George Birrell, Simon Laurie RSW RGI, John Kingsley DA RSW PAI, Stephen Mangan & Astrid Trügg
Due to the developing situation with the Covid-19 virus we have decided to temporarily close the gallery until further notice.
All images for the current exhibition, “Take Five” and “Land & Sea”, are available to view online.
If you would like to purchase, view or require any further information please get in touch at any time and we will do our very best to help.
I will continue to post images and further updates on social media.
Keep safe all!
Our next small group exhibition takes us into Spring and so it is entirely appropriate that the artists are five of the most colourful and popular artists working in Scotland today.
George Birrell is inspired by the architecture of the coastal villages of the Scottish East coast. Working mostly with oils and mixed media, George experiments with areas of colour, textures and pattern until he is happy with the balance and then he creates the buildings and paraphernalia to build up the narrative. The end result is always a happy, feel-good painting, not based on any particular location but more an amalgam of its essential elements.
John Kingsley, like George a few years before him, graduated from Glasgow School of Art so it is perhaps no surprise that John’s palette is similarly vibrant. John is as equally at home painting abstracts as he is working on more representational still lifes and the beautiful landscapes of the South of France that are so evocative of lazy summer holidays. A perfect tonic for this time of year!
Simon Laurie also studied at Glasgow School of Art and again has an uncanny ability when it comes to balancing colour and form, creating beautiful harmonious compositions. Influences are many but the work of Ben Nicholson, William Scott and others from the St Ives group have been important. Using some of the antiques and artefacts he collects from around Scotland and from his trips to Greece, his still life’s are like small abstract compilations of his experiences from the places he visits.
Stephen Mangan graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee in 1988 and like the others in the exhibition has a strong, distinctive style. Favourite themes in his work include race courses (he grew up overlooking Musselburgh racecourse), train stations, harbours and other public spaces. His compostions are geometric in structure with a bold, colourful palette and although they often include numerous bustling figures, there is an unusual, eerie, quietness about them.
Astrid Trügg was born in the Netherlands and graduated from the Utrecht School of Art with a degree in painting in 1991. Initially interested in architecture, shapes and contours of cityscapes and harbours, Astrid, more recently has turned her attention to still life. She chooses everyday objects attracted by their simple shapes or textures, many of which reference the seaside close to her home in North Berwick. By mixing gesso and glue with pure mill-ground pigments, like lapis lazuli, she can produce unusually vibrant colours. Her use of fragments of antique newspapers as collage, as well as scraping into the painted surface of the work, creates interesting and distinctive textures.
I hope you can join us at the opening on Friday 28 February, 6-8pm, to meet the artists, enjoy a glass of wine and a cracking collection of new work.
