Category: Exhibitions

Joyce Gunn Cairns, Henry Jabbour, Angela Repping, Rebecca Westguard & Graeme Wilcox

The second of our small group shows this year focusses on Figurative artists. The Tate defines Figurative Art as “any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world and particularly to the human figure.” The five artists participating in this exhibition have been invited as their references to the human figure display varying levels of abstraction and individual expression.

Joyce Gunn Cairns graduated from Edinburgh College Art having previously studied German & Comparative Religion at Aberdeen University. She has several works held in the collections of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and City Arts Centre, Edinburgh as well as many other major institutions throughout the UK. Employing a muted palette, Joyce’s figurative paintings feel intensely personal, almost voyeuristic to the extent that the viewer might feel they are intruding on an intimate moment between the artist and sitter. The subtle palette combined with its constant layering and scraping back results in the most expressive and gentle of portraits.

Henry Jabbour, initially trained and worked as a medical scientist before following his passion for art in 2010 by enrolling in the Leith School of Art where he completed a Diploma in Drawing & Painting which was followed by an MFA in Painting & printmaking from the New York Academy of Art. Like Joyce, Henry’s work is intensely expressive but his mark making and his palette is bold and energetic. In his paintings the paint application appears haphazard and thickly applied but the finished portraits exude a myriad of evocative human emotions.

Angela Repping studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee and now lives and works in North Berwick. Angela describes herself as “a figurative artist, and is fascinated with the magic of drawing, of making marks that express her feelings for the human form, in space, light and movement.” In contrast to the loosely expressive styles of Joyce and Henry, Angela’s drawing is very considered and meticulous but still manages to create a deeply emotional portrait that goes beyond the likeness of the sitter.

Rebecca Westguard, studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen where she now teaches life drawing. It’s great to see the art of life drawing alive and well in Aberdeen. Rebecca’s exploration of the human form produces beautifully composed, honest studies. Rather than shape and size, the studies explore the strength, fragility and beauty found in every sitter.

Graeme Wilcox graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1993 and has worked as a figurative artist ever since. His work is shown regularly throughout the UK and has won numerous awards. More traditional and representational in style, Graeme’s studies of individual sitters are contemplative and thoughtful, exploring the subtleties of strength and frailty in his characters.

 

 

 

Our Winter Mixed Exhibition pulls together a number of our regular gallery artists along with one or two new faces. With a wide variety of painting, sculpture and ceramics, there’s sure to be something to suit most tastes.

Participating artists include, Claire Beattie, George Birrell, Georgina Bown, Davy Brown, Dominique Cameron, Sandra Collins, Alan Connell, Ann Cowan, Fee Dickson, Matthew Draper, Neal Greig, Andy Heald, Henry Jabbour, Rachel Marshall, Ann Oram, Allan J Robertson, Arran Ross, Gordon M Scott, Jayne Stokes, Astrid Trügg with ceramics from Leonie MacMillan and Sarah Lawson and driftwood sculpture from Shaun McLaren…and much more.

Allusion III

RGI artists working in the Narrative tradition.

Ade Adesina RSA RGI, Reinhard Behrens RSW RGI, June Carey RSW RGI PAI, Jimmy Cosgrove RSW RGI PAI, Jim Dunbar PRSW RWS RGI, Ronald Forbes RSA RGI, Gordon Mitchell RSW RSA RGI, Neil Macdonald RSW RGI PAI, Neil MacPherson RSA RSW RGI, Alice McMurrough RSW RGI PAI, Heather Nevay RGI, Murray Robertson RGI, Peter Thomson RGI, James Tweedie RGI, Helen Wilson RSW RGI PAI & Adrian Wiszniewski RSA RGI.

10 November – 4 December 2018

Private View, Friday 9 November 6-8pm

This exhibition is a selection of work by 16 of the elected members of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI), whose vision could be considered part of the Narrative tradition. The Narrative tradition has a long lineage in Scotland from the dramatic subjects of Gavin Hamilton, the rustic scenes of David Wilkie, the subtle story-telling of the Glasgow Boys and on to the New Glasgow Boys.

The artwork in ‘Allusion III’ invites a more personal response, with clues sometimes being found in the title of the work. However, any authoritative meaning is often deliberately buried. You are invited to read your own narratives into the often beguiling artwork of this exhibition.

This is the third incarnation of the RGI Allusion Group, the first being held in 2015 at the Kelly Gallery in Glasgow before they moved the show out of Glasgow in 2017 to the Tatha Gallery on the banks of the Tay in Fife. This year the show is on the road again, this time to Fidra Fine Art in their new premises in Gullane, East Lothian. With no RGI Annual Exhibition in the familiar November slot this year, this assembled group of RGI artists is a great opportunity to access some of the most talented and imaginative artists working in Scotland today.

 

6 October to 4 November 2018

Private View – Friday 5 October, 6-8pm

Our next exhibition features three artists whose work has a common thread; a fascination and understanding of texture, colour and form. The work of Simon Laurie, Jock MacInnes and Astrid Trügg draws inspiration from many sources, but the St Ives artists Ben Nicholson, Alfred Wallis, Wilhelmina Barns Graham and Terry Frost as well as William Scott, Braque and Morandi have all had a lasting influence.

Simon Laurie’s work, whether his stylised still life, abstract landscapes or simplistic heads, has a natural rhythm, skilfully balancing shapes, colour and texture. Multiple layers of paint are drawn and scratched into, producing tactile, textured surfaces punctuated by the simplified shapes of the everyday objects in his still lifes, hedgerows and fields in the landscapes and facial features of his small heads.

Jock MacInnes, like Simon, graduated from Glasgow School of Art and taught there for a number of years before pursuing his own painting career. Still life and landscape are the main focus of Jock’s work with the sights and sounds of the West Coast of Scotland and the harbours and villages around Collioure in the South of France featuring strongly. Texture again is an important part of Jock’s work, painting onto gesso-prepared boards and canvases and then scratching and scraping away the layers to leave a natural, weathered feel.

Astrid Trügg studied at Utrecht School of Art and Leith School of Art, and now lives in North Berwick and works from her studio in Edinburgh. Again texture, form and colour are key building blocks in Astrid’s work. Working into the many layers of gesso and paint produces interesting textures onto which antique newspaper collage adds a feeling of nostalgia. The everyday objects that are carefully arranged in Astrid’s still life pieces appear simplified, the perspective altered but the resulting forms balance perfectly with her vibrant and harmonious choices of colour.

Although all three artists employ similar techniques and share similar artistic influences each has evolved their own instantly recognisable, idiosyncratic style.

 

 

1-30 September

Private View – 31 August 6-8pm

Dominique Cameron spent nine months in a wood in Fife, not every day, but at least once a week walking, drawing, writing and painting this most complicated of spaces. Here the landscape snares, entangles, along paths where the light flickers and pools of shadows sharpen the senses. From Winter to Spring and early summer she charted the changes through ice and snow, rain, wind and sun, painting, amongst other things large scale works on paper on the woodland floor, attempting to articulate the nature of trees in all their constant movement of bursting, greening, flowering, falling. During this time she too became part of this landscape, not so much a visitor but more tenant of this small patch of Scottish woodland.

‘I have mapped my path through this wood….. It has become another kind of home, where I have got to know a little more of the lives that are lived here. I have loved every moment.’

We are delighted to welcome back George Birrell to the new gallery in his home town of Gullane for our Summer Show. George is a regular and popular exhibitor at the gallery so it’s great to be able to show a new series of his instantly recognisable paintings throughout August.

George has been working on a new landscape format which is a bit of a departure from the (mostly) square compositions we are used to seeing. I think it works incredibly well allowing George to add a bit more narrative to the scenes.

See what you think!

The show starts with an opening on Friday 3rd August from 6-8pm and will continue until Sunday 26th August. Hope you can make it along.

Our second exhibition in our new gallery space in Gullane is a small group show with six artist with very different styles who are constantly inspired by the changing landscape around them.

Matthew Draper SSA VAS PS, Michael Durning RSW PPAI PAI, Neil Macdonald RSW RGI PAI, Sandy Murphy RSW RGI PAI, Jacqueline Orr RSW RGI PAI and Robert D Murray RSW RGI PAI.

We will also have some new driftwood and found items from Shaun McLaren.

Images will be added to the website as they become available.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 30th June and runs until Sunday 29th July.

Our first exhibition in our new premises in Gullane will be a Mixed Exhibition featuring new work by a variety of gallery artists including Matthew Draper, Ann Oram, Simon Laurie, Graeme Wilcox, Alan Connell, George Birrell, Neil Macdonald, Alice McMurrough, Astrid Trügg, Dominique Cameron, Andy Heald, Jayne Stokes and many more. We will also be showing for the first time work by Gail Murray RSW PAI, Robert Murray RGI RSW PAI and Kirsty Cohen. A really great line up for our first show.

We will open the doors on Saturday 26 May from 12-5pm and would be delighted if you could join us to celebrate our opening.

Going forward our new opening hours will be: 11am-5pm Tuesday to Saturday, 12-5pm Sunday and Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays.

Hope to see you soon.