AwakeningScotlandArt’s 16th

Annual Spring Exhibi on

Spring has always arrived with the prom-ise of profusion – of ‘infinite variety’, bred bymiracle from the uniform dank of the winter– and with it, the awakening of a keener,quicker consciousness than that which hascarried us through the darker months. It iswith ‘variety’ firmly in mind that we have ap-proached Awakening, our 16th Annual SpringExhibi on here at ScotlandArt. We have beencollec ng works from thirteen of our ar stsover the last few weeks, among whom we aredelighted to include, for the first me, theCarlisle-based sculptor Mark Gibbs.

We have endeavoured, in this programme,to present a few reasons for why we find someof their works’ so cap va ng. But each pieceof art does, of course, invite con nuous rein-terpreta on, and we very much hope you willenjoy le ng your minds wander over the col-lec on.

Above: Chris ne Clark’s impressive ‘Rise’; mixed media oncanvas, £1800.

All works featured are available to view and purchase viaour website at www.scotlandart.com and are listed alpha-be cally by ar st.

New Sculptural WorksImages below by Mark Gibbs

Mark Gibbs

In his own words, Gibb’s animal sculptures ‘evokestrength and masculinity’ while nonetheless hin ng‘at delicacy and vulnerability’; we find in theseworks a fascina ng tension also between the ar st’shighly-accomplished realism, and yet his clear com-mitment to allow the materials he uses to speak forthemselves - wire skeletons protrude from the skin;thick brushstrokes evoke hair. This is perhaps mostevident in his innova ve choice of plinths, such asthe saw over which the reindeer in ‘Barren Ground’tenta vely peers – a powerful comment on the dan-gers of over-logging, with the saw’s teeth perhapseven auguring the jagged, rocky slope to which thereindeer’s forest habitat may one day be reduced.

Main Room –Surrealism and Landscapes

Image below ’Dismantle the Sun’ by Chris ne Clark

Chris ne Clark

Clark makes no secret of the poet W.H. Auden’s in-fluence on this latest collec on of works, naming‘Dismantle the Sun’ a er his famous ‘FuneralBlues’ (known to many from its appearance in a cer-tain Richard Cur s film), and quo ng further fromthe poem on the side of the canvas. But the way inwhich these works evoke growth, with the branch-like fingers rising from the various obscure, some-what skeletal forms penned against the cool wash ofblue, speaks perhaps to the apocalyp c influence ofAuden’s contemporary, T.S. Eliot: ‘April is the cruel-lest month,/ Breeding lilacs out of the dead land...’

Heather Blanchard

Since her move to Scotland six years ago,Blanchard's work in oil has gone from strength tostrength, and one of her vivid snow scenes was fea-tured on the cover of ArtMag last winter. In thisnew selec on of work, the subtlety with which thecool, crisp lines of blue and grey upon the whites of‘Mel ng Snow’ lead the eye towards the wonder-fully hazy horizon, bounded by forest, is comple-mented nicely as spring emerges with shots of vi-brant yellow and green among the bright haze of‘Early Spring Limes’.

Margaret Evans

Evans has championed the use of pastels in fine artfor a number of years; this latest selec on of workdisplays, we feel, her proficiency in portrayingflee ng, fickle Highland skies in this medium.

The moody blend of purple and yellow in suchpain ngs as ‘Ardvasar and Beyond’ faithfully evokesthose dark days up north when the sky seems tomerge with the earth; we likewise find the shadowscreeping down the ‘Kintailcaps’ – a sense perhapsof dawn’s warmth conveyed with the red-brownsof the mountainside – enthralling.

Chris Forsey

Forsey began his career as a watercolourist, achiev-ing eminence that was recognised in 2010 with hiselec on to the The Royal Society of Painters in Wa-tercolours, but his recent work has led him to athrilling combina on of media.

The barren cliff face upon the edge of the earththreaten a gloomy scene, but the exquisitedraughtsmanship of Forsey’s ‘Cliff Edges and Bou-quet’ is such that the cool purples of the sea and itsshadows exert a calming influence, while the vi-brant arrangement of flowers, picked out in acrylicand pastel and reflected in the dappled sky, bringsthe composi on empha cally to life.

Marion Thomson

Thomson’s characteris cally loose, free style, inthese new works, is rich with nuance. Her ‘BlusteryDay, Iona’ subtly blends the so greens, greys andblues of the foreground hillock, beach stretch andthe immediate sea with the much deeper massesof distant mountains and blue sky; the faint formsof bright wild flowers in the bo om right are com-plemented and contrasted by the dark stormcloudsentering the scene top-le .

Finally, as we catch the hint of white wave flecks,glin ng in the middle distance, the scene shuddersinto movement.

Sarah Carrington

Carrington is a master of the sea. A painterly paint-er, her impressive use of media so varied as to in-clude household emulsion, oil, sand, varnish andeven – as in ‘Rocks and Sand, Iona’ – shots of goldleaf makes for a rich, and deeply textured feel uponthe canvas, while the loose pencil marks with whichshe picks out the foreground imbue her pain ngswith a remarkable dynamism.

Pat Kramek

The exci ng new selec on of Pat’s work we are dis-playing shows to the full her innova ve use of boldcolours and thickly textured paint to construct herlandscapes. We range from her ‘Paps of Jura’ –evincing the characteris cally nuanced balance ofseagreens and blues and beach whites with thedeep purples, blacks and reds of the distant moun-tains – to the much warmer composi on of ‘ThePuffer’, an exquisite and expressive study in orangeand purple.

Ma hew Bourne

Ma hew declares an aim to create ‘a tension in mypain ngs between spontaneity and risk and a moremeasured controlled approach’.

In his most recent work, we can really see such agoal come to frui on; the loose and impulsivesense which his thick impasto conveys gives the lieto the much more careful and intricate crea on oflandscapes within these seemingly abstract compo-si ons. We are impressed at first with the fun, vi-brant interplay of colour upon the surface of thecanvas, but as we look into the pain ng, mountainsand lakes seem to emerge from great depths; amass of countryside awakens.

Small Room –Figura ve & S ll-Life

mage below ‘Canary Yellow’ by Fiona Wilson

Fiona Wilson

Wilson declares that she is ‘drawn to places thatexude a faded glamour’. In both of the new por-traits on display – ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Canary Yellow’ –the alluring, bright headdresses provide a starkcontrast to the muted backgrounds. It is a compel-ling tension, upon which the complex expressionsof the profiled faces are strung. We find her styleconveys a depth of inner consciousness, which riseseven from the very stance of the nude with herback to us (‘The Morning A er the Night Before’).

Andrew McNeile Jones

Image below ‘Bending the Tops of the Trees’

What we no ce most of all when we range acrossMcNeile Jones’ pieces, is the manner in which thevarious scenes – some sugges ng a narra ve takingplace ‘in the wings’, others more simple s ll lives –are rendered with great faithfulness, yet at thesame me ins lled with enormous aesthe c poten-cy. Whether it is the glowing reflec ons of the‘Lemons on Damask Cloth’, or the lively and sugges-

ve bulges and divots of fabric (‘And So, This IsHow It Would Be’), this is life, but seen more clearlyand brightly through the lens of the ar st’s eye.

Lesley McLaren

Variety is a key characteris c of McLaren’s s ll-lives. They are detailed and they are profuse; as shehas it, ‘a showcase of my quiet observa ons’.

With the diversity of colours and objects on displayin ‘The Story of the Stars’, the piece does indeedprovide endless opportunity for piecing together arewarding narra ve; the moonlit deer bounds to-wards the open window, to the bright and beau fulhaven it seems to proffer. Her par cular manipula-

on of perspec ve brings the scene to life, and wecan imagine the ar st at work, ‘watching andwai ng for a glimpse of drama’.

Lisa Pe ersson

Pe ersson’s striking employment of acrylic paint oncoloured paper ensures that pieces which are sodisparate as to include the strong, symmetricalpa erns of her two 'Flight' pieces, and the boldchildhood figures in 'Birthday', 'Secrets', and'Feeding the Chickens', are nonetheless united by astrong sense of individual style.

Walter Awlson

Walter’s stunning, classic sculptures strongly in-spired the selec on of the ‘Awakening’ theme forour exhibi on this spring. In sculpture he likes toleave the mark of the finger in the clay and in paintleaves a fairly painterly brushstroke, in both in-stances showing the making process while at thesame me producing a faithful realism.

The sculpture featured above, en tled ‘Awakening’,encapsulates the sense of contempla on and focusthat is brought to us with the spring season. Thisstriking image underlines the skill, care and beautythat Walter renders through his work and explainshis enduring popularity as one of ScotlandArt’smost popular ar sts.

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