MORAY Art Centre’s latest exhibition successfully shifts the centre of cultural gravity to the North East in its innovative approach to the reinterpretation of key works of art from public and private collections.

THIS unique collaboration between key partners – MAC, The British Museum and Lord Elgin, The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, KT – has resulted in an inspiring and provocative show. The exhibition includes 5th to 3rd Century BC Greek Sculpture, 19th century British drawings and paintings from The British Museum and the private collection of Lord Elgin, featuring works never exhibited before.

View of the Taranto Horse (© British Museum)

Masters and Champions expands the frame of reference of its original material to an extraordinary degree. The extensive programme of talks, events and workshops that accompany it provide multiple points of entry for a variety of different age groups and levels of interest. The vision and ethos of Moray Art Centre is pivotal in its innovative approach. This is not just an isolated display of art objects but an exploration of the context and meaning of these works, both historical and contemporary, with talks by Dr Ian Jenkins, OBE FSA, Senior Curator, Department of Greece and Rome, British Museum, a personal reflection by Lord Elgin, and Professor Elizabeth A.Moignard, Classical Greek Scholar, University of Glasgow.

The education programme also offers and entire spectrum of hands-on engagement with the content of the exhibition through sport, drawing, pewter casting, clay modelling, mono printing, film making, theatre, basket and mask making. It would be difficult to find such a far reaching programme in support of a major exhibition in Glasgow, Edinburgh or London.

An Inspire project of the London 2012 Games, the exhibition draws inspiration from the original Olympic Games as a holistic celebration of the arts and sport. Focusing on the horse as a symbol of heroism and status and the influence of Classicism in British culture, Masters and Champions creates a fascinating dialogue between works from the ancient world and the Enlightenment. The opportunity for audiences across the North East to experience this work in an intimate setting and the perspectives of each of the exhibition partners has created very fertile ground for contemplation and debate.

Haydon's Two Views of the Head of the Horse of Selene From The East Pediment of The Parthenon (© British Museum)

The most compelling element of the show is its contemporary relevance; a history of ideas lived visually which still influences politics, art, architecture, drama, theatre, poetry, philosophy and sporting activity today. The exhibition will culminate with Young Athenians (1 September – 6 October), a showcase of work by contemporary artists in response to the architecture of Scotland’s capital and the idea of the “Athens of the North.”

What really fires the imagination is resoundingly the works themselves. The Cast of Selene’s Horse from the far east corner of the Parthenon pediment with its raw, muscular energy and sublime elegance is a magnificent example. From every angle this fragment of the original conveys absolute understanding and reverence towards the subject, together with complete command of the sculptor’s chosen material. Viewing this single head up close in a way that would not be possible in its original architectural position, the horse becomes a powerful physical presence and a progression of ideas that are as aspirational today as in the time the work was created.

The observational detail of the Parthenon sculptures elevates appreciation of the physical to sacred height. Drawing the moon Goddess’s chariot, this head radiates life in its sheer physicality; the tendons of the neck, flared nostrils and panting breath, animal and divine. The Marble Head of a Horse (Western Greek, Made in Taranto c.350-300BC) brings the viewer closer still to the wellspring in its sensitive rendering of tension in movement; veins coursing through marble, puckered skin around the mouth reigned by the sculptor’s admiration and supreme craftsmanship. This isn’t just the representational modelling of a horse at the birth of the Western Art Tradition, but a human mind perceiving the idea and essence of that animal; alive in three dimensions, timelessly potent in its physicality and an agent of transformation in the act of seeing.

Another view of the Taranto Horse (© British Museum)

What is so awe inspiring in both Selene’s Horse and the Taranto Horse is what British Museum Director Neil Macgregor describes as the transformation of “cold marble into warm flesh”. They are immediately tactile, they speak of creative energy, Apollonian and Dionysian impulses, inspiring appreciation of the original source of the Western Art Tradition, contemplation of Civilization, Enlightenment and what a “Golden Age” might mean in contemporary times. Whatever associative meanings the viewer might bring to the work, the essential spark is in seeing them; an experience that in emotional terms reminds us of what it is to be human and why we need Art in the first place.

The truth and authenticity of the Elgin Marbles brought to Britain by Thomas, 7th Earl of Elgin, felt by artists such as Benjamin Robert Haydon and John Henning in the early 1800’s, is still undeniable today. Though the removal of the sculptures from their original site remains contentious, arguably this controversial act preserved them, significantly as Art objects. When these works first landed on British shores the effect was sensational and standing in the Moray Art Centre’s temporary exhibition or in the halls of the British Museum it still is.

Landseer after Haydon etching (© British Museum)

One of the most intriguingly beautiful responses to this ancient work is expressed in the etching; Study Of The Horse’s Head From The East Pediment Of The Parthenon And Of The Head Of One Of The Horses Of St Mark’s Basilica, Venice (1817) by Landseer after Haydon. Benjamin Robert Haydon’s original text below his drawing invites the viewer to compare the two heads;…“it is astonishing that the principle of nature should have been so nearly lost in the time between Phidias and Lysippus”… “The Elgin head is all truth. The other all manner”. Haydon takes a stab at contemporary taste and the establishment but what he also illustrates visually in the juxtaposition of these two heads links powerfully to the adjacent sculptures in the exhibition; the perceived truth, authenticity and authority represented by the Parthenon sculptures and their enduring appeal to the human psyche.

Fragment of Marble Votive (© British Museum)

When Haydon describes “the great and inherent characteristics of nature” exemplified by the Parthenon sculptures he is also alluding to the aspirational qualities of human nature. Arguably Haydon’s visual revolution has its roots in the transformative power of material experience in seeing this work which can still be felt by the contemporary viewer. Both the etching by Landseer after Haydon and the exquisite contours of Haydon’s Two Views of the Head of the Horse of Selene From The East Pediment Of The Parthenon (1809) are compelling visual essays in themselves. They also document a very human response to this ancient work and inspire curiosity about an artist who for many will be unfamiliar.

Like the drawing of the Parthenon pediment East Side, Section D by Scots Enlightenment artist John Henning, the entire exhibition feels very much like the linear definition of humanity resurfacing out of a delicate ground of washes; the emergence of an idea and its evolution into an aesthetic of Neo-Classicism, taste and symbol, Beauty and idealism. Whatever values we attribute to Classicism and its visual incarnations throughout the ages; sanitised by Roman copies, domesticated by Wedgewood or gracing the facades of our financial institutions, the figure in this drawing reclining upon an animal skin is almost certainly Dionysos. The exhibition is an important touchstone in relation to the archetypal nature of visual language in defining who we are as human beings and who we aspire to be, individually and collectively.

The imaginative scale of Masters and Champions is both mental and physical; from John Henning’s miniature plaster casts of the Parthenon Frieze, to paintings, drawings and ancient sculptural fragments which imply a universal frame of reference. It is the human architecture of this show that impresses in terms of concept and content. The reception and interpretation of this source material and the questions it raises about “aesthetic ambition” in our own time is a compelling line of enquiry posed by Moray Art Centre Founder and Director Randy Klinger and by the visual content of the exhibition. In the depth and breadth of its vision and in the context of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad Moray Art Centre is a beacon.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

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NOW approaching its 20^th year, Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival has grown from what was deemed an improbable idea to the largest winter festival in the world.

It is an event that inspires music makers and creators: each year people from all over the world turn their eyes and ears to Glasgow for inspiration and ‘connections’. The 2012 line-up included artists from Mali and Senegal, Cuba, Israel, Japan, Bosnia, Canada and Ireland.

A fact worth noting is that among a total of nearly 180 main-programme shows, more than two-thirds featured a wholly or substantially Scottish line-up, with over a third of these featuring artists from the Highlands and Islands, including Lochaber Gold, Skipinnish, Cuairt nan Eilean, Session A9, Kris Drever, Blazin Fiddle and The Wrigley Sisters.

Session A9 (photo Martin Heron)

Scottish music really is the backbone of this Festival. Another fabulous thing about Celtic Connections is that it allows artists to stretch their creative wings, experiment with boundaries and explore new musical territories. Partnerships, collaborations and connections are all at the heart of the festival.

I attended this year as a delegate of Showcase Scotland. Now in its 13th year, it is the nation’s largest international meeting of music industry professionals. “An integral element of Celtic Connections, Showcase Scotland offers artists a unique opportunity to perform in front of over 200 promoters, record labels and agents from 20 different countries,” says Festival Manager Jade Hewat.

Showcase Scotland is a five-day event, scheduled during the busiest weekend of Celtic Connections (as if the organisers hadn’t enough to be getting on with!). Produced by Active Events, with support from a steering group of 22 industry professionals from across Scotland, Showcase Scotland is an opportunity for promoters, record labels, agents and festival organisers to meet both the Scottish industry and each other, as well as seeing and hearing Scottish artists from a wide swathe of genres in optimum performance conditions.

Ian Smith, the Portfolio Manager of Music and IP Development for Creative Scotland, who are a key funding partner for Showcase Scotland and Celtic Connections, said in his welcome speech to visiting delegates: “We want you to be inspired and enthused and most importantly to book our artists!”

Breabach (photo Martin Heron)

Five days, 12 venues, over 60 performances plus seminars, discussions, talks, networking events and a trade fair: Showcase Scotland is no free, slap-up easy ride. Here results are expected – acts are booked, record deals are negotiated, partnerships formed, all playing a significant role in the development of the Scottish music industry both nationally and internationally.

Two hundred delegates from 21 countries attended this year. In 2011, each delegate booked an average of four Scottish artists for their own festival, venue or event. An estimated overall spend on artists was between £1,528,871 and £2,222,721!

Seudan (photo Martin Heron)

Another ‘connection’ made via Showcase Scotland is that each year the event features an international partner – this year the spotlight was on Catalonia. Supported by Catalan Institute for the Cultural Industries, six of Catalonia’s top musical acts were featured in the weekend’s programme.

The Minister of Culture of Catalonia said that “our presence at Showcase Scotland will also reinforce the networking between Catalan and Scottish professionals and open new possibilities for collaboration.”

Celtic Connections is all about connections – connections with friends, connections with music, family connections, national and international connections, industry connections, connections through stories, song and music, and most importantly meaningful and lasting connections.

I returned home to Moray and – as well as having tired feet from dashing from venue to venue and a croaky voice from talking and sharing ideas with the other delegates – I was truly inspired from hearing a range of musical talent from Scotland.

I have secured bookings for acts; I have raised seed-money and support towards an event currently being planned to showcase Moray’s artistic community (watch this space!) and rekindled business relations and networks. Showcase Scotland – money well invested!

Kresanna Aigner grew up in Findhorn Village, and now lives in Moray once again, where she works with the Moray Art Centre and is part of a vibrant artistic community in the area.

© Kresanna Aigner, 2012

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ROBERT LIVINGSTON speaks to Founder and Director of the Moray Art Centre, RANDY KLINGER.

SUPPORTED by Moray Estates, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and The Fry Gallery, Moray Art Centre’s latest exhibition celebrates the work of Edwin Smith in a rare juxtaposition of drawings, paintings and photographs. Declaring himself; “an architect by training, a painter by inclination and a photographer by necessity”, Smith seems to have suffered from an attitude still prevalent in the UK today; that architecture and photography are somehow lesser Arts.

A Humane Architecture reveals the eye of the architectural draughtsman, the painter and the photographer as essential disciplines in defining his vision as an artist. Famed for his photographic images of the British countryside and historic architecture, Smith’s images reflect an essential relationship between man and the environment and a rural way of life that has since passed.

Tithe Barn, Great Coxwell

Edwin Smith’s preoccupation with early English architecture and the integrity of man-made structures, traditional building methods and materials might seem purely documentary at first glance; however, his engagement with photographic techniques and the humane architecture of his compositions inspire multiple readings of his work. The fifteen photographic works selected and printed from RIBA’s visual archive exhibited here reveal a pursuit of beauty in simplicity. Smith’s camera is directed by his unfaltering eye throughout, depicting functional man-made structures and village streets in a way that renders them both timeless and vulnerable.

‘Lower Brockhampton House’ (Silver gelatin print on archival paper from original photographic negative 1966), an image of a timber-framed gatehouse constructed in the 1390’s, is an excellent example of the artist’s cross disciplinary skills as draughtsman, painter and photographer. Here the composition is bisected diagonally with architectural symmetry, the heritage building reflected in the changeable element of water. Like an upside-down tarot card with a double face, the fate of the built structure feels precarious.

Like the French photographer Eugene Atget, whose images of Parisian streets and architecture inspired him, Smith favoured the use of earlier photographic equipment; his favourite camera a mahogany and brass half plate Ruby, circa 1904. The particular quality of light captured through long exposures on antiquated equipment is still sought by artists today, and Smith used this to great effect in one of his most beautiful interior images; ‘Tithe Barn, Great Coxwell, Oxfordshire’ (Silver gelatin print on archival paper from original photographic negative 1953).

As the only surviving building of a late 13th Century grange, built with Cotswold rubble and stonewalling with a high pitched slate roof, Smith illuminates the interior like a great cathedral via a single source of natural light through a low door to the exterior. The glow of long exposure gives definition to wooden beams and their construction within the dark interior, cleverly framing the eye’s journey into the image and leading the viewer into contact with a collective past.

William Morris described Tithe Barn as “unapproachable in its dignity” and Smith humanises this sentiment, bringing the viewer to the heart of the space in his heightened use of light and architecture shot from the position of man, low to the floor. With a draughtsman’s eye he illuminates the structural integrity of a historic building, ironically in a post war period of change.

St Lawrence, Didmarton, Gloucestershire

Another interior, ‘St Lawrence, Didmarton, Gloucestershire’ (Silver gelatin print on archival paper from original photographic negative 1961), depicting the vestry of the north transept of St Lawrence church dating from the 1200’s, seems to strip the image down to bare elements of faith and human aspiration. The glow of light from the early English Gothic central window illuminates the texture and age of whitewashed walls and sets the Georgian fittings and furniture starkly against this predominantly luminous white interior. The human scale of the furniture appears remarkably small, a worn staircase and ladder leading upwards to divinity. Smith’s depiction of an intimate devotional space amplifies its beauty and grandeur and his use of light heightens the sense of stillness within the image.

‘The Old Cottage, Bury Green, Little Hadham, Hertfordshire’ (Silver gelatin print on archival paper from original photographic negative 1950), with its compacted horizontal layers of sky, thatched roof, white washed walls, neatly trimmed hedge and grass presents a harmonious image of a man-made structure constructed from local materials using time honoured methods. It is also a successful abstract composition of tone, texture and form which highlights the curve of the thatch fitting snuggly around the window and the stitched pattern along the line of the roof; organic curves derived from natural materials and the geometry of human design melded together.

These details are brought to the viewers attention as is the stone work and roofs of traditional cottages depicted in ‘West Gate Street, Blakeney, Norfolk’ (Silver gelatin print on archival paper from original negative 1956), where Smith cleverly uses the curve of the road and natural sunlight to divide the composition and lead the viewer in dual contemplation of raw materials and human construction.

The display of a series of pen and ink drawings and oil paintings on canvas and board add another dimension to the main display of photographs. Smith’s ‘Study of Females’ from the 1960’s presents a fusion of forms with a delicacy of mark like that of drypoint etching. The grouping of the figures is not unlike his layered approach in the depiction of buildings and village gardens where one mass of form melds into another.

His larger Untitled ink drawing (1965) is more varied and robust in its mark with the central female figure depicted in bare, bold lines that describe her posture and attitude with economy and strength. Standing at the centre of this composite creation of land, architectural elements and birds she appears statuesque, her dignity the primary focus of our gaze.

Smith’s paintings reveal both formal design together with freedom and fluidity in their paint handling. ‘Storm Clouds Over Southwold’ (Oil On Canvas) 1957, with its great dark mass of foreboding cloud, bleached in a deluge of bare canvas, carries an emotional weight reminiscent of Nash’s treatment of landscape. Steely Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber dominate the scene, animated by broad flat brushstrokes and the energy of marks scraped into shifting pigment.

A smaller and calmer work, ‘LightHouse, Going For A Walk’ (Oil On Board) 1959, is no less potent, a beautiful rhythmic piece where the curvature of boats and shoreline is mirrored in a lighthouse also formed in harmonic unison. The naïve perspective and subdued palette, tempered with a shot of alizarin and a dreamy crescent of turquoise make this an exuberant painting full of energy in its form, design and vigorous execution.

It is a pleasure to see the much neglected Arts of Architecture and Photography celebrated by this exhibition, together with examples of Edwin Smith’s drawings and paintings that give valuable insight into the depth and breadth of his vision of land, people and memory.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

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JOHN Hodkinson’s current exhibition of digital prints and mixed media works at Moray Art Centre reinterprets the stories and recollections of Scotland’s travelling people, drawing inspiration from Highland storytellers such as Duncan Williamson, Essie Stewart, Alec Williamson and Bob Pegg. It is a fascinating show, the narrative suggested by Hodkinson’s visuals leaving the viewer wanting to know more about the stories, culture and communities which inspired the work.

The Tin Road

As a survey of the artist’s work from the 1970’s to the present, it is interesting to see his ongoing development both in terms of his engagement with the oral storytelling tradition and in the interplay between two and three dimensional media. The most successful works in the show are those which combine digital and sculptural or constructed elements, defying literal illustration of the tale and providing a multi-layered interpretation of the subject matter.

A print such as The Apparition by Cill Chriosd Church on the Road to Torrin, Skye (Gicleé Print on Bockingford Paper) combines textural and photographic elements digitally, creating a strong composition which suggests both fragility and resilience in the use of colour and natural textures. The layering of imagery; the historical photograph of the site, the ghostly portrait/ found photograph and the texture of moss on eroded stone all evoke a shifting pattern of elements cast between life and death, contributing to the otherworldly atmosphere of the image. The palette in russet, green and decaying sepia and the sky bisected with the texture of stone create a curious sense of tension, a feeling of transience and solidity which seems very much in tune with the storytelling tradition that inspired it.

The whole exhibition can be seen as “an elegy” for a way of life that is passing, in the words of storyteller Alec Williamson:”it was the end of the days of tin, horses and plastic coming in”. Though direct references to the stories and storytellers themselves culturally anchor the work, the artist’s use of mixed media and found objects in composite prints or in box construction provide expansive triggers for the viewer’s own imagination. As part of the exhibition a series of creative events led by storytellers and visual artists for young people and adults will further explore these connections.

Fair Moon

Although on one level it would have been great to have a set of headphones retelling the stories while viewing the work, in recording or writing down the tale it becomes something else. Hodkinson comments that when stories are passed down through one generation to the next they are “possessed by the next person, who tells it from their point of view”. In visual terms replicating a story through pure illustration would not be true to the spirit of the stories or the living tradition they come from. In visualising an oral tradition which evolves and changes with each telling and each life it comes into contact with, Hodkinson creates a more open sense of narrative, one which enables the viewer to imaginatively construct their own stories or interpretations in relation to the work.

Than a t’ Eillein to Ahion / The Bee has taken Shelter (Mixed Media 1995) is a lovely example of the artist’s process of creative foraging, storing fragments of music in the collective hive. Originally made for a poster advertising the Helmsley Music Festival, this wonderfully inventive and intricate box construction transforms found and discarded objects; red tipped nails as rays of sun, an optimistic field of blue sand and joyous fragments of music suggesting a living, breathing hive of active creation. The fluidity between work conceived in two and three dimensional form is characteristic of the best work in the exhibition.

This is also exemplified in the largest work in the show, Peter Scholar, a composite gicleé print in nine panels arranged as a hybridised triptych, the outer panels arranged in landscape format with the central panel elongated in portrait. This asymmetrical form feels very much in keeping with the suggested themes of the original story told by storyteller and traveller Alec Williamson. The tale of “an evil magnus, a curse and its eventual removal” is brought to life in the layering of photographic and symbolic imagery tinged with blue and orange as if the whole composition had been licked by flames.

The link between this large scale digital work and the artist’s sculptural box constructions such as Beannachadh / Benediction (Mixed Media 1994) lies in the artist’s engagement with materials, particularly form and texture in creating a unified composition. Beannachadh / Benediction reads very much like a three dimensional drawing and the artist’s arrangement of found objects overall, some natural, some man-made, heightens the viewer’s appreciation of the textures of time, the elements and recollection which have successively altered them. In stark comparison a work such as The Black Isle Witches (Gicleé Print on Bockingford Paper) feels rather flat and pale in comparison, a collection of objects related to the original story but lacking the subtlety and power to really ignite the imagination.

The Devil's Contract

Not so with Hodkinson’s wonderfully poetic piece Lucifer’s Song Whilst Falling (Mixed Media 1972), a beguiling arrangement of natural and man-made elements, colour seamlessly blended in a blue heaven of layered sandpaper, the softness of the chosen palette brilliantly at odds with the quietly glinting and abrasive material. The accumulation of delicate fallen petals, their rounded pointed tips echoing the form of a blackened jigsaw piece in free fall, cleverly plays on associations of form. There is something inherently seductive and finely tuned about the symbolism and sensitive use of materials within this small box construction; the jigsaw piece with its rounded head immediately figurative, one of many discarded objects transformed in the mind’s eye of both the artist and viewer.

Throughout the exhibition work is varied and seen as a representation of the individual artist’s work since the 1970’s the overall visual statement could have been strengthened by greater selection. However the exhibition is driven by wider concerns and to this end it engages fully with our collective need for storytelling, responding directly to stories and cultural traditions often hidden from view. Hodkinson makes this visible in a way that leaves the door imaginatively and invitingly ajar.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

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Internally the new centre has been planned to be a vibrant and motivating environment which allows people to meet, discuss and generate a community of creativity.

The centre has three rentable teaching studios, four individual artist studios, a Community Gallery and in a high-spec gallery.

One Female and Two Male Heads - Anonymous Venetian Black Chalk Drawing (British Museum)

Nameless – Anonymous Drawings of 15th & 16th Century Italy from The British Museum, The Courtauld Gallery and National Gallery of Scotland

is a significant and provocative exhibition which explores the essential value of art and creativity in an age of celebrity. The exhibition of anonymous drawings forms the centrepiece of a larger interdisciplinary programme of events, performances, talks, workshops and classes exploring concepts of Beauty, Renaissance and Authorship.

Opening concurrently with The British Museum, London, and The Uffizi in Florence’s Fra Angelico to Leonardo and the Courtauld Gallery’s exhibition Michaelangelo’s Dream, the exhibition is imaginative and expansive both in its context and premise, enabling hidden anonymous treasures to be viewed by the public for the first time.

The question of what constitutes “nameless greatness” in an era where branding, fame and celebrity define Western cultural values and aspirations is extremely pertinent and timely. The exhibition team, including Moray Art Centre Founder and Director Randy Klinger, Dr. Alison Wright, Head of Renaissance Art History, University College London, and Freda Matassa, ex-Head of Collections Management, Tate Galleries & Royal Academy, London, have created a wonderful stimulus for artistic engagement, appreciation and debate.

What resonates throughout the exhibition is the value of drawing as an intimate and immediate means of human expression unfettered by the prejudice of attribution.

The concept of authorship and its meaning in the contemporary world is highlighted by the selection of anonymous Renaissance drawings, actively challenging our collective need to value work in accordance with the art market and accepted canons of art history. The validation of a named master is wholly absent, heightening the viewer’s primary experience of the exhibition: that of connection with the timeless universality of human experience and emotion.

Even a contemporary largely secular audience could not fail to read the emotional gravitas contained within each delicate line of The Virgin Mary and Two Holy Women (Metalpoint with white highlighting on lilac prepared paper, British Museum). This arrangement of figures traditionally displayed at the base of the crucifixion becomes all the more powerful in isolation, depicted in a way which articulates human fragility.

Accentuated by the technique of metalpoint which creates an amazing delicacy of line, this inherent vulnerability can be seen in the weeping drapery and compassionate arrangement of the three female figures drawn to each other in grief, their hands converging at the centre of the composition. This human mark is a gesture transcendent of religion and time which finds pure expression here in the immediacy of drawing.

Similarly when viewing Portrait Drawing of A Man (Black chalk on pale brown paper, British Museum) the soft sensuousness of the medium is immediately tactile, linking the crafting of the image with our essential reading of it. Although we do not know the identity of the artist or the subject, their direct gaze meets our own in a way that is immediately arresting and compelling.

Reminiscent of Durer, the fine rendering of detail and facial modelling in chiaroscuro displays enviable draughtsmanship; however, the resounding tone of the exhibition is not intimidation through artistic pedigree or technique but an irresistible invitation to see not just the world of the artist, but ourselves.

Throughout the exhibition the viewer is in awe not of names but of the struggle, curiosity, insight and craft demonstrated by an individual human hand and mind, qualities which the supporting programme of workshops and classes will no doubt enable people to explore for themselves in greater depth.

The tiny red chalk drawing of Virgin and Child and St Anne (Courtauld Gallery, London) is one of the highlights of the exhibition, conveying all the vigour and energy of the artist’s first response to the subject. The drafted sketch lines still visible in this and other works in the exhibition, such as St. John the Evangelist, after Jacopo Sansovino (Red chalk and red wash over traces of black chalk on buff paper, squared in black chalk, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), convey the discipline of the medium.

Created at a time when workshop education within a recognised school was the norm, these drawings can be seen simultaneously as visual workings within a larger framework of artistic production and tangible evidence of the singular vision of the artist as maker.

One of the most potent and exciting works in the show, Anamorphic drawing of a rider on a monstrous horse (Pen and ink over traces of black chalk on three pieces of paper stuck together, Courtauld Gallery, London), displays its dynamism not just in the arrangement of the image within an angular trajectory but in the animation and fluidity of pen and ink.

Seen at an extreme angle of vision to the left or right, the fantastical image merges in an ambiguous morphing of man and beast. The claw-like hands and muscular body of the rider coupled with the unbridled energy of the horse engulfed in cloud or flame is furiously elemental in its movement, an image violently pulled in opposing directions.

The imaginative appeal of this work lies in the strange combination of an almost scientific optically-driven approach to the construction of the image and the magical, otherworldly experience of seeing it emerge like a phantom from that dark space in the corner of your eye.

Although we will never know the identity of its creator, this drawing, like many others in the exhibition, affirms the value of creative process and the possibility of re-birth through human enquiry, thought and creative action. The exhibition as a whole causes us to re-examine our criteria for judging beauty and the cultural meaning of Renaissance.

The supporting programme of events offers an astonishing array of possibilities for wider engagement with the exhibition’s central themes of Beauty, Renaissance and Authorship.

A series of talks including The Interpretation of Form in the Renaissance by Dr Antonio Locarfaro, University of Siena, Renaissance Discoveries in Anatomy by artist Alan McGowan, Renaissance Poetry and Culture by Patrick Hart, University of Strathclyde and Orpheus Revived: The Re-birth of Platonism at the Heart of the Renaissance Movement by Anthony Rooley, Director, Consort of Musicke & Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel will compliment the exhibition.

In addition, performances of Renaissance poetry, music and Commedia del’arte, together with classes in Life Drawing, Printmaking, Figure Drawing in Silverpoint, Modern Fresco Painting, Renaissance Portraiture. Renaissance Anatomy, Renaissance Painting Technique; Imprimatura and Glazing, a series of young people’s classes, family day art classes; Work in a Renaissance Studio and Drawing: Renaissance Perspective and a Scottish/ Italian Food, Drink and Trades Festival will enable people of all ages to participate in the event.

Nameless is an event which expands beyond the boundaries of a traditional gallery space, bringing the viewer into contact with the “nameless greatness” and humility of the human mark. It is an extraordinary gift to the entire region defined by the vision and energy which has defined Moray Art Centre from its conception.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

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Images were commissioned by Jon Schueler's widow Magda Salvesen, and photographed by Antonia Reeve.

MORAY ART Centre’s latest exhibition provides the perfect setting for appreciation of Jon Schueler – Sound of Sleat Shadows, a selection of works created by the artist at Romasaig between 1974 and 1981. Although Schueler’s work springs from the New York School of Abstract Expressionism of the 1950’s, this exhibition leads us to a more expansive understanding of the artist’s work, and of his engagement with the natural world, particularly the endlessly changing environment of Western Scotland and the eternal “search” that is the human art of painting.

The elusive qualities of landscape that so inspired the artist from his first journey to Mallaig in 1957 until his death in 1992 are coupled with an engagement with paint handling, grappling with the canvas itself as a means of expression. Presented in the chapel-like space of Gallery 1, this richly contemplative series of paintings are distinctive in his oeuvre for their delicacy of light and colour.

Alive with movement and the element of air, the influence of Turner can clearly be seen in these abstracted skies, combining fluid brushwork with a vibrancy of hue that bursts through canvases of ethereal shifting grey. The way that Schueler allows colour to emerge from his beautifully controlled palette is part of our journey into the work as viewers.

Red Blues in Grey 1974 (Oil on Canvas) is a superb example of this subtle dynamism, with a patch of blue hopeful and radiant shining through dazzling grey. Horizontal bands of soft yellow, blue and red at the base of the canvas convey a sense of grounded height counterbalanced with an expansive aerial view of the sky. Schueler’s vision, rooted in observation of the natural world and his experience as a navigator during World War II, sends our thoughts skyward in a magnificent combination of feeling and intellect.

Response to the natural environment in painterly terms is visceral and immediately physical but also transcendent; it does not rely on literal subject matter or optical illusion in relation to land, sea and sky. Schueler articulates beauty in these works that we immediately recognise in the northern landscape around us but scarcely pause to contemplate in our daily lives – in this way they are an absolute gift. Giles Sutherland in his excellent catalogue essay describes Schueler’s work as a synthesis of “exterior and interior states, blending nature and abstraction, emotion and landscape”, qualities which illicit a profound stillness within the image and the viewer.

Paintings on a more intimate scale such as Sun Shadow III 1974 (Oil on Canvas) focus on a fragment of sky – fleeting and evocative yet as concentrated as a prayer. Explored within an astonishingly narrow tonal range, the artist tests the boundaries of visual communication, ultimately giving us all the information we need to feel and see the moment, held forever in time by the painting.

The exploration of plastic elements through abstraction, such as colour, form and composition, are exquisitely balanced in another small canvas, The Search 1981, with its vibrant burst of yellow and red in direct response to the Scottish landscape and its weather. The finely balanced mixing of colour and brushwork in a larger scale painting such as The Search-Light 1981 is deceptively simple, employing a myriad of warm and cool hues to animate the surface with dancing light.

What makes this artist so fascinating is his understanding of the craft of painting and of mankind in relation to the natural world; “The sky in passing holds and reveals all as it reveals itself”. In his work and writings we see the landscape revealed in a way that is self-reflexive, both in terms of the artist’s direct experience and our human need for connection through painting and landscape.

This is not recognition or resonance through a view of a particular location, but revealed in minute degrees of colour and shade, penetrating the surface appearance of the world to arguably a more expansive representation of reality. Schueler creates a space and refuge for the mind in this selection of works which is genuinely moving and thought provoking.

True to the vision of Moray Art Centre as a “research centre for beauty; an incubation space for the arts, a place of sharing and debating ideas and a community of creativity”, Jon Schueler – Sound of Sleat Shadows is an uplifting experience. The combination of natural observation and abstraction in the artist’s work is a challenging, potent catalyst for debate and contemplation of beauty – our conception and inner definition of the term aesthetically, intellectually and emotionally.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

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• Moray Art Centre

BOATH HOUSE boasts an impressive collection of artwork on display throughout this boutique hotel. From large-scale paintings to small textile pieces, art adorns the public rooms of this Georgian Mansion, flooded with natural light from the spacious grounds and surrounds it sits in.

Man by Randy Klinger

Hanging in their small library throughout May is a neat collection of drawings by local artist and arts impresario Randy Klinger. Founder and Director of Moray Art Centre at Findhorn, this gentle man has produced some gentle drawings; what they may lack slightly in depth of tone they make up for in scrutinising detail.

There are nine works on show here, eight of which are portraits. The first is aptly titled ‘Man in a library’ and sits at the entrance, leading you into this reading room. One wall is lined from floor to ceiling with books, from food guides to travel guides, Umberto Eco to the ubiquitous bible.

All three of the other walls display Klinger’s craft. All graphite on hand-made paper and equally sized and framed, his eloquent drawings sit smartly in this chocolate coloured tall room. Each portrait displays a sitter at rest it seems, contemplative in mood but relaxed in pose. I sit back in one of the lounge chairs, flick through the pages of a nearby book and find myself mirroring these nearly perfect pencil images.

During my brief visit the manager, calling himself “Johnnie”, introduced himself. Handsome in both his suit and manners, he was most helpful and accommodating and showed me around the other rooms and their fill of art.

I then inadvertently bump into Don Matheson, the owner, who quite clearly takes a genuine interest in the artwork he shows here. An animated man, he chatted knowledgeably about each and every one of the artists he exhibits, showing great pride in their personal and artistic achievements.

It was an April afternoon that I visited this establishment for the first time. With the warm welcome of owner and manager, sunshine and art, it certainly put a Spring into my step as I walked away. Bring on the next season.

© Jacqueline Bennett, 2009

Links

• Moray Art Centre
• Boath House Hotel

Self Portrait in a Flowered Jacket, 1972, Oil on Blockboard (147cm x 91cm) Scottish National Portrait Gallery © John Byrne

MORAY Art Centre’s first public exhibition, an “intimate retrospective” of the work of John Byrne, is an excellent introduction to the art of one of Scotland’s finest artists. An impressive selection of works spanning forty years has been brought together in an exhibition of national significance. Works on loan from private and public collections including Paisley Museum and Galleries, Glasgow Museums and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery establish the centre as an exciting new space, raising expectations of access to art of the highest quality in the region.

It is a pleasure to view works in the new central gallery space, distinctive for its warmth and contemplative atmosphere. Work is not presented in a white cube but able to live and breathe in a way that encourages personal engagement with the work. Currently the only venue in Moray able to display work from National collections to the required museum standard, this inaugural show sets a high benchmark for the presentation and promotion of Visual Arts in the North.

John Byrne is perhaps most popularly known as a writer, director and designer for stage and screen productions such as The Slab Boys (1978), Scotch and Wry (1986), Tutti Frutti (1987) and Your Cheatin’ Heart. A keenly observed sense of character, humour and irony pervade his work both as a playwright and visual artist. This quality is well represented by portraits and self portraits in the exhibition.

Byrne attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1958 to 1963 and his work can be seen as part of a strong figurative tradition in Scottish painting. Coming from an art school education where life drawing, painting and still life were still part of learning the craft, Byrne’s fine draughtsmanship permeates every work in the show. His ‘Portrait of Jane Stuart” (Mixed Media 2006) is sensitive and assured, with freshness and energy in every line of graphite and pastel. The artist’s first response to the human subject is beautifully drawn. We can immediately feel the presence of the sitter, defined in red and orange shadows which cloak her deep set eyes.

Byrne’s large scale ‘Portrait of the Artist Steven Campbell’ (2005, Oil on Canvas) presents a statuesque and unflinching vision where the modelling of the body, hands and feet contrast with the fine details of his face. You feel the presence of a tank-like shell of a man in tones of grey and black, whose uncompromising stare is balanced by the vulnerable details of his aged face. The palette in his hand is empty and the delicacy of the brushes against the scale of his hands strangely poignant. The progression of images throughout this show gives a sense of Byrne’s lifelong exploration of the human subject, which continues to evolve.

Well known iconic works such as his ‘Portrait of Billy Connolly’ (2005, Oil on Canvas) are shown with previously unseen work from private collections, including drawings which give insight into the label “Faux- Naif” often applied to his large scale works. The innocent simplicity or naïve rendering (particularly of the figure) in paintings such as ‘American Boy’ (1975, Oil on Plywood) are finely detailed and technically sophisticated.

Byrne played with the idea of the artist’s persona, signing his work “Patrick” during this period and denying his art school training. The idea of the “primitive” in his work is extremely interesting when seen in context of his evolution as an artist. Byrne’s scholarship took him to Italy where Duccio, Cimabue and Giotto strongly influenced his work in a way that is anything but naive.

Use of symbol and personal iconography is a fascinating aspect of paintings such as ‘Peaceable Kingdom’, an enigmatic and exquisitely detailed watercolour on board. There is a sense of monumentality and gravitas in the robust forms of the main figure group of a lion, lamb and child. While the style (particularly in relation to the animal figures) is reminiscent of Rousseau or naive folk art, it is expertly composed and drafted. Bound by a banner of biblical text, the figures are framed by a flowing seascape in the background that curls around them like an embrace. Movement in the water and sky contrast with the sculptural stillness of the animals and child painted in the finest lines and cross hatching in watercolour.

A previously unseen work, ‘Joie de Vivre – Portrait of Honor and Xavier’ (2005, Oil on board) fills the entire frame with the youthful energy of Byrne’s two children and reveals a different kind of energy. The brushwork is loose and textural and the figures, in contrast to larger scale works in the show, are simplified in form. Although the hair hides their faces, the dance like gesture of his daughter and stance of his son still reveal an essence of their being in blocks of umber, black and sienna. The way that the white and flesh coloured ground dominates the composition and overlaps with the boy’s figure gives the sense of them occupying the whole space, filling it with life.

‘Self Portrait in a Flowered Jacket’ (Oil on Board, 1972) presents a fully frontal image of the artist as creator and has extraordinary presence. The rich floral decoration of Byrne’s jacket is mirrored in the fluid bloom like paint that adorns his palette held like a garden in his hand. The box on which the artist sits is decorated with children’s drawings and signed by the artist’s alter ego, “Patrick”.

These details set up an interesting dialogue between the overall creative statement and the multilayered nature of the artist’s vision of himself. It is impossible not to return to this deeply meditative work; initially because of the authoritative way it automatically draws your gaze, but ultimately because of its quiet contradictions. This confident and commanding image is sharply contrasted with the artist’s self portrait ‘Flak’ (2006, Oil on canvas), which is full of struggle and irony.

Here the artist depicts himself in camouflage dress, ashen face half hidden with a paintbrush piercing his chest. The artist’s palette is hung around his neck and a serpent-like vine coils around Byrne’s arm. The composition is claustrophobic, surrounded by dream-like smoke and thorns which pierce the artist’s skin. The whole image suggests an internal war of attrition, the real battle in creative terms of being compelled to make sense of the world. To me this is a challenging piece of work which raises important questions about how we perceive artistic identity, creative process and what this means to the individual.

The model of a public space at Moray Art Centre is one that planners of a proposed new gallery in the Highland capital should take heed of. The ethos of the centre to contextualise each exhibition within a programme of hands on creative activity, cross-disciplinary events, art criticism and debate is inspired. It addresses fully the issue of access to visual arts in the area in a truly visionary and inclusive way.

The idea of a creative community is at the centre of the project. A programme of events for all ages including workshops in “Self Portraiture”, “Illustration & Caricature”, a talk by the artist, a seminar on “Self Portraits Through History” and “Tutti Frutti Night” showing Byrne’s acclaimed television programme are to accompany the opening exhibition. This is an important show in terms of appreciation of John Byrne’s extraordinary work as a visual artist and as an impressive benchmark for future programmes .

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

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• Moray Art Centre

From Shed to Centre – 8 November 2006

THE FIRST dedicated visual art centre in Moray is emerging! For the past fourteen years, art classes have been given in a small shed in the Park, Findhorn, near Forres. Students travel to weekly, ongoing classes from a radius of over 50 miles.

Demand grew so great that it was time to realise our vision: to create an inspiring art centre in which people of all levels could learn and create. Now, a diverse and wide-ranging group of artists, teachers, arts and governmental organisations in Moray have come together to create a new regional and international art centre for the advancement of art and art appreciation.

Plan for the new Moray Arts Centre

Our project is endorsed and supported, in part, by HIE Moray Enterprise, The Moray Council, Highland 2007/Scottish Arts Council, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, The Big Lottery, and many other trusts, and by an ever-growing number of generous individuals.

Our vision is to create an inspired environment within a centre for visual art education and appreciation that attracts and uses the high-level development of national and international artists from many art forms in order to immerse artists, teachers, and students in an intense, up-lifting atmosphere of pioneering thought and creativity.

We aim to provide an environment that encourages artists to fulfil their highest potential, regardless of technical ability, disabilities, or other restrictions. We plan to offer diverse arts activities in a dynamic and vital venue for artists to share inspiration and learning, with regular fine arts and crafts courses, talks, films, performance, and training.

Our aim is to create an encouraging environment in which artists and students can evolve and flourish at their own pace away from market trends, fashion, and critical intimidation, where people can question, explore, and find, for themselves, the highest beauty of our time.

We will encourage students to express their uninhibited reactions to art while developing personal taste, where originality and innovation will be a natural result of study and work, not a self-conscious intention or an aim in itself

Our centre will be the first, flexible venue for visual arts classes and exhibition in Moray. The facilities will include two teaching studios (can be joined into a single large studio), a dedicated studio for children and special needs, a community gallery, a Museum-quality Exhibition Space, four individual artists’ studios (flexible usage), and a resource library and study area.

Our building design will be a model of energy self-sufficiency achieved through solar photovoltaics, geothermal sources, and passive solar, and high-level insulation.

The centre is now under construction with an expected opening date of April 2007. Today, the framing of the first floor of Phase 1 of the Art Centre is underway! The site is surrounded by a common green and deer-filled fields, with a view over Findhorn Bay and rolling moors.

Moray Art Centre - work to date on 8 November 2006

Our short-term funding goal for building costs for Phase One is £110,671.50 (only 19.1% left to raise!) of a total phase one build cost of £579,438, or 80.9%

We see our centre as a bee-hive of inspiration. Within a rich cross-disciplinary, cross-pollinating environment we will teach by inspiration and osmosis, as well as by technical means. Revered artists from Milan, New York, Glasgow, London, Lisbon, and even South India have, somehow, already heard of our project and want to be a part of it; a retreat from big-city pressures and an incubator for debate and exploration.

Do we want beauty? What is it? Can we, individually and communally, find commonality; a new criteria for beauty in our own time?

For more information or to help us meet our funding objectives, please contact Randy Klinger, The Park, Forres IV36 3TZ, Moray (01309 690712; randyklinger@hotmail.com  )

Randy Klinger will provide regular updates on progress. Moray Art Centre is a charitable company limited by guarantee. Company registered in Scotland No:187739 Recognised by the Inland Revenue as a Scottish Charity No: SC028270

Ridge-beam – 15 November 2006

This morning the ridge-beam was completed on the Moray Art Centre. Hurrah!

Moray Art Centre - work to date on 15 November 2006

Celebrations – 23 November 2006

A celebration on the 23 November 2006 to honor the final funding of Phase 1 of the Art Centre.

Moray Art Centre celebrations - 23 November 2006

A Highland Vision of High Art – 29 November 2006

The Moray Art Centre: A Highland Vision of High Art by Tom Cook is a Director of Alternatives, St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London

The Moray Art Centre Project at Forres, Scotland is located in a landscape that wouldn’t seem unfamiliar to residents of the mythical highland village of Brigadoon which was visible to the outside world for only one day every one hundred years. The Art Centre Project is seeking a bit more visibility as an art education centre with a difference.

The project is the inspiration of New Yorker, Randy Klinger, who has been teaching the visual arts at Findhorn since 1992. Findhorn is situated on a sea surrounded peninsula which is easily accessible to duned beaches, rolling hills, forests and rushing rivers. A cornucopia of inspiration only 40 minutes drive from the airport at Inverness where artist and teacher alike can engage with natural beauty and take refuge from the pressures of the art marketplace.

Randy’s concept of the arts centre is of a place where visual artists will be able to connect with teachers from many different artistic disciplines in a cross-pollinating environment where inspiration is drawn from the worlds of music, dance, theatre, art history, literature, poetry, sculpture, and crafts.

The vision statement of the project is: To create an inspired environment within a centre for art education and appreciation that attracts and uses the best achievements of artists from many art forms and from many countries in order to immerse artists, teachers and students in an intense uplifting atmosphere of pioneering thought and creativity – a process that allows learning to happen through pleasure, epiphany and elation in perceptions of beauty.

Moray Art Centre - work to date on 30 November 2006

Randy explains how teachers from other disciplines can help visual artists to approach their work from a completely different dimension. For example a singer might show how counterpoint in music can inform the same approach in a painting or a choreographer might reveal how physical pattern in movement offers new perspectives on visual patterns.

Creative writing and dialogue can be used to address the emotional and mental context of creative expression. The concept of beauty will be explored in depth. How is it personally experienced? Is it different for for every individual? How is it that we respond with awe to a particular visual stimulus, object, sound or movement? Is there an inherently spiritual content in art? Why do we need it? Is it some form of magic?

In addition to achieving an intellectual understanding of artistic processes efforts will be made to reclaim the visceral response to art that has been been marginalised in favour of conceptual approaches. Appreciation of the essential quality in a work of art will be encouraged above considerations of genre such as avant garde or traditional.

Students, whether beginners or experienced, will be allowed to develop at their own pace and progress will not be measured by the domination of technical skill/talent/craft. These elements will be taught appropriately with respect and encouragement, but within the context of the wider agenda of the Moray Art Centre.

In contrast with most art schools the concept of the Art Centre is to provide a curriculum uniquely structured to help students achieve their best potential through organic growth in their experience of creativity. It could be described as a holistic approach in the same way as holistic medicine can function as complementary to traditional medical practice.

The proposal envisions studios for teaching, space for exhibitions, studios for individuals and meeting and storage rooms configured to encourage a sense of community. Students and teachers will be welcome to use the facilities at any time of the day or night, seven days per week.

Randy Klinger who is a graduate with honours from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science in New York City, is the Project Co-ordinator of the project which is a registered Scottish charity and a Not For Profit company limited by guarantee.

Thus far £475,000 has been donated by individuals and awarded as grants to the establishment and construction of the Moray Art Centre, (with just £100,000 left to go), Our founding Board of Directors with an Advisory Group include the Group Director of the Lloyds TSB Bank, North of Scotland Group, the Head of Art at Moray College, a founder of the Open College of The Arts in Scotland, the Head of Collections Management of The Tate Gallery, the Artist/Filmmaker, John Byrne, a variety of business people prominent in communications, public relations and marketing, and several art instructors and independent artists from many disciplines the UK, Italy, Germany and the USA.

An analogy of the objectives of the Moray Art Centre Project can be drawn from a lecture by Jeanette Winterson, journalist and author who asks What Is Art For? “Artists work at the interface between the real and the imagined. They coax us out of the numbness of the everyday – where life passes in a blur – and into a heightened space where we can inhabit other lives and experiences. The mind opens and stretches , takes in more than it knows, and returns to the ordinary world. This is not just relief – it is revolution. If art has not that purpose then it is not art.”

Mr Klinger aims to invite and instigate a nation-wide dialogue, a debate, an amplification of ideas and feelings about what beauty is and how we experience it.

The international Actress and Theatre Director, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Laura Pasetti, a close supporter of the project writes about Beauty, in regards to the Moray art Centre’s mission:

“For me, the first gift that Art brings into life is the ability to transform pain.

“We often think that pain is a condition that helps us to evolve. It is not necessary true. Pain can be the veil that makes the sound of truth much softer and create obstacles to the birth of a new emotion inside.

“The second gift that Art brings is the ability to listen. We love talking, we love being in silence as well; but to listen means something totally different. It means to be able to overcome our limited vision of life, to open up to the sacred mystery of the Unknown.

“The third gift is the knowledge. We are ignorant. We think that history and philosophy are a baggage of the past. They are actually a way to meditate on life. On our story, learning through the thoughts and experiences of others what the human nature is made of. A Russian theatre Master, Anatolij Vassiliev says that an actor can be considered as such when he has finished studying all Plato by heart and some religious texts. An artist has an incredible responsibility, he is an alchemist and he deals with the energy of Transformation. He can’t deny the importance of knowledge and wisdom.

“This idea comes from the realisation that as human beings we have the duty to

give to the next generations the instruments to build their thoughts, to express their soul, to give birth to their beauty within. And this is what in my opinion an artist is called for:

To progress on the path to Infinity, to give eternal state to what is moving

inside the heart (feelings, emotions, poetry…).

“When Michelangelo completed “Moses”, he shouted at his sculpture crying “Why don’t you speak!” He was cheated by his own creation. The masterpiece was much bigger then his creator. Michelangelo evolved in that moment. Humankind evolved with him.”

Tom Cook is a Director of Alternatives, St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London, facilitator of the Drawing From Your Heart workshops and an Honorary Trustee.

© Tom Cook, 2006

A New Year, A New Beginning – 9 January 2007

Work is continuing on the new Moray Art Centre after the Festive period.

Moray Arts Centre - work to date on 9 January 2007

A call for Support! – 26 February 2007

Returning home after long hours at work, 2 in the morning in a yellow cab, through the flashing lights and plastic signs of midtown Manhattan, past the all-night hot dog and fried chicken storefronts, I made a decision: “I am finished with adding to all the ugliness in the world: I want Beauty!”

I flash back to myself as a 6 year old, in my family’s cookie-cutter suburban home on a sad Saturday afternoon; a lazy, post-cutting-the-grass-Saturday, watching ANYTHING on TV.

Clicking into a dance performance, I settled down. It was “Appalachian Spring”, by Martha Graham. Something happened. I felt a wave of good-feeling, awe, from my toes up to my head. It was amazing! – a physical sensation of upliftment that transported me into a new world.

Years later, teaching my students, moved to Findhorn by a clear calling, I called this feeling the Aesthetic Ecstasy.

In 1997, as soon as I received permission to stay in the UK, the idea came – Build a centre for the visual arts – a place where all people can experience this up-lift-ment, a place dedicated to Beauty; Art as an antidepressant.

Miracle after miracle happened and soon we had collected almost £200,000, a group of skilled people, a piece of land, and resources, all unsolicited. We went ahead in trust, knowing all the funding would fall into place, as we needed it.

Moray Arts Centre - work to date on 26 February 2007

Today is 26 February 2007. In 5 weeks time, the builders will clean-up the site and move out their diggers; completion! By that time, we have to manifest £90,000 to complete a £579,000 building.

Through the principles of positive thinking, inspired action, trust and abundance consciousness, we collected £489,000 in funds, £60,000 worth of land, bankers, lawyers, administrators, world-renowned international artists, scores of volunteers, and much good will.

Help! Please partner with us in the making of this magical place – to create an explorative and experimental centre: classes for children and adults, local and international exhibitions, festivals and conferences, art history talks and films. A centre who’s ambition is nothing less that the birthing of the next Golden Age.

In centuries to come, people will say, “ Yes, the first golden age was in classical Greece, the second in 15th century Florence, and the third… in a wonderful place called Findhorn. That was amazing!”

Please join me in this global up-welling; Beauty, …a joyous antidote!

Please contact me on all aspects of this project on 0044 (0)1309 690712 randyklinger@hotmail.com

© Randy Klinger, 2007