat of the same numeric sequence of the upper layer. In the inner open lid of the game box is a partial cover of Newsweek with a sequence of images depicting celebrations on US streets following the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The headlines: “President’s Triumph, Obama Reborn, Photo Gallery The Path of Evil, Navy Seals Coolest Guys On Earth” and the partial headline “mission accompli…” “ But are we any safer?” in relation to the constructed game represent an interesting visual metaphor in an era of mass media.The game-like display of ideas in passive pink together with the inner suggestion of action and reaction, the viewer confronted by their own potential for reduction of complex events to simple child-like equations is very effective and thought provoking.

Krystilik’s paintings are less convincing and would benefit from focused observation of black and white stills photography and film and life drawing in relation to his human subject matter, improving awareness of tonality and modelling of form. Crazy Horse I and II are interesting images which feel like stills from a larger cinematic sequence, but greater development of paint handling and pictorial elements is needed to really engage the viewer and develop the potential of the artist’s visual narratives.

It is encouraging that Inchmore Gallery are continuing the tradition of supporting emerging artists began by previous owners Gwen and Fred Black, enabling the work of graduating students to be seen in a wider context. Whilst there are sometimes gaps between the concept and the technical execution of individual works in this show, this is to be expected at this early stage of development and it is exciting to see the potential of individual artist’s work, suggesting how their visual language might evolve in future. Exhibiting in an external gallery space is an extremely valuable experience for graduating students, equally making the need for Art Education at all levels as part of a healthy cultural and economic infrastructure more publicly visible.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
• Inverness College UHI

INCHMORE Gallery’s latest mixed exhibition features a wide variety of work including paintings, mixed media, glass, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and sculpture by artists such as Marion Boddy Evans, Elaine Russell, Cyril Reed, Helena Emmans and James Adams, Mark Lomax, Alex Dunn, Ingrid Fraser, Julie Whatley, Emma Siedle Collins, Daniel Kavanagh, Susan Duncan, Lesley Jones, David Body, Patricia Shone, Carole Robinson, Anne Bridgen, Kim Bramley, Emma Noble, Lynn Bennett MacKenzie, Vicky Stonebridge, Liz Myhill, Gwen Black, Jane Owen Inglis, Julia Cunningham, Jennifer Carr and Laura West.

James Adams - He Used to Take The Ferry

In addition to the display of her elegant and elemental jewellery based on organic shoreline forms, a series of acrylic and pastel works by Helena Emmans combine keen observation with exploratory technique. The soft palette and subtle textures of ‘Changing Blues, Kyleakin, Isle of Skye, September’ capture shifting patterns of light and colour beautifully, drawn mark and brush delicately combined. Land mass and whitened sky are described expansively with accents of green, brownish pink and blue, in a way which holds a definitive scene just beyond the viewer’s reach.

This play of light and hue are aptly described in the title of another work in the series, ‘Directions of Colour, Ashaig, Isle of Skye’, the gentle relief of paint layers, residue of pastel highlights and scratched marks making the curve of the shore emerge from the pigment like a mirage. Emmans has captured the characteristic Highland transformation of landscape and weather before the viewer’s eyes.

Michael Stuart Green has contributed a lovely series of mixed media and original digital prints to the exhibition, demonstrating his skill in relation to draughtsmanship and design. ‘West Coast Village 2′ is an excellent example, with the artist utilising positive and negative space to lead the eye into the composition; from our foreground vantage point, down into the village to the sea and headland beyond. The white paper of the pathway, border and sky create a convincing ground and an imaginative space for the viewer to step into.

Michael Stuart Green - West Coast Village 2

This is a work which is cleverly composed and beautifully executed, the interplay of forms demonstrating the artist’s command of traditional printmaking techniques and of design. ‘Diabaig’ (Monotype, ink and acrylic) is another fine example exhibiting a variety of drawn mark and density of ink that describes the scene with immediacy. The square brush blots of ink in the base of a dry stone wall solidify the structure, and work beautifully with more delicate treatment of details such as vegetation to create a convincing image.

Julie Whatley’s quietly assured gouache and mixed media works based on wildlife observation successfully convey the essence of her avian subjects. In ‘Gannets Fishing’ she captures the aerodynamics and solid intent of the birds observing their prey before their impending free fall into the ocean. Fluid charcoal defines their bodies and wings with an accent of ochre on each head introducing earthy colour to the habitat of air and water.

Julie Whatley - Gannets Fishing

‘Heron in Flight’ is another example, although cruelly cropped in its frame; the linear description of serpentine neck and layering of feathers in washes of paint and pastel capturing the presence of the bird. ‘Puffin Group’ also utilises pure line in its curvaceous and economical depiction of robust and rotund bodies, with the background in blue and grey bisected with a single curve of horizon.

New acrylics on canvas by James Adams allude to loss and human memory in relation to land and seascape. In ‘He Used to Take the Ferry’, Adams places the aged figure with a walking stick on the same plane as a line of hills and cottages in the top section of the painting in what feels like the present tense, while beneath two arch-like harbours seemingly inhabit his consciousness; a departing ferry depicted in one, a lighthouse in the other. The palette of deep green, steely blue and white and naïve rendering of form in stark black outline are deceptively naïve and complex in their associations.

The multiple perspective of Adam’s work is inherently Expressionistic and emotive. In ‘Red Tug’ the artist uses colour and a lighter touch to create a sense of hope and refuge with the red tug anchored in the harbour and a beacon in luminous yellow against blue. The dream-like sketched detail of the foreground and cleverly placed mid-ground of deep green creates a feeling of depth and immersion in the scene, leading down to the shore. ‘The Croft Inspector’ adds an element of humour to this suite of paintings with the purposeful stride of authority, brief case in hand, set against the landscape and flattened pink farmhouse.

Inchmore is continuing to establish itself since a change of ownership last year with an ongoing commitment to showing the work of “local artists, new graduates, emerging artists and nationally recognised names”. Those already familiar with the gallery will recognise work by regularly exhibiting artists such as Daniel Kavanagh, Patricia Shone, Cyril Reed and Mark Lomax, and this year’s programme of solo and group shows will continue to introduce new work and new artist’s to the gallery. The introduction of a programme of Classes and Workshops are being planned for autumn 2011expanding the role of the gallery and offering tuition for both experienced artists and beginners.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

THE REOPENING of Inchmore Gallery by new owners Jane, Barbara and Bill Inglis reflects an initial period of transition between the identity of the gallery as established by previous owners Gwen and Fred Black and the potential emergence of a distinct new venue on the local art scene. It remains to be seen as the programme of solo and group shows unfolds in the New Year how the new Inchmore Gallery will define itself in terms of curatorial vision; however the presence of quality jewellery, ceramics, sculpture, original prints and paintings in this opening show presents an encouraging platform for future development.

Local audiences will recognise work by Inchmore Gallery’s regularly exhibiting artists including Gwen Black, Mark Lomax, Cyril Reed, Hazel Reed, Robyn Kennedy, Patricia Shone, Emma Noble, Janet Soutar, Jenny Hepburn, Michael Stuart Green, Jemma Derbyshire, David Body, Stuart Whatley, Julie Whatley and Jane Owen Inglis. The introduction of work by new artists to the gallery such as Ken Bryan, Polly Bryan, Mairi Wheeler, Annie Coomber, Carole Robinson, Liz Myhill, Lynn Bennett MacKenzie, Lesley Jones, Emma Siedle –Collins, Kim Bramley, Julia Smith, Ann Clayton, Anne Rooney, Laura West, Barbara Inglis, Helena Emmans, Elaine Russell, Chris Stuart and Helen Louise Robertson features some fine work in mixed media, ceramics, jewellery and glass.

A Ceramic bowl by Lesley Jones

Inspired by organic forms, a series of works in porcelain by Lesley Jones reveals the delicacy of the medium coupled with the beauty of nature. Created on an intimate scale, the artist’s Urchin, Shell and Almond bowls almost feel like cross sections for biological or contemplative study, with chambers in pieces such as Open-Shell Bowl 3 in grey/green glaze folded around the outer rim. The Urchin bowls glazed in tin and copper are particularly fine, visually blurring the line between a naturally formed/ found and hand made object. Beauty of form and delicate glazes characterise each unique work, as if each piece were a separate organism.

Another interesting work inspired by natural form yet transformed by Deco like geometry is Anne Coomber’s sculpture Beechnuts, in Ancaster limestone presented on a sycamore plinth. The beautifully smooth texture of stone against the fine grain of lightly golden wood, together with graceful angularity of her sculpted design creates an elegant aesthetic and it will be good to see a more representative sample of the artist’s work in future shows.

Ceramic bowls and plates by Julia Smith combine light opaque glazes with more robust form constructed in red clay. Detailed illustrative transfers of bees and butterflies beneath the transparent glaze gives the work a vintage flavour, with drawn detail also added to items in this lovely range of functional ceramics. William Morris’s words; “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” immediately springs to mind, especially in this season of gift giving.

The dynamic and elemental work of ceramic artist Patricia Shone is richly in evidence in this opening show, demonstrating the fluid relationship between Fine Art and Craft disciplines. Larger sculptural pieces such as Contour 10 Flat Earth, whose crackled surface reads like the aftermath of a geological event, and the introduction of new forms such as hewn angularity of Faceted Bottle and curved geometry of Tri Corn Pot present striking works of strength and refinement.

Brooch by Helena Emmans

Stirling Silver Jewellery by Helena Emmans draws its inspiration from the shoreline and natural forms such as dandelion spores and pebbles. Her Gentle Crescent Brooch whose burnished and oxidised surface feels infused with the rhythm of moon and tides is a good example. The circular marks drawing the crescent read like shell or stone erosion, tiny holes that give each piece a unique and delicate quality. The artist’s Oxidised Irregular Spores Necklace, like a charm bracelet of shoreline finds, and Delicate Bud Chain, with its incised striations combine contemporary design, natural observation and fine craftsmanship in precious items of adornment.

A series of small fused and slumped glass pieces by Carole Robinson intriguingly combine hand painted and illustrative elements in curved square form, while the work of Kim Bramley celebrates the colour, vibrancy and light reflective properties of the medium in a superb series of abstract glass plates. Red Horizon is an excellent example; a kiln-formed and diamond wheel-cut glass plate in molten red and intense blue/aqua. The composition of this work is like a piece of Eastern calligraphy in its simplicity and beauty, divided as a triptych by the central motif in black. Another kiln-formed plate in vivid and iridescent bands of gold, green, purple and blue shimmers like peacock feathers or dragonfly wings, the chosen palette heightening our appreciation of light and colour within the whole composition.

Prints and mixed media works by Emma Noble such as the relief print Paris Batch #10 display a wonderful interplay of texture and layered surfaces evolving further in works such as 225 (Etching and Relief on Handmade Paper) and Fee Fi Fum (Mixed Media Print Collage) into more sculptural manifestations; 225 utilising the glass of the frame as yet another layer for exploration. This interesting treatment of surface and bold graphic fragments create a fluid and ambiguous series of images infused with urbanity and a spirit of experimentation. The materials and processes of original printmaking are in a state of play with the artist truly investigating the possibilities of her chosen medium.

The combination of established Inchmore Gallery artists and the introduction of new work, particularly contemporary craft, to the gallery provide an encouraging beginning for a new phase in Inchmore’s history as a creative space. While the gallery’s identity and vision under new ownership has yet to emerge, the coming year will hopefully see the establishment of a vibrant and sustainable new space for the promotion of Fine Art and Contemporary Craft in the region.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

The Box Player by James Adams

Looking Out of the Window  heralds the beginning of an exciting new creative partnership from First Line collective artists Gwen Black, Mark Lomax and Janet Soutar. Exploration of the artist’s book format and the relationship between visual and written text is central to the exhibition, ranging from traditional hand bound books to sculptural and installation pieces.

This is a promising and engaging show which presents a selection of work from each individual artist together with a central work created in collaboration. This title work in mixed media, each framed piece taking its lead from a single line of the poem Looking Out of the Window, flows like a three part harmony, a dynamic which shows great potential in terms of future work from the trio.

Three distinct voices are stylistically present, while creating a remarkably coherent linear statement from the group. Colour and texture are subtly rendered in the piece as a whole, conveying the emotional temperature of the original text.

The artist’s book format is revealed in a flowering of possibilities in this show, a variety of bindings, foldings and three-dimensional manifestations that convey the imaginative scope of the form. The tactile, intimate scale of the hand-bound object is beautifully represented by a selection of small editions by Gwen Black and Janet Soutar, together with one-off pieces contained in two glass cases.

Among these is Soutar’s poignant work Whose The Daddy, growing beyond the confines of its multilayered book form. Resting in front of this work is a postmarked envelope with typed text; “Being poor is always knowing you are second class”. This single piece of paper with its second class stamp on humanity makes an extremely powerful statement.

The social element of Soutar’s work is also expressed in a stark series of monoprints including The Brickworks, a scene of abandonment, and Hanging By a Thread, in its emotive representation of the female form. The artist’s sculptural work The House of Small Voices, though well constructed, is rather obvious in its use of the dollhouse as an exploration of childhood and domestic violence.

The piece may have benefited from further development of the house psychologically and sculpturally, together with a more considered approach to the relationship between interior and exterior content. The exterior wallpaper of poetic text wrapped around a white familiar house form seems a rather benign way to make those small voices heard.

The interior objects including a video loop of an animated doll skipping in short sequence while mildly unsettling seemed random and disconnected rather than leading the viewer convincingly into the guts of the piece.

Mark Lomax’s sculptural installation Thoughts Made Real, with its deceptive combination of seemingly organic stone and man-made book forms, arranged in 5 x 3 rows on the gallery floor, demands greater contemplative space around it. The drawn and collaged surfaces of each object are intricately rendered, with flashes of sky blue optimism among the dominant grey and white.

The artist’s techniques have continued to evolve since his last solo show, Ephemera, and through a series of altered map works to really engage with the excavation and investigation of surface using a variety of media and found objects. The strata here are physical, ideological and emotional, and the series of wall works in this current show naturally invite closer inspection.

Looking and Understanding, The Book of Hidden Poetry or Trying To Enter The Silence, The Book of Loss and Regret feel like they contain a torn human fault line in the treatment of materials. The universality of human experience remains at the core of Lomax’s work.

Remembered, Book of Caged Thoughts, a mindscape of low relief sculpture punctuated by a small protruding wire cage, the thought screwed up and discarded within, makes the unseen tangible. The nature of this work is its essential ambiguity, relating to life experiences but without the assurance of a clearly defined narrative or concrete resolution.

In this way the book form is completely expanded which is part of its essential beauty. It is always a pleasure to see Inchmore’s engagement with more experimental work in its upstairs gallery space and this latest exhibition is no exception.

Featured in the downstairs galleries is an exhibition of paintings and sculptural work by James Adams. Island Life refreshingly introduces the human figure back into the fabric of the Highlands and Islands landscape. A series of mild steel sculptures including The Peat Cutter and The Winter Walker are strong, elegantly elongated pieces that compliment beautifully the bold naïve style of the acrylics and oils.

The only unpopulated image, The Light Was Automated, provides an interesting introduction to the adjacent figurative work with its beam of light illuminating an empty croft house. Acrylics such as At The Loom, Digging The Tatties and The Box Player have an earthy physicality to them in the stark treatment of the figure and choice of palette.

Inspired by visits to Orkney, Lewis and Mull in 2009, Adams’s latest work brings the daily life of crofters, fishermen, weavers and winkle pickers into focus in his own inimitable style.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
  

Yellow Ukulele by Caroline Hewat (Acrylic on Canvas)

INCHMORE’S current show presents a varied selection of new work from Chris Hugh MacKenzie, Rhona Joan Macleod and Caroline Hewat. In addition to work by the featured artists, there are some excellent works by Inchmore’s regularly exhibiting artists, including raiku ceramics from Allison Weightman, newly commissioned sculptural work in ceramic and bronze by Daniel Kavanagh, and striking mixed media collages by Emma Noble.

Rhona Joan Macleod’s passion for local architecture is evident in a series of linocuts and ink and acrylic wash drawings depicting historic buildings and riverside scenes in Inverness. Derived from sketches and photographs, Macleod’s use of linocut together with her stylised drawings present a unique vision of our everyday surroundings.

Riverside 2 with its strong black definition of architectural forms softened by pastel washes and wonderfully animated skies, is an excellent example. The viewer can really feel the energy of the linocut process in this series of prints.

Macleod presents a pastiche of architecture old and new in her pencil and ink drawing Eden Court, and a finely executed ink and acrylic wash drawing River City is a particular highlight of her exhibition. The rhythm of mark in the water and balance of the composition between areas of wash and white canvas are beautifully realised. The structure of this drawing is impressive, and the contrast between man-made architectural geometry and organic line is reminiscent of Mackintosh.

Chris Hugh MacKenzie’s homage to the Highland landscape, North Facing Heart, presents a series of oils and mixed media Travel Logues that respond directly to the land and ideas of home. The Travel Logue’s are especially interesting, possessing the immediacy of a visual diary or sketchbook.

In Away, the artist’s exploration of oils creates an amazing array of textures and veiled colour, emerging from beneath a glaze or thaw of frozen landscape. The cool greenish hues are counterbalanced by scant accents of warmth and the mood of the work dominated by dark skies is extremely evocative of the Northern winter.

In Home I (Oil on Board), the artist successfully explores abstract composition in a convincing balance of the drawn mark, delicate pink chalky textures and starkness of forms defined in black. It is an ambivalent and intriguing piece of work that shows promise. Though some works in the show are more patchily executed, the best works convey a real investment not only in the subject matter but in the handling of media.

A sense of experimentation pervades new work by Caroline Hewat in a series of watercolour, ink, mixed media and acrylic works exploring both urban and land-based subject matter. Stylistically this is an eclectic display of work, a combination of direct observation and interpretation that at its best demonstrates great understanding of composition and its essential elements.

A small work such as Linear Field is a good example, striking an accomplished balance between colour, form and line. Although modest in scale this is a strong piece, layered in earthy tones overlaid with vibrant orange and a carefully structured accent of white unifying the whole composition.

This is developed further in larger scale semi-abstract works such as Red Planet and Yellow Ukulele, which are highlights of the show. Though unity exists in individual pieces it is disappointing not to see greater coherence in the artist’s visual statement as a whole. Previous showings of Hewat’s work have demonstrated a stronger sense of the artist’s individual voice, and greater consistency and equality between technique and ideas. There is an overall feeling of work in transition here, and while evidence of experimentation is always wonderful to see, this artist is certainly capable of a commanding solo show.

Inchmore’s commitment to showing work by emerging artists is to be congratulated, and the gallery continues to be a stimulating showcase of contemporary Scottish Art. During 2009 there has been a diverse range of practice represented in the venue, with the focus on more experimental work in the upper gallery presenting an exciting dynamic within what is essentially a private commercial art space.

This is a tradition that I hope will continue in 2010 and beyond.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Brian MacBeath "Light on the Roof" (Oil on Canvas)

CURRENTLY on show at Inchmore Gallery is a varied selection of new works including abstract paintings and prints by Brian MacBeath, acrylic paintings by Vicky Stonebridge and a group exhibition by members of Visual Arts Sutherland.

Brian MacBeath’s large scale oils on canvas employ his characteristic exploration of colour and abstract form derived from printmaking. The multilayered nature of his technique, together with evolution in relation to paint handling and an expansion of the artist’s palette make this an interesting new body of work. Although typically free-floating forms and sunny pastels do make an appearance there is greater depth of colour and mark making on display, especially in the larger canvases.

Light on The Roof, for example, uses overlap of form and a variety of washes of deep alizarin crimson, orange, purple, green and blue to convey a particular mood. There is a variety of mark and paint handling within the overlap of forms and abstract composition which together with the rich warm hues of the canvas add depth to the paintings’s ambiguous surfaces. High Road is another example utilising the grain and texture of the canvas, varnish-like gloss of paint and a variety of mark in deep green, aqua and yellow to create a sense of creative development within the artist’s signature style.

Vicky Stonebridge’s latest work derived from her experience as a retained fire fighter presents a series of figurative images in acrylic on canvas and paper. Stonebridge’s illustrative style combines keen observation and sensitivity in relation to her human subject with a potentially dynamic approach to composition. While some works retain the casual cropping of a photographic snapshot others such as Hoses Ready and Going into Smoke convey a beautifully structured awareness of composition.

The way the figurative group is framed and how our eye is led into the composition in these works allows the audience to interpret the image on a variety of levels. Hoses Ready with its enlargement of the foreground and serpentine line into the image creates a heightened relationship between object and the figurative group in the distance.

In Going Into Smoke the arrangement of long dark shadows in relationship to the figures and the central light emanating from the smoke creates an ethereal image of life and death. The artist’s choice of composition offers alternative readings of what is at first glance a recognisable and realistic depiction of a particular job or sequence of training manoeuvres.

It is the human element in the works and the central focus of an image such as Checking on a Colleague or Going Into Smoke that allows us not just to observe but to feel. With further development this dynamic quality could prove definitive in terms of the artist’s style and technique.

Formed in 2004, Visual Arts Sutherland represents professional artists in the county through open studio events, exhibitions, education work and web-based promotion. This is the group’s first showing of work in the Inverness-shire area and features paintings, prints, sculpture and textiles by artists including Joan Baxter, Meg Telfer, Cyril Reed, Rachel Skene, Norman Gibson, Dorothy Dick, Jacqueline Walters, Richard Davies, Jennifer MacKenzie, Hazel Reed, Nicola Poole, Sarah Orr and Iris Wallace.

A highly accomplished textile artist, Joan Baxter’s tapestry work displays her subtle understanding of colour, rhythm and composition. Journey is a superb example, a gradual unfolding in the mind’s eye with fragments of landscape in a myriad of gentle hues. The sequence of weave beginning with a sampling of abstract squares of colour unfurls into the line of mountains then fades into nothing like a fleeting thought or dream.

The architecture of this piece is almost like a musical soundscape. In October Clothscape, Baxter blends Highland autumnal colour and light, punctuating the tapestry with loose threads in counterpoint to the rhythm of the weave. At the top of the composition she exposes the bones of its construction in the open loom. This combination of formal structure together with observation of the natural world is a compelling combination.

Rachel Skene’s work is defined by rhythmic contrast in relation to the weave in Plaid 1 and Plaid 2; two beautifully woven and appliquéd scarves worn draped around the shoulders. Stark geometry, striking contemporary design and use of metallic discs and thread reinterpret the traditional associations with the garment and its methods of construction.

In Plaid 2, Skene cleverly contrasts patterns of black, white and copper stitched and folded with deep claret satin ribbon and rich red-brown and blue-grey finely woven cloth. Animated by the addition of more random rhythmic elements such as the metallic discs towards the edges of the work Skene, like fellow textile artist Joan Baxter, ably demonstrates that the perceived division between Craft and Fine Art disciplines is a fiction.

Meg Telfer has contributed two paintings to the exhibition which clearly draw inspiration from the scale and changeability of the Sutherland landscape. Beach (gouache) is described beautifully by two great sweeping arcs of pale sand against turquoise green water and purple hills. The height of the horizon adds to the vastness of the uninhabited scene.

In Storm Passing, Lochan Hakel (acrylic, pastel), the dark image is illuminated by yellow light and a single horizontal line of white upon the solid landforms below. There is an almost biblical association of light in the glint of white upon the loch. The robust treatment of the landscape as a whole, the strength and enduring qualities of nature are beautifully contrasted with the thin blue hand-drawn lines of the mid-ground and delicately drawn marks of ochre in the foreground. This is a landscape distilled to its essence.

Cryil Reed’s treatment of landscape in work such as Gruinard Bay utilises gradations and blocks of colour together with overlapping form in steely blues, browns and greens to lead our eye convincingly into the curve of the bay. His reduction of the landscape to formal pictorial elements is further concentrated in his Bay Triptych, a beautifully balanced composition in deep ultramarine accented with peachy brown.

Norman Gibson’s wall hung sculptural works are a fascinating highlight of the show, exploring the “fleeting patterns of tides and foreshores, shifting thresholds between land and sea and traces and transformations of everyday objects in such settings.”

Pennisula is an excellent example, a wonderful interplay of formal design, spatial enquiry and natural textures. The grain of the timber is allowed to emerge from the gently curving progression of blue at the base of the sculpture, like ripples of light upon the ocean. The main geometric form of the sculpture reads in an architectural way, like a man made construct seen from an aerial perspective.

Gibson always presents the viewer with several potential levels of engagement or perspective in his work, which is as much an intellectual proposition as a visual one. Layered construction contributes to the sense of depth, shadow and potential meanings within the work.

Hopefully this exhibition will lead to further showcasing of work by VASU outside their home county. It would be great to see a larger exhibition and a more comprehensive statement of work by each artist to progressively raise awareness of the group and its unique locale.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
• Vicky Stonebridge
• Visual Arts Sutherland

Nigel Sandeman - The Big Smoke (image courtesy of Inchmore Gallery)

INCHMORE GALLERY presents a varied and interesting selection of work this month including new work by James Newton Adams, Rupert Copping, Jenny Hepburn, Gwen Black and Fiona Matheson in the downstairs galleries, and upstairs The Digital Divide, with work by Nigel Sandeman, Michael Stuart Green and Fiona Cameron.

The Digital Divide is a fascinating show for the questions that it raises in regard to original printmaking, the craft of creating images and the use of technology as a tool for expression.

Michael Stuart Green combines a range of printmaking techniques in his practice including ODP (original digital printmaking), monotype, collagraph, linocut, etched lino and woodcut, all of which are in evidence in a variety of combinations in the nine works on display. Using a graphic tablet to draw and evolving the image via a matrix which generates the print as a long sequence of computer coding, this technology is part of a variety of techniques employed by the artist to create multilayered images of depth and complexity.

There is always a sense in Green’s work of the artist’s hand being present. Trees and Stable at Belladrum (Mixed Printmaking) is a good example, conveying the freshness of a charcoal sketch coupled with the fluidity of a watercolour. The image does not look overcooked, it hasn’t had the life effectively manipulated out of it, but retains the information it needs to lead the viewer into the image.

Belladrama (Mixed Printmaking) introduces relief printing overlay to clearly computer-generated sections in a seemingly natural and integrated way. There is no sense of “divide” in the artist’s work in terms of methodology. This is also exemplified by Across The Ditch, Belladrum (Mixed printmaking) where the eye is lead convincingly into the work in a complex pastiche of technique.

A variety of mark complimented by a subtle palette of grey, green and pink and arrangement of form are part of the dynamics of the image. Lino cut in the foreground brings it immediately forward while the sketchier details in the background further enhance the perspective of the scene as our eye is lead through the trees to the buildings beyond. Traditional printmaking techniques are overlaid as part of the artist’s impressive command of the medium.

A criticism of digital imaging both in printmaking and in film is that the resulting images lack depth or a range of tonality. It is precisely this quality, however, that can be extremely well suited to a particular artist’s intentions or mode of expression in relation to the chosen subject matter.

With digitally generated inkjet printing flooding the art market and the line between original printmaking and reproduction printing already blurred in the public mind, it is important for each individual artist to assess whether going digital is appropriate in relation to their creative process, and to what degree.

If an artist creates an inkjet reproduction of an original piece of work does it adequately represent their practice? If digital methods are used exclusively to create work or used as part of the toolkit of techniques to create an original piece of work does the technique equal the idea? Is it the most appropriate mode of expression for the given body of work or is it simply being used as part of our wider cultural and social obsession with technological upgrading?

The art of NOW clearly dictates a digital buzz in the contemporary art world. Whilst technology opens up an exciting range of creative possibilities, is relatively inexpensive and therefore accessible to all, it is ultimately engagement with the craft of image-making regardless of medium that allows an image, still or moving, to communicate and connect with the viewer.

Nigel Sandeman’s work uses digital technology to generate images derived from traditional line drawing coupled with an understanding of colour, form and composition derived from painting. There is a sense of assemblage in Sandeman’s images which in works like Biology/ Language/ Intellect are superbly balanced in terms of colour and composition. There is density in the image both in terms of layered technique and the imprint of the mind upon the work bound into its intricate patterns and textures.

Works like Glasgow N02 seem less convincing, conveying the quality of a scanned drawing collaged into a pleasing composition, but several steps removed from the artist’s first and immediate drawn response. Using “digital technology to interact with his work” clearly comes into play in this piece; there is less of a feeling of integration between the process and the final image we are confronted with.

Tectonic Maze is another example of a beautifully composed arrangement of line, form and colour in yellow, green and blue, but I could not help but feel frustrated by the flattened dimension characteristic of the inkjet. In this particular work it felt like a second-hand transmission of vital marks made by the artist in a digital amalgamation of drawn elements.

Sandeman is clearly visually literate, with a considered, painterly eye, and yet this obvious talent seemed somewhat obscured by the chosen means of expression. The artist’s comment that “being short of space at home to paint has led (him) into the use of digital technology” is an interesting one in relation to the space between the artist, screen and image.

Fiona Cameron has contributed three experimental stop-frame animation pieces to the exhibition. Inspired by the work of animators such as Yuri Norstein, Michael Gondry and Andres Nilson, Cameron’s Poke Felanthropist, a tale in homage to her dead cat, utilises hand drawn images contained within a gold picture frame.

Continuity of light between each frame sometimes obscures the drawing and whilst this stilted rhythm is part of the charm of Deadflies and Butterfly (and perfectly in tune with the soundtrack by band Frightened Rabbit) here it detracts from engagement with the drawn animation. As a result Poke Felanthropist is more memorable for its soundtrack than its visuals.

The City Export, one of Cameron’s first animations, shows promise, with the torn two dimensional image of a city and its flyovers brought to life by cut out animated vehicles. I found myself craving the next step with this work, to go down into those spaghetti junctions and become immersed into that world.

A layering of techniques and camera angles would achieve this without potentially losing the handmade conception or construction of the work. It will be exciting to see this artist’s work develop in future as a result of further development and investigation of her craft. Overall, The Digital Divide is a fascinating show and an excellent visual stimulus for debate.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

James Bruce Thomason - Packing The Silver Darlings

CURRENTLY on show in Inchmore’s upper gallery space following its recent tour to the Farum Kulturhus in Denmark, Crossing Waater represents an abridged showcase of work by Shetland Artists’ group Veer North. Since Veer North’s formation in 2003 the group have actively promoted links between professional artists in Shetland, the UK, Scandinavia and Europe.

There are some beautiful and engaging pieces to savour in this latest travelling exhibition, albeit in a condensed form. As a larger scale project, Crossing Waater will be shown at the Shetland Museum (4 July – 3 August), incorporating a series of art labs in the local community.

It is a shame not to have access to the full programme including art labs in a space completely devoted to the show as a whole. The quality of many of the works warrants such a statement, and audiences unfamiliar with the Shetland artists’ work may be puzzled by the continuity of showing unrelated work by stable Inchmore Gallery artists in the same exhibition space.

Nevertheless, this is a wonderful opportunity for local audiences to sample work by Shetland artists they may not have had the chance to see before, and I hope that Crossing Waater will set a precedent for more regular exposure to the group’s work in the future. Featuring work by Roxane Permar, Ruth Brownlee, Kristi Cumming, Anne Bain, Lesley Burr, Paul Bloomer, Susan Timmins, Mike Finnie, June Redman, Frances Browne, James Bruce Thomason and Howard Towll, the show gives a tantalising glimpse of each artist’s work in a variety of media including film, painting, drawing and printmaking.

One of the highlights of the show is Susan Timmins’s six minute film Red Gown, a visual response to a historical incident / piece of oral storytelling from Burra Isle in Shetland. The film presents fragments of narrative through still and moving image, poetry and music and is beautifully evocative of the fragile nature of memory.

The shifting, dream-like quality of the piece, superbly in tune with natural elements of sea and clouds, is accompanied by the music Stormy Weather arranged and played by Martin Naylor. Solo piano adds to the character of the work and its poignancy of faded romance and remembrance, but the most compelling element of Red Gown is the composition and human presence in the work, the merging of the cold green sea with the vibrant red fabric of the dress which has an almost figurative quality.

The moving images are painterly abstracts in some sections, beautifully composed in a single frame. The texture and detail of each composition, the folds of fabric, the weathered rib-like hull of timber and the ebb and flow of the sea is part of the inherent beauty of the film. There is too a deeply affecting sense of loss in the work, the dress half-submerged beneath the foam and sinking, the suggestion of a drowned woman whose face we never see, lost in the current and drifting endlessly in the imagination.

Mareel, St Ninians (Oil on Canvas) by Paul Bloomer can also be seen as an ethereal hinterland. The isthmus of land defined on either side by the sweeping curve of the sea is superbly rendered in phosphorescent yellow, luminous blue and umber under-painting. It is a scene that Bloomer has returned to many times in all weathers and in an infinite variety of colour, texture and mood. Here the simplified forms of land balanced against the delicacy and luminosity of liquefied paint give the image a devotional quality. This is a meditative work alive with colour and movement. It is a spiritual and physical image of landscape, the narrow stretch of sand a journey between this world and another.

Leslie Burr’s Whirlpool (Oil on Canvas) resonates with a vibrant saturation of cadmium red and vermillion. The composition is pared down, with the main figure isolated in profile in the foreground and the house anchored in an ellipse at the centre of the composition.

A psychological space is created by the use of colour and positioning of the figures in relation to each other, the distant male figure within the home defined by an outline while the female figure is positioned on the outer frame of the space. It is an intense and surreal image caught in a vibration of colour. Burr’s style, reminiscent of the work of Odilon Redon, has at its core a profound sense of stillness and contemplation, evoking the simplicity and elegance of a Japanese print.

Dwaalin (Acrylic on canvas) by Kristi Cumming enters into pure abstraction with loose brushwork and blocks of rich turquoise against drawn marks of red and black. This is a beautifully balanced composition in which colour and form are equal partners.

In total contrast, the photo realist style of Brian Henderson’s Rockpool revels in detail as the eye descends into the water. Parcel (Acrylic on board) has the same crisp execution but with a Magritte-like play on the image unwrapped. Here the brown paper and bubble wrap of the life-like parcel is peeled away to reveal the image within, a window-like depiction of a boat and water that is both real and unreal.

Like many of Magritte’s works we are led to question what we are actually seeing, the heightened realism suggesting another layer of reality. The association of the boat with journeying is also an effective play on this idea.

James Bruce Thomason’s Packing The Silver Darlings (acrylic on canvas) recalls early John Bellany and even Lowry in its naïve treatment of the figure. The starkness of dark boats and clothing against the white shore and icy blue water give the image an uncompromising quality, with the yellow-tinged sky animated by looser expressionistic brushwork. The arrangement of figures, salting barrels and boats lead the eye into the scene, a pattern of life caught between sea, land and time.

Frances Browne has contributed an excellent series of black and white photographic images entitled Waters Journey. The strength of high contrast tonality is beautifully juxtaposed with the intricacy of a liquid element in close focus. A living image of chiaroscuro is created, animated by the movement of the water suspended momentarily within the frame.

Browne’s microcosmic image is contrasted with Anne Bain’s menacing snapshot Stormy Weather (Acrylic on paper), in which a framed section of ocean in intense blue and green is whipped into movement by wind and waves. There is a frightening sense of the enormity of nature’s elements at work in this image; although we cannot see the entire expanse of ocean we can certainly feel it and our human scale in relation to it.

Crossing Waater presents a fascinating exploration of journeying from the Veer North group and an excellent opportunity for Inverness-shire audiences to sample work by some of Shetland’s best artists. I sincerely hope that this will be the first of many more exhibitions and exchanges between Shetland artists and Highland audiences.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
• Veer North

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

The Order of Things - courtesy of the artist, Matt Sillars

INCHMORE Gallery’s current exhibition includes new work by Gayle Robinson and Malcolm McCoig in the downstairs galleries, together with a mixed showcase of ceramics, glass, paintings, sculpture and original prints. Upstairs in Inchmore’s more experimental space, independent photography is celebrated with work by Caroline Dear, Peter Fenton, Anne Thomson, Eileen Fitzpatrick, Matt Sillars and Martin Elder.

The “Scottish Photographers (northern cell)” exhibition is an exciting development as it embraces the craft of photography in a loose affiliation of Highland-based artists, linked to the Scottish Photographers network. Meeting primarily to discuss work critically in a professional context, it is an absolute joy to see this work being presented.

Whilst the aim of the group is to foster creative development and innovation rather than publicly exhibit, I am delighted to see the art form made visible in this way. Photography lacks recognition in the UK as a Fine Art and it is inspiring to see the range of work being produced by Scottish and Highland-based artists.

Emphasis is very much on interpretation rather than a documentary or snapshot approach to the medium. In a digital age it is particularly refreshing and inspirational to see the ethos of the group visually manifest. “The original excitement and innocence of this most democratic of media” is alive and well.

Artists working in other mediums would benefit equally from an approach which tests the limits of their craft and allows work to evolve in a spirit of mutual recognition. This is based ultimately on the craft itself rather than ego, fashion or celebrity. I thoroughly enjoyed this show and hope it will be one of many that the group might share with the public. It is always a pleasure to see work driven by individual creative process and fully engaged with every element of image making.

Caroline Dear’s triptych ‘Polytunnel Drawing 1,2,3′ is a tremendously subtle piece of abstract composition that is both painterly and sculptural. There is a rhythm of filtered light connecting each panel akin to the artist’s use of natural materials such as grass, peat, rush and heather. The landscape, inner and outer, is invoked by her use of light, transforming the two dimensional surface into what feels like animated sculptural relief. Low dappled tones of grey and beige are interlaced with the appearance of scored and incised organic forms. The whole work is fluid, an evocation of nature achieved through a solid understanding of composition, light and tone.

Peter Fenton’s work engages with natural material, paring down the image in beautifully simple and balanced compositions of black and white. A pair of studies of twigs and plant material has the elegance of Eastern calligraphy and the presence of a drawing made by a human hand. Marks emerge from a pure white ground as a sign of “impermanence”. A number of the artist’s finely crafted books are also on display, among them A Matter of Life…, a sequence of black and white images of growing ferns, their structured rows of markers like graves. The scale of the work is personal but also monumental, a meditation on life and death that is deeply poignant, transforming an image of the everyday into a very human meditation.

Eileen Fitzpatrick’s images of Dr Arthur Bates, a former consultant physician and puppet maker now in his 80’s, are a fascinating series of images. Fitzpatrick’s display of photographs contains an interesting sequence presented in small album form which focuses on the puppets and their maker. Close ups of the doll-like faces read like effigies of age. There is an element of the grotesque in this work which is compelling and strangely beautiful.

The close up of a tiny papier-mâché hand being held by a human creator or a group of female puppets frozen in conversation present the viewer with contemplative images with which we can identify. We can see our own frailty and vulnerability in them. Many of these images would benefit from larger printing, displayed as a large scale suite or published in book form. There is a body of work here that if presented on a different scale would make a good solo exhibition.

‘The Vanity of Interruption’ by Matt Sillars presents a series of four images of the male body, two of which are printed larger than life size and take on the monumentality of landscape. The ‘Madness of Civilisation’ is on one level a superb life study, capturing the subtle contours of the torso and the point where hip meets thigh. The image is defined by positive and negative space based on an understanding of composition from the high tonal values of black and white photography.

The progression into colour is handled quietly and with sensitivity. The strong masculine hand grasps a clod of earth and grass suggesting dominion over the land. Equally the body is naked flesh and will certainly decay. This theme is also expressed in the exquisitely composed image ‘The Order of Things’. The flow of this image from one form to another is simply beautiful, the forearm and piece of turf curve into each other resting in the palm of the hand. The line of faded grass and living arm mirror each other like a meeting of life and death, creation and destruction.

Strangely the image reminded me of a musical and biblical phrase, that of Brahms’ German Requiem, “Behold for all flesh is as grass” – perhaps this association with the work was also triggered by the gallery’s converted church interior. There is an elegant flow of line and form creating a complete and powerful statement. The body is presented symbolically and the image works beautifully as an aesthetic and conceptual work.

In the downstairs gallery new work by regular Inchmore artist Gayle Robinson exhibits her characteristic blend of subtle colour and texture achieved through the multilayered collagraphic process. Her abstracted landscapes, constructed using collage technique on backing board allows layers of relief to be built up, inked and printed. This method of printmaking creates a rich and varied surface which together with the tactile quality of relief adds depth to the image.

‘Evening Harvest’ is a good example, with strata of earth built up beneath the surface landscape and high horizon line. Organic forms are illuminated by aura-like tones created by the inked surface relief. There is a sense of aerial perspective in much of Robinson’s work combined with the suggestion of landscaped horizon. Trees are simplified like the veins of a leaf invoking both microcosm and macrocosm.

Malcolm McCoig’s mixed media works such as ‘Submerged Nissen Hut’ and the wonderfully dreamy ‘Floating Nissen Hut’ are intriguing pieces. Intricate patterns of colour and texture, use of line and crosshatching are explored, evolving into more abstracted works such as ‘Four Nissen Huts’. Here the form of the subject and balance of colour in greys and greens dominate the composition rather than suggesting any kind of literal narrative.

‘Corrugation’ sees interplay between form and technique which is tactile, like a wrestling of different media. There is an exploration of materials and techniques here which requires further investigation and refinement. It will be interesting to see how this work evolves in the future.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
• Scottish Photographers

Work by Mark Lomax at Inchmore Gallery

PAUL KLEE’S credo that “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible” seems particularly relevant in relation to Inchmore’s latest solo exhibition by artist and sculptor Mark Lomax. Absorbing, beautifully executed and satisfyingly ambiguous, the show represents an impressive first major showing of the artist’s work in Scotland.

A series of wall and floor works created specifically for the upper gallery space are an intriguing combination of artistic disciplines; sculpture, painting and site specific installation, retaining all the primary energy and freshness of the drawn mark. Each sequential element in this show lends itself to multiple interpretations and begs closer scrutiny.

The artist’s concern with rhythm allows the eye to move within the picture plane, demonstrating admirably a deep understanding of the formal elements of art-making through abstraction. The interrelationship between two and three dimensional works really grapple with the whole idea of perception in art. It is refreshing to see an artist fully engaged with the physical, social and psychological “ground” from which imagery and meaning emerge through creative process.

The artist has conceived this show effectively, treating the architecture of the space as “a formal constraint”. The frieze-like presentation of the two dimensional works, lighting, atmosphere and associations with the converted church are all brought to bear on how we engage with the work.

There is a great deal of subtlety in how the artist’s chosen materials absorb and reflect light and in his layered technique, allowing imagery to shift and emerge before our eyes. The suggestion of imagery operates very much like the open space we feel in a poetic text, allowing the viewer or reader to create their own meaning and associations in a way that is fluid, imaginative and liberating.

The central installation, ‘Sticks and Stones’, consisting of a hundred cloth bound books sealed enigmatically shut and hovering above the deep charcoal floor, embody the naivety and wisdom of the rhyme. This field of found objects presents us with a formal structure where human knowledge sits uneasily with the potential violence and power of language.

We have a sense that every object invokes a life or has a story to tell and this idea is extended to the wall works whose titles are derived from the books that we see but cannot read. The whole work is rendered in an extremely painterly manner with a myriad of shades from hot cadmium red to aged sienna and deep alizarin crimson. Use of colour is aesthetically beautiful but also an agent of suggestion; various shades are evocative of human history and the passage of time.

The contrast of organic and man-made forms also adds to the sense of formal structure and movement, with the cover of each book painstakingly inlaid with a piece of stone, slate or wood. This is as much about the eye being led into the work as it is about its aesthetic or textural qualities. The formal 10 x 10 arrangement of bound volumes and the pattern of sticks and stones have a compelling rhythm of their own.

As an intellectual proposition or a purely visual statement the work is equally successful. The “transient nature of thoughts, dreams, memories and ideas” has real physical presence. It is also strangely emotive. The human hand in this work is always present both technically and thematically. One feels a sense of continuity throughout the exhibition, not just in the artist’s individual handling of materials , but in the epic sweep of human history and experience.

‘Ephemera’, a poetic sequence of found and crafted objects, each marked with a single word, present a fusion of natural processes with deliberate human action. The weathering of objects oxidised, rusted or scorched are inlaid with meaning through the visual sequence of object/image and text.

‘Ephemera’ is a poignant work because it seems to gather together life’s debris arranged in a beautiful, terrible line. The sense of “alone” as an isolated caged word permeates this piece, alluding to a collective human condition. ‘A World Full of Strangers’ with its barely discernable script and coffin like space marked out in the composition is a further example.

In the wall works we are sometimes not sure if the marks we see are the artist alone or the marks of ages, generations of human hands, nature, weather and accident. This dynamic of control and randomness is a fascinating aspect of the artist’s process and a key to its inherent delicacy. It is a balancing act which the artist manages to navigate in his own inimitable way.

Constructed from layers of plaster, filler, paint, pigment, soot, sand and rust the two dimensional panels have a strangely aged feel to them like rock glyphs or graffiti. Their beauty is in the sensitivity of the mark and the way that layers are excavated like a form of psychological, emotional and spiritual archaeology.

The overlap of layers of material creates spatial awareness within a narrow tonal range, encouraging the viewer to go closer and be drawn in by the rhythm of the marks themselves. ‘The Scarlet Thread’ is a fine example, with delicate chalky articulations that read like musical notation. When pigments are introduced they are remarkably subtle shifts in the overall sequence of dominant grey. The understated nature of the artist’s work is part of its strength.

A work such as ‘Twixt Land and Sea’ can be interpreted as a physical or a real view, a psychological space or a purely abstract composition of tone and form. Removal of literal subject matter encourages contemplation of a different level of reality, it invokes that most human of all compulsions to form meaning, construct narrative and make sense of the world. ‘Yesterday’s Child’ contains the ancient monumentality of low relief sculpture and the naivety of our first drawn expressions. The surface appears utterly natural yet it is superbly and deliberately crafted.

The relationship between text and image is a fascinating line of enquiry in these works and part of their overall unity. The text within the inner frame, working titles, labelled objects (not in terms of classification but in terms of poetic meaning) have an associative power that operates within and between the works on show. If we accept that the world is a well of contradictions where no easy answers are presented to us, then this body of work explores this concept with empathy, compassion and skill.

It is entirely appropriate that as the gallery celebrates its first year, exciting and challenging new work is introduced complimentary to the high standard of regular exhibitors. Also on display in the downstairs galleries as part of Inchmore’s summer showcase are mixed media works by Gwen Black, paintings by Cyril Reed and Maggie Savage, and some exquisite and unusual new glass works by Karen A Kester and Carrie Fertig.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Mark Lomax
• Inchmore Gallery

visualarts,highland

Rebecca Marr - Cloud Chariot

IN THE ABSENCE of established public art spaces in Inverness-shire, the upper gallery at Inchmore is emerging as an interesting space for experimentation, collaboration and cross-disciplinary practice. Whilst this is perhaps unexpected within a commercial gallery, Inchmore is also a working studio with great potential for creative programming.

This latest exhibition features photography from Rebecca Marr, writing from Edinburgh Makar Valerie Gillies (Poet Laureate to the city from 2005-2008) and printmaking by Carol Dunbar. For me it is an exhibition that engages the viewer most through the collaboration of text and photography.

Whilst the overall title of the exhibition, Dewpoint, suggests interpretation on many levels – the saturation temperature of water vapour in air, the point at which this scientific process becomes visible or interpretation of this visual manifestation as symbol – this implied level of multiplicity is not strongly represented by each of the show’s individual elements.

Together, Gillies poetry and Marr’s photographic images work extremely well, whilst sequences of lone photography or screen prints are less convincing components of the exhibition. Marr’s photographs present themselves in a documentary style, in keeping with historical inspiration from Luke Howard’s classification of clouds in the early 1800’s and the pioneering photographic techniques of Anna Atkins.

Atkins’ British Algae: Cynanotype Impressions (1843) was the first book printed by photography and Marr has clearly found inspiration in these early works. The use of the new art form for scientific illustration is coupled with the simple beauty of form in Atkins’ cyanotypes, produced by placing natural materials directly onto light sensitive paper to expose the image.

In Atkins’ day, light sensitive silver salts were used to coat the surface of the paper and UV light acted upon this to create images in ethereal Prussian blue. Without negatives or a camera, objects create shadow and tone through their natural thickness whilst creating a striking negative image.

Atkins’ early development of this technique created images of great delicacy and beauty. Here in a ‘Suite of 12′ hand printed photogram images of different types of seaweed, Marr utilises the technique in more pronounced black and white. The result is like that of an x-ray with the body of plant material illuminated by light.

Another sequence of 12 digital photographs, ‘In honour of ‘Look Cloudward’ by Luke Howard 1772-1864′, extends this idea of classification. Each image is an illustration of types of cloud identified by Howard in the early 19th century and has a soft tonality like that of early silver gelatin prints. While these images are beautiful documents of each cloud type, I found it hard to find a signature here other than homage to the past techniques or methods of classification. Whilst this quality in the work is admirable it isn’t as satisfying as testing the technique or the classification.

In contrast, collaboration of image and text in works such as ‘Cumulonimbus Viga – Orkney, February’ (Digital photograph and painted poem) by Gillies and Marr succeed in interpretation of image, rather than illumination of surfaces or classification through illustration. The arrangement of the text both vertical and horizontal, painted in white and seemingly floating on the glass framed surface blends beautifully with the photographic image.

The combination of words “Hail descending storm” and the visual image activate the viewer’s imagination in a way that cold classification or imitative technique on its own does not. There is also a wonderful natural rhythm in the image of ‘Cirrostratus with Kelvin-Helmholz Wave, Orkney, January’ which is complimented perfectly in the text:

“Curl
Curled are
Curled are the
Curled are their waving crests”

Gradations of tone and rhythm convey a joy in language, image and in the natural world. This translates directly to how this work allows you to feel in a way that a photograph or print on its own may not.

Similarly, Carol Dunbar’s screen prints are fragmentary elements in this exhibition and don’t really share a dialogue with the dominant works of text and photography. The hanging of these small scale prints which punctuate spaces between the larger sequences of work seem out of place.

Dunbar’s ‘Fragment – Dewpoint’ numbered series of screen prints are evocative of the shoreline, reading like natural imprints in cream, blue and white; they float on a white ground like fragments of seaweed encased in foam or found pieces of porcelain. As a sequence however they are repetitive, relieved by the final three; “Fragment – Dewpoint X, XI, and XII” in yellow, orange and ultramarine with a variation of petal or shell-like forms.

Whilst this feels like an exhibition of unequal parts the potential for collaboration between cross disciplinary practices is extremely encouraging as is the presence of the show within a commercial gallery space.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

Mhairi Killin - Na Clachan Dubh (photo - Inchmore Gallery)

THERE IS much to be enjoyed in Inchmore Gallery’s latest mixed exhibition and event with the introduction of several new artists and a strong showing of work from the Orkney Isles. On the east and west walls of the upper gallery a collection of over 150 works by established and emerging artists have been exhibited as part of Inchmore’s inaugural “Art in a Box” event.

The challenge of making work to fit into a CD cover for exhibition initiated a wide variety of responses. Well known artists such as John Byrne, Will MacLean, Frances Walker and Frances Pelly are exhibited alongside new creative talent in what I hope will become an annual event.

Judged by Dean Melville, Inchmore Gallery’s Established Artist Award was awarded to Sandy McEwan for his copper etching “Bird House”. An excellent example of the printmaker’s art, this is an accomplished work defined by whimsical natural forms emerging luminously out of inky black. Fine technique and a great understanding of tone create an intriguing image.

Also on show as part of “Art in a Box” are McEwan’s “Enjoyable Idleness”, a wonderfully genteel Sunday dress constructed from 1950’s map paper, and its sister work, “Something to Believe In”. Recipient of The Inchmore Gallery Emerging Artist Award, judged by John Byrne, was Moray College graduate Caroline Hewat. Her multilayered work “Homeland” is satisfyingly more mindscape than landscape, with black edged aged maps and heavy blue, sienna and ochre sky in mixed media.

There are many interesting works within “Art in a Box” that beg further investigation. Jenny Hepburn’s “Life” (Mixed media) with its use of threads and collaged “births” newspaper fragments displays a figure with arms raised to the sky in a dominant wash of fresh bloody red. It is a striking piece with the mature figure defined by outline and absence.

Frances Pelly’s “Puzzle” is an engaging work depicting a quartet maze partially concealed underneath layers or substrata of paper. The design is implied rather than on show, a quality which makes this such a fascinating piece. Pelly allows the audience’s imagination to define and complete the work, which makes it all the more satisfying. Based in Orkney and known primarily for her sculptural work it is wonderful to see works on paper by this gifted artist being exhibited locally.

Mark Lomax has contributed a series of four works to the exhibition; “In a Silent Way”, “Black Science”, “Tone Dialling” and “Dans La Nuit” all in graphite and pencil.

Though these have been hung separately they make a compelling series and defy their small scale, each one creating a strong presence all of its own. All four works are alive with variations of tone and mark, some scratched into the surface, that form magnificently balanced abstract compositions. Lomax’s solo show scheduled for next year promises to be one of the highlights of the 2008 exhibition calander.

Deidre Nelson’s “Laced” uses the CD cover itself to create a work of art by piercing plastic. This is particularly effective with light shining through it to reveal a play of shadow and pattern and represents a unique 3D approach to the brief.

Gayle Robinson’s “Untitled I” contains her signature use of rainbow-like colour and marks suggestive of landscape and tree line. The work has a collographic quality to it, like low relief sculpture that is part of this printmaking process and is a fine example of her work. A regular exhibitor at Inchmore larger scale works by the artist can be seen in the downstairs galleries.

Sound and video artist Lisa O’Brien’s work “Fade” is a minimal but multilayered work pared down to musical staves, silence and the articulation of notes that diminish according to sound. This corresponds to the fading out of line in the drawing creating a visual, conceptual and aural work.

Mhairi Killin’s “I Saw Three Ships” is a beautiful and luminous work of burnished metal with light emerging from its surface like that reflected on a shifting sea. Silver threads tether three abstract forms to the edge of the image, contrasted in steely grey and blue tinged umber on a ground of soft metallic fabric. The movement of light in the piece in accordance with the finished metal gives this work tremendous subtlety and life.

Also featured in the downstairs galleries are larger examples of Killin’s remarkable work which combines concept, craftsmanship and composition to a consistently high level. “Winter’s Weave III” superbly constructed in woven paper, silver and wire is a highlight of the exhibition, each texture and element in this abstract piece works in perfect counterpoint. “Na Clachan Dubh” a sculptural piece in stone and silver another fine example.

“Myrrh” features unusual use of image with silver and woven silk organdie, an interesting evolution in the artist’s practice. An x-ray image of a child’s body merges with three dimensional form, falling away like the tail of a dead fish and bound by delicate strands of silver that we feel are in the process of organic decay.

A strong feature of Inchmore’s Christmas Exhibition is the presence of Orkney-based artists as part of the mixed show. Plaster incised drawings by Sam MacDonald, print making from Louise Scott, charcoal drawings by Allan Watson and ceramics by John Struthers demonstrate why Orkney is known and respected as a creative centre.

Louise Scott’s “Cold Comfort” (Copperplate hand tinted etching) is a beautiful work with the ingenious white imprint of an egg held aloft by twisted branches in an expanse of white. Similarly “Nest” with its imprinted feathers and suggestion of naturally woven materials leaves the white space of the egg open like a question mark. The view on pure white reads like a cross section of a place we naturally associate of growth and sanctuary. An accomplished printmaker, it is wonderful to see Scott’s exploration of the natural world reach new heights.

Allan Watson’s “Headland” is a great example of his work in charcoal, capturing the movement and swell of the ocean under an endlessly shifting sky of light and tone. His work is incredibly sensitive and evocative, retaining a softness characteristic of his chosen material. This work conveys beautifully that elusive quality of nature’s elements we can never quite grasp and which the artist is driven ceaselessly to capture.

John Struthers work in stoneware is quite extraordinary and it is fantastic to see his work reaching an Inverness-shire audience. Influenced by ancient ceramic forms, Struthers’ work reveals itself gently as the evolution of ideas manifest in clay. The “Thinking of a Handle” series with the elegant suggestion of what might emerge from the clay is a fine example of the way in which each piece develops a life and form of its own.

Influenced by the palette of his coastal environment and shifting light and weather, the artist’s subtle use of glazes create a myriad of variations in turquoise and blue. Carefully graduated layers of light and colour are beautifully evident in his thoughtful and brilliant work, based on years of experience developing techniques in the studio.

The development and evolution of form is one of the most fascinating aspects in this artist’s work. His ceramics often derived from the human form, resonate with ancient interpretations of the body as a vessel both of the soul and of new life. Each one of his works has the presence of a human figure although there are no obvious visual references.

For me, works such as the “Cyclad Series” read like the Venus of Willendorf even though they are not literal representations of the human figure. His work is elegant, sophisticated and contemporary but is grounded in a baseline of humanity. It is based on a profound understanding of the function of ancient art and the relevance and value of creative process in our own time.

Struthers “Pod Series”, here represented by “Pod Dolphin”, appears to be modelled on a rising curve of movement through water. The evolution of this natural event into symbolic form is beautifully realised and strikingly modern, a clean edged contemporary design. The “Pod” in abstract form finds its inspiration in nature signifying something greater than just itself.

Struthers’ work is an example of integrity of craftsmanship and deep understanding of fine art principles married to the strength and development of ideas. His ceramic work is of international importance. It is strong, exquisite and timeless and I hope that in the future a major touring exhibition including one-off pieces might also be enjoyed by a wider audience.

Ceramic art makes a strong impression at Inchmore’s latest show with work by Patricia Shone, Daniel Kavanagh, Allison Weightman, Steph Jamieson and John Scott. Jamieson’s “Standing Stone” cleverly utilises natural material to form an impression during raku firing. Her pieces are beautifully finished and this quality can also be seen in “Urchin I and II”, graced with a soft sheen contrasted with incised detail.

Daniel Kavanagh’s black and white cobble slip works contrasted with a band of bronze are stunningly intense. Strength of form and design are complimented by decoration created as the slip pushes away from itself, separating in a chemical reaction. Elements of control and randomness combine to create the perfect object.

Inchmore’s latest show is a great opportunity to experience a range of works from established and emerging artists from across Scotland. I hope that “Art in a Box” will be the first event of many and that the gallery will continue to bring new work to the attention of local audiences.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Inchmore Gallery

GEORGINA COBURN considers the important work produced by Allison Weightman in the often undervalued medium of ceramics

FOR SCORAIG-BASED ceramic artist Allison Weightman clay is a means of exploring human creative and destructive potential. Recipient of the Mercer Company Award at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1998 and a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art in 2005, she has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe and is represented in both private and public collections.

On an international stage her concerns about the predominance of violence in our culture explored through the ceramic medium are shared by artists such as Charles Krafft, Ehren Tool and the late Luis Miguel Suro.

The way in which ceramics record human history is not only a potent political statement here and now but one that future generations may literally unearth. Citing artefacts of porcelain recovered after the bombing of Hiroshima as an example, Weightman describes the way in which clay “has the ability not only to record time but events as well, (creating) hard- hitting records of the horrific monstrosities we create” (‘Guns and Clay’ by Allison Weightman, Ceramic Review, July/ August 2007)

‘Shotgun Five’ (currently on show at the Inchmore Gallery near Inverness) is a study in natural creation through the medium of clay and unnatural destruction by mankind.

“Some cultures believe that man was modelled from the clay that is our earth,” explains Weightman. “This is the reason why I felt it appropriate to use leather-hard clay which has an outer skin giving the work strength and a soft interior”.

Weightman’s work represents a holistic view of art practice integral to life

Five large scale sculptural discs marked and impacted by shotgun residue are a powerful physical and moral statement of consequence. The violence contained within these objects, torn apart by human action, make visible what most of us do not see and that which the artist herself experienced as a result of being wounded as a teenager by an airgun.

When we hear news reports about the rising tide of gun crime, an 11-year-old being shot dead on a UK street or the war in Iraq, the media’s steady bombardment of images do not sensitise us to the human cost of these events.

Weightman’s art makes us see that damage on a human scale and in terms of our own flesh. Peppered with shrapnel and burnt from the inside out, the artist’s use of clay makes our acceptance of the normality of violence painfully visible. The realisation of what the same force might do to a body is openly and beautifully displayed to an audience through the entry and exit wounds.

The intent of the work however is not overt; there are no red glazes or gory effects. The wounds are clean in this respect and completely removed from the sensationalism we so often see in the press or in the work of artists defined by celebrity. Instant shock simply isn’t the point.

The power of Weightman’s art is that it stays with you long after first exposure to the work. The beauty of form, how the object has been crafted is the first thing to draw you in, then realisation creeps over you in a way you cannot turn away from. The domestic, safe, familiar material of clay and its comfortable associations become something altogether different and potent.

The truth of the work is in the development of technique, the “craft” itself, and the ideological or conceptual aspect of the creative process which are inseparable. This aspect of thought and contemplation is as true of the gunshot works as it is of other sculptural or decorative examples of the artist’s work.

‘Angel of the North’ (Raku) with its simplified and elegant figurative form is a playful antithesis of Anthony Gormley’s well-known work near Newcastle. Weightman’s ‘Angel’ is executed on an intimate rather than a public scale, with wings ironically shortened.

A low firing method with its origins in 16th century Japan, the process of Raku usually involves the removal of the vessel from the kiln while the glaze is still molten. This is then placed in a reduction chamber and covered with sawdust resulting in the distinctive black crackled finish.

The artist’s ‘Female Form and Lace’ demonstrates a more formal design defined by clean lines and cool blue and white adornment. Recent work with the male torso and lacy glaze technique are part of a developing interest in representations of masculine and feminine.

Like the work of Orkney-based ceramic artist John Struthers some of Weightman’s vessels take this exploration of the human figure a step further into abstraction. The beauty of subtle curves, elongated line or full voluptuous vessel recalls ancient ceramic forms based on symbolic human form.

Observation of the natural world is also clearly visible in the artist’s work. ‘Scoraig Sea Pod’, an urchin-like flattened vessel with shallow relief and delicate pierced line decoration incorporates the form of a sea creature but also the evocation of landscape and shoreline. The concave top of this form makes me think of rock pools, natural places of erosion, full of sea water or collecting rain.

A piece such as ‘Balanced and Offset’ – a natural pod or gourd-like form – explores concepts of composition and balance. The seed-like form in clay is an apt representation of the artist’s work as a whole. Weightman is keen to develop larger scale sculptural works and further explore the shotgun series cast in bronze and glass.

The interplay between traditional ideas about the ceramic medium “fine art” are a fascinating aspect of the artist’s work. If defined as an “applied art” in the orthodox sense ceramics are often seen as decorative, useful but not necessarily capable of provoking thought, contemplation or political change.

When we talk about “fine art” we conjure a more serious and valued representation of creative function backed up by a canon of Art History, mankind made visible. Thankfully Weightman turns these assumptions on their head, representing the highest aspirations of both Art and Craft.

Her work is a fine example of the fluidity between traditionally defined “Fine Art” and “Craft” practices that define the work of many Highlands and Islands-based artists. The integrity of her practice is grounded in the techniques of her craft, but is equally conceptual in terms of creative approach and interpretation.

Weightman’s exploration and development of hand built and raku-fired techniques since 1990 is superbly balanced by her commitment to initiation of positive change through her creative work. Her work represents a holistic view of art practice integral to life.

As part of the artist’s group ‘an talla solais’ working towards the establishment of an Arts Centre for the West Coast, Weightman’s commitment to education is also expressed in her work in local schools such as Applecross and Ullapool and on public art works such as the Avoch bus shelter project currently in progress.

With opportunities for study of ceramic art now reduced to one institution at national level (Glasgow School of Art), Weightman is passionate about the establishment of a training facility for ceramics in the North.

As the success of Northlands glass in Caithness demonstrates, the work of a specialist training facility is international in scope, attracting artists and students from around the world to attend workshops and master classes. The opportunity for exchange between artists of different disciplines is also significant.

With artists such as Allison Weightman, Lotte Glob, Patricia Shone, Daniel Kavanagh and John Struthers resident in the North, the inspiration of the local environment and the fluid exchange between Art and Craft disciplines redefining the boundaries of both in the Highlands and Islands and beyond, I see no reason why the West Coast should not become an international centre and focus for the development of ceramic art.

Weightman’s work is naturally global in its concerns and reveals that contemporary craft can be a powerful comment on our time. Though a shotgun may seem a controversial creative instrument it is the method by which many chose to express themselves throughout the world. In the hands of the artist it is used in full knowledge, a process balanced on the edge of the human capacity for creation and destruction.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Inchmore Gallery
• Just Art

Woodland Harvest by Gayle Robinson.

THE INTERIOR of Inchmore Church has been wholly transformed by Fred and Gwen Black into a fresh and exciting contemporary art space that will compliment and enhance the network existing venues in the greater Inverness area.

A range of high quality work by Scottish artists including Joan Baxter, Lyn Beckett, Gwen Black, Clare Blois, Nichola Burns, Frances Crawford, Mari French, Michael Stuart Green, Daniel Kavanagh, Mhairi Killin, Charlotte MacNee, Diane McBain, Jenny McLaren, Brodie Nairn, Max Nowell, Hazel Passmore, Cyril Reed, Hazel Reed, Patricia Reith, Gayle Robinson, Maggie Savage, Kathryn Sharp, Patricia Shone and Gordon Watt mark an impressive beginning for the gallery.

It is particularly exciting to see the work of artists such as Mhairi Killin, Gayle Robinson and Maggie Savage being introduced to Highland audiences.

Based on the Isle of Iona, Mhairi Killin’s exceptional works in silver, brass and copper are a magnificent example of fine craftsmanship and conceptual art.

“Silver Weave” is an exquisite piece of abstract composition with shards of metal woven together with silver wire. The texture and surface qualities of oxidisation, blue copper and the visible effects of heat and fire make the construction and conception of these works an alchemical creative process.

“Long Night Moon” a sequence in silver, brass, copper, paper and wire represents phases of the moon using layers of materials to create shadow and glow, accented by silver wire and etched marks. This harmonious vision of movement in nature is beautifully realised in the unexpected medium of metal.

One of the finest exponents of contemporary art in Scotland Killin’’s work, like that of Patricia Shone and Daniel Kavanagh, also exhibited at Inchmore, moves with ease between disciplines of craft and visual art.

Daniel Kavanagh’s fusion of bronze and ceramics is distinctive and “highly polished” both aesthetically and in terms of craftsmanship. A bronze clad bowl with circular abstract motifs is a fine example and reads as both a vessel and a piece of sculpture.

Raku vases by the artist are also on display and are beautifully formed. Included in this year’s Six Cities Design Festival Kavanagh’s work like that of Mhairi Killin or Patricia Shone is at home on an international stage.

Featured recently in the “Latitudes” New Graduates exhibition at IMAG, the work of Jenny McLaren is both emotive and enigmatic. Her mixed media approach layering found objects with acrylics, inks and beeswax explore themes of memory, loss, abandonment and decay.

Technique is strongly linked to this exploration of subject matter. “The Absent Gardener” with its faded lace, sepia tones and photograph veiled in time seem a poignant reminder of a life once lived. “Bird Plate Patina” with its gentle palette of soft blues, tinted creams and bird forms in low relief is another accomplished work.

“Red Moth Ascending” with its burnt and torn edges was for me the most affecting of all in the suggestion of movement from darkness to light and strong focused use of colour.

Another strong practitioner of mixed media Gwen Black’s composition of “Misted Rain” created with layers of soft colour, matt, metallic, and opaque surface textures is a beautiful piece of work. The interplay of abstract and natural forms, light, colour and texture is typical of her distinctive style.

Gayle Robinson’s collagraphs reveal her characteristic gradations of rainbow-like colour with marked accents of symbols, trees and fields. “Woodland Harvest” is an excellent example. The use of abstract iconographic marks gives her work a timeless and universal quality.

Some pieces have a sculptural element reflecting the depth and range of mark made possible with this unique printmaking technique. Unity of form, colour and method in Robinson’s work is what makes it so engaging and unique.

Maggie Savage’s “Childhood Landscape” (Acrylic and Pencil), “Haven 2” and “Summer Garden” are remarkable for their delicacy and subtlety. “Childhood Landscape” reveals an aerial neighbourhood view dominated by sparse white ground and a fine tracery of pencil drawings.

The image floats on the surface like a distant memory. “Haven 2” sees the whole scene immersed in watery blue with a calm glow of softened edges around the central swimming pool. Viewing this work is like aesthetically and physically diving into it.

“Summer Garden” presents a naïve combination of views including a distant settlement, sun bleached sand and the haze of water and sky evaporating into the landscape.

Glass works by Brodie Nairn and Nicola Burns are well represented in this opening show. “Fusion in Grey” is a superb example with a fluid quality of light and depth that follows the natural architecture of a man made form in glass. Spun around the neck of the vessel is a clear necklace like dancing water or a spider’s web.

“It Ain’t Voodoo” by Nicola Burns is comprised of a smoky grey glass vessel with a bound neck of red glass strands and a series of objects like feathers, leaves or wands contained within. Each has its own density and interplay of colour in red, purple, brown and orange. Displaying the glass in a window shows the complexity and simple beauty of the chosen material to its very best advantage.

Incorporating the Squashed Frog Studio (formerly in Glenmoriston), the Inchmore Gallery is also home to a range of courses and workshops, including Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Bookbinding, Landscape, Stll Life, Abstracts, Acrylics, Mixed Media and Life Drawing. Both as a gallery and working studio I am certain that it will become an important artistic centre and I look forward to viewing future exhibitions.

Inchmore Gallery is 7 miles west of Inverness, off the Beauly Road. Open 10am to 4.30pm daily (closed Tuesdays).

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Inchmore Gallery