Category: Exhibitions

Our first exhibition in 2018 is a solo show with one of Scotland’s leading figurative artists, John Johnstone. Born in Forfar in 1941, John studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art from 1959 to 1964 under David McClure and Alberto Morrocco. He later returned to
teach life drawing classes to a generation of artists such as Joseph Urie, Ian Hughes and Michael McVeigh who have gone on to forge their own successful careers.

His early work was influenced heavily by the work of artists such as Soutine and Kokoschka. When John combined these influences with his fascination for the human figure, a distinctive and powerful style emerged. This work was concerned with death, social injustice and inhumanity in complete contrast to the fashionable styles encouraged at the time. Two of these early pieces are in the current show and mark a strong contrast to the more light-hearted caricature paintings that he is well known for today.

Following art college, John had a number of critically acclaimed exhibitions in Dundee and London. His first show at the Alwin Gallery in Mayfair in 1966 contained work from his Post-Dip show, “full of anguish, suffering and a desperate acceptance of the absurd”, wrote Conroy Maddox the English surrealist artist in the Art Review. His second show, again at the Alwin Gallery, a year later, drew the attention of the London based writer for the The Scotsman, Robert Macdonald, wrote “The paintings in his first show had a nightmarish violence about them that was disturbing, but the expressionism is now becoming more coherent and controlled and his work is gaining painterly qualities which make it evident that he is an artist to be watched.”

At this promising part of his career John seemed to lose his way. In a letter he wrote “My seven years as an angry young man are over.” – he found it increasingly difficult to paint in this disturbing, expressionistic style.

However, a retrospective exhibition at the Tate of work by Edward Burra proved revelatory and provided John with the inspiration to forge forward with his painting once again. Now more controlled and less expressionistic, John’s work became more illustrative allowing him to add more detail to his work.

Around this time the printmakers workshop started up in Dundee. Being an insatiable drawer, John found etching to be the perfect medium to accommodate his imaginative narrative and fantastical caricatures. These etchings remain an important and popular part of his work today. We have a number of new and older etchings in this show.

John’s work has continued to be more illustrative, indeed he admitted that he probably should have followed a career as an illustrator as his real love has always been drawing. His drawing skills are evident in all the work on show in this exhibition from the beautiful line in the unusual “Conjoined Twins” from 1965 and the busy fantastical etching “Dream City” to the keenly observed visit to a modern art exhibition in “Shark Tank”.

Expert draughtsmanship, wonderful observation, a good dose of humour and an unremitting desire to create; John Johnstone is an artist to be admired.

The exhibition kicks off with an opening on Saturday 3rd February from 2-5pm where you can meet the artist and runs until the 25th February.

Most of the information on John’s career I found in the book, “John Johnstone” written by his brother Bob Johnstone with an introduction from the art critic Edward Lucie Smith, is also available during the exhibition.

Next up at Fidra Fine Art is our mixed Winter Exhibition; “12 x 2”, 12 Artists x 2 Paintings. It features a great variety of work by some of the best contemporary Scottish artists working today. We are delighted to have received a really strong selection of work covering an interesting variety of styles and subjects… Im sure there will be something here to suit most tastes.
Lesley Banks, George Birrell, Dominique Cameron, Alan Connell, Matthew Draper, George Gilbert RSW, John Johnstone, Simon Laurie RSW RGI, Neil Macdonald RSW RGI PAI, Alice McMurrough RSW RGI PAI, Ann Oram RSW & Angela Repping.

We have also lined up a visit from the very popular jeweller, Kathryn Williamson. Kathryn will be here with her lovely jewels on Saturday 16th December from 12 noon.

Our Winter Exhibition starts on Saturday 2nd December and will continue through to 28 January 2018.

Our next exhibition at Fidra Fine Art features the smartphone photographic work of German artist, Holger Mohaupt. Set in our everyday landscape, Holger’s cleverly observed narratives elevate commonplace experiences into engaging stories. His work invigorates a sometimes austere world thoughtfully and aesthetically.

The title of the exhibition “I See What You Like” is a playful hint at the curation of the show. All the images on display are “likes” from the artist’s Facebook page, which he has been regularly feeding with his distinct imagery of his every day experiences for the past five years – social media acting as a new form of participatory curation.

To contrast with Holger’s handprinted digital photographs is a small series of portrait etchings by the Aberdeen artist John Bulloch Souter (1890-1972). These pieces, created around one hundred years ago using a process more laborious than the relatively instantaneous digital techniques of today, invites the viewer to consider the changes in aesthetics, processes and how art is consumed and enjoyed today.

A third strand to this exhibition is a video installation titled, ‘Private View’ which is hosted in the St Andrew Blackadder Parish Church on the High Street in North Berwick. Here Holger again is engaging in a dialogue, this time with memory and landscape. The video projection in the main hall of the church was inspired by the memorial benches in and around the seaside town in East Lothian. The peace and tranquility of the church invites the visitor to contemplate and reflect beyond the every day.

Holger describes this work as, “…a call for dialogue. A dialogue between personal landscapes and the psychogeography of the everyday, with his smartphone as a walking stick.”

“I See What You Like” at Fidra Fine Art, will open with a Preview on Friday 27th October from 6-8pm and will continue Saturdays and Sundays open 12-5pm until 16 November. Midweek appointments are very welcome.

“Private View” video installation at St Andrew Blackadder Parish Church will run from 28 October to 26 November open Monday to Friday 9am-2pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm.

Next up at Fidra Fine Art is a solo exhibition of work by the incredibly talented Dominique Cameron. Following on from successful walks around Dundee and Montrose, Dominique returns to Leith where she lived for a significant part of her life. Being a port, Leith is a place where many journeys start and finish. For Dominique it was where she lived when she started out as a student, where she got married and where she had her children. Returning 20 years later, Dominique chronicles her thoughts and observations of her “Leith Walks” through her uniquely lyrical drawing, painting, writing and film.

Artist Statement

I am an artist that walks and draws. I draw lines on maps and walk those routes observing, describing and fictionalising what I find. It’s an exploration of place. Because of the fixed parameter of the line I must interpret only what’s on that line, in turn trying to find the interest in whatever is there. That is part of the challenge to look at forgotten, overlooked parts of the city. I chose the project in Leith because I stayed here, off Ferry Road. It’s where I lived when I was at college, where I got married, at the registry office round the corner from our flat and where my two children were born. Leith is part of my history and I wanted to retrace my steps, to see if Leith had changed in the years I had been away. I found it changed, but then again, not. The people are as they were – generous, chatty and funny, and the streets that took me past the flats where we lived are the same. I wrote about my walks too, my encounters with Leithers and the stories they told me. Some of these have been compiled in a book with the drawings and paintings of Ferry Road, Great Junction street, The Fit o’ the walk, Tolbooth Wynd, Constitution Street, Bernard Street and down at the docks that mark the end point of the walk.

Here is one of my entries from a walk early on in the project

“Thick, smirry, wet rain. A man in mustard trousers and a trilby cycles past, a small child in pink wellies whizzes on her scooter. I sit outside the library looking at the enormous mural painted on the gable end wall of the tenement next door. It tells the story of Leith, its industries, its activism, its story of welcoming new communities. It has been here as long as I can remember. Boys with dogs, boys with phones. A sofa put out for the rubbish. ‘Yes’ independence posters in flats opposite, the blue fading but not the desire. Anoraks and parkas, pigeons and buses. My feet are getting wet, daft to be wearing sandals on a day like today. The leaves are already starting to fall. The end of summer.”

I wanted to tell my own story of Leith through these words and images. They will come together as an exhibition with Fidra Fine Art from 4th August through to 3rd September. The gallery is open 12-5pm Saturdays and Sundays but drop-ins and appointments are very welcome midweek. There will be a Preview with refreshments on Friday 4th August from 6-8pm.

We hope you can make it along.

Our next exhibition is a Mixed Show and will feature a great selection of work by some of the best Scottish artists, both working today and from the past 100 years or so.

We are looking forward to showing some great new work by Ann Oram, Claire Beattie, Matthew Draper, George Birrell, Carmen Ambrozevich, Alan Connell, Arran Ross, Georgina Bown, Sarah Knox, Sam Bain, Joseph Urie, Jonathan Hood, Gordon M Scott as well as older pieces by great Scottish artists such as Earl Haig, Jack Knox, Ian Fleming, Perpetua Pope & Patrick William Adam.

We will kick off with a opening evening with refreshments on Friday 23 June 6-8pm…hope to see you there.

Matthew Draper
“Small Works”

20 May to 18 June
Opening with refreshments on Saturday 20 May 12-5pm

The volcanic plug that is Bass Rock, sits a few miles off the coast at North Berwick. Its presence to people who live in East Lothian has provided a timeless, reassuring permanence. To artists such as Matthew Draper the rock is the perfect stage that plays host to the perpetual drama of the ever-changing Scottish weather. The haar, so familiar to residents of this coastline, is one of the star performers. Descending in layers of varying depth, diffusing the light onto the rock creating an heir of romance and mystery – it is as much the subject of Matthew’s work as the landscape itself.

The current show featuring new and recent, smaller works explores not only Bass Rock and the East Lothian coastline but also Edinburgh, where Matthew has his studio as well as the dramatic Scottish landscape from the Trossachs to Rannoch Moor and beyond.

In his Edinburgh cityscapes, the weather is again a key player. It provides infinite possibilities for the artist to change the mood of a landscape. Blizzards closing in over Arthur’s Seat or the passing of squalls swept in from the Firth of Forth have been studied at length from his top floor flat, overlooking the city. The haar, again a natural filter on the landscape, rolls in over the Old Town, softening the light source whether that be the sun or moon, streetlights or lights from events at the Castle esplanade.

His Highland pieces follow in the tradition of the Romantic landscape painting of Caspar David Friedrich, De Breanski and the Scottish artists Alexander Nasmyth and Horatio McCulloch. Clouds creeping in across a glen, light chasing along a hillside or dark, ominous fronts closing in, all perfectly evoked through the manual build up of numerous layers of pastel, his chosen medium.

We are extremely proud to be exhibiting in North Berwick, the work of one of Scotland’s most accomplished landscape artists. Matthew has won many awards including, most recently, the prestigious Charles Pears Award at the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries in London. He has had numerous solo shows across the UK including; Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh, Lemon Street in Truro, Beaux Arts in Bath and last year, at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.

Our next exhibition is a Mixed Show and will feature a great selection of work by some of the best Scottish artists, both working today and from the past 100 years or so.

We are looking forward to showing some great new work by George Birrell, Astrid Trügg, Jonathan Hood, Andy Heald, Fee Dickson, Alan Connell, Arran Ross, Allan J Robertson, Jayne Stokes, Georgina Bown, Angela Repping, Rachel Marshall, Patti Yuill, Joseph Urie, Gordon M Scott, Jean Laing as well as older pieces by great Scottish artists such as Earl Haig, John Houston, Patrick William Adam and many more.

We will kick off with a opening evening with refreshments on Friday 21 April 6-8pm…hope to see you there.

Next up at Fidra Fine Art is “Drawing and Etching”. On show will be a selection of drawing and etching from artists from the past 100 years. From exquisite etchings and drawings from the early part of the last century by two Aberdeen artists, John Bulloch Souter and the more widely known and collected, James McBey through to contemporary artists working today such as June Carey RSW RGI, Graeme Wilcox and Neil Macdonald PAI RGI RSW.

Drawings, whether as sketched preparation for bigger pieces or as finished pieces in their own right, offer an interesting perspective on an artist’s work which is often overshadowed by the more familiar, fully worked pieces of an artists oeuvre.

Etchings were keenly collected at the turn of the 18th & 19th century with the work of the Scottish etchers James McBey, Muirhead Bone, DY Cameron and William Strang in particular, being in great demand. This subsided at the time of the Great Depression in the 1930’s but Scottish artists have continued to be drawn to the medium with artists such as Ian Fleming, William Wilson and John Bellany through to John Byrne and June Carey working today creating unique and outstanding work with the process. Etchings appear to becoming more fashionable again and offer a great way of acquiring beautiful, original artwork by well known and collectable artists at affordable prices.

As well as those mentioned above, we will also have work by, Alice McMurrough PAI RGI RSW, Matthew Draper, Simon Laurie RSW RGI, Dominique Cameron, Lesley Banks, Sandy Murphy RSW RGI PAI, Michael Durning PPAI PAI RSW, Jimmy Cosgrove RSW RGI PAI, Joseph Urie, Alan Connell, George Birrell, Angela Repping, Jayne Stokes, Sandra Collins, Georgina Bown, Carmen Ambrozevich, Patti Yuill, Claire Beattie, Arran Ross as well as Jack Knox RSA RSW RGI and Annabel Kidston.

We are also delighted to welcome for the first time, work by Ann Oram RSW, Robbie Bushe and Rachel Everitt… very much appreciated!

The exhibition kicks off with a Preview on Friday 3 February and then the show continues from 4 February through to Sunday 12 March.