summer cityscapes: programme for scotlandart's 16th annual summer art exhibition
DESCRIPTION
Programme detailing the artists and some of the works featured in ScotlandArt.com's headline art exhibtion, 'Summer Cityscapes'. We are delighted to dedicate our latest exhibition to works inspired by the city. Here, you will see some of Scotland’s most talented painters reimagining and recreating a number of our most familiar views, imposing their signature style upon locations we have come upon many times before – Ashton Lane, George Square, and Merchant City; Edinburgh Castle, and Calton Hill. Yet we also take great delight in juxtaposing these impressions with those taken from other cities around the globe. From quiet Venetian canals to the lights of the Big Apple, or Parisian boulevards to London's beloved landmarks – here we present Scottish art in a global context, a wide-ranging celebration of urban beauty. All artworks featured in the programme can be viewed and purchased at www.scotlandart.com, with artists listed alphabetically.TRANSCRIPT
Summer City-ScotlandArt’s 16th
Annual Spring Exhibition
Summer
Cityscapes: ScotlandArt.com’s 16th
Annual Summer
exhibition
For the great Frank Lloyd Wright, whose crea-tive genius still breathes through the streets of almost every major city in America, architec-ture was ‘the mother art’. ‘Every great archi-tect’, he believed, was ‘necessarily a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.’ In a city which counts Rennie Mackintosh foremost amongst its artis-tic heroes, these words convey a truth which is readily apparent.
At Scotland Art, we are therefore delighted to dedicate our latest summer exhibition to works inspired by the city. Here, you will see some of Scotland’s most talented painters reimagining and recreating a number of our most familiar views, imposing their signature style upon loca-tions we have come upon many times before – Ashton Lane, George Square, and Merchant City; Edinburgh Castle, and Calton Hill.
Yet we also take great delight in juxtaposing these impressions with those taken from other cities around the globe. From quiet Venetian canals to the lights of the Big Apple, or Parisian boulevards to London's beloved landmarks – here we present Scottish art in a global context, a wide-ranging celebration of urban beauty.
Above: ‘Late Summer Evening, Venice’ by Fiona Wilson. Oil
on canvas, hand-finished grey frame, 70cm by 50cm,
£2,500. All works featured in the programme are available
to view and purchase via our website at
www.scotlandart.com and are listed alphabetically by artist
name.
Lesley Banks
Banks is one of the foremost artists working in Glas-
gow today, to which her exhibition of works in
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum depicting Glas-
gow tenements, ‘39 Weeks and Waiting’, is testament.
We are delighted to display her powerful renditions of
Christmas fireworks at George Square - fabulous exer-
cises in capturing the effects of light upon smoke
against the famed backdrop of Glasgow's beautiful
City Chambers - alongside a number of more intimate
paintings from the West End.
Below: ‘Jellyhill, Day’, oil, cream frame, 42cm by 38cm, £695
Above: ‘Fireworks—Blue and Or-
ange’, oil, dark brown carved frame,
112cm by 112cm, £5000
Right: ‘Looking inward—Misty
Morning’, oil, white box frame, 80cm
by 105cm, £4500
Alicia Dubnyckyj
Viewed from afar, Dubnyckjy's striking panels appear
almost an exercise in photorealism, capturing famous
city vistas the world over with absolute fidelity. It is
only when we see the paintings a little closer that we
realise they are cunningly constructed of small, ab-
stract shapes - prepared digitally from photographs,
yet lent a satisfying sense of variety and chance
through the process by which gloss paint is applied to
board, governed by the eye of the artist. Alicia's career
is definitely one to watch with her paintings featuring
in galleries throughout Europe and North America, as
well as in private collections the world over.
Right: ‘Above Westmin-
ster X’, Gloss on board,
unframed panel, 122cm
by 100cm, £4700
Above: ‘Above Westminster IV’, gloss on board, unframed panel, 122cm by
100cm, £4700
Below: ‘Gooderham Building’, gloss on board, unframed panel, 122cm by
91cm, £4500
Lesley Ann Derks
Derks declares herself profoundly influenced by ' the
lights of the manmade industrial scene', and the 'subtleties
of movement, light and sound' such a subject makes availa-
ble for the artist. Her striking method of layering oil
and enamel paint on canvas cleverly recreates these
subtleties in her richly textured, nuanced works that
are best appreciated in person; the sleek gloom of
street-lit cars beautifully offsets the bright, austere fa-
cade of the 'Hotel de Louvre, Paris'.
Below: ‘Princes Street, Reflections’, oil and enamel on canvas, unframed box
canvas, 40cm by 50cm, £695
Above: ‘Hotel du Louvre, Paris’, oil and enamel on canvas, unframed box
canvas, 60cm by 90cm, £1595
Below: ‘London Eye by Night’, oil and enamel on canvas, unframed box
canvas, 50cm by 60cm, £796
Andrew Hood
Daubs of colour jostle for our attention in these new
paintings by Andrew Hood, to evoke the chaotic bustle
of a Parisian crowd or a lively boulevard, leading to
the French Riviera in Nice. Hood demonstrates again
his singular and striking ability to instil the viewer
with a real sense of motion and flux, of order imposed
upon chaos.
Below: ‘Cote d’Azur—Nice’, oil on board, white floating frame, 110cm by
70cm, £2100
Above: ‘Walk in the City’, oil on board, white floating frame, 100cm by
100cm, £2300
Ronnie Russell
With a distinctly impressionist style, Russell's paint-
ings reveal an artist adept at capturing the posture or
the motion of a foreground figure, or the essential
character of a building, with just a few brushstrokes.
Time and again, we see his awareness of light's interac-
tion with architecture conjured in bright acrylics, and
especially in 'Puddle Reflections, Glasgow' - a piece
with which the artist is particularly enamoured - we
see the artist subtly merging a bold, Buchanan Street
facade with its more freely defined reflection before us.
Right: ’Puddle Reflections, Glasgow’,
acrylic, gold frame with cream slip,
32cm by 42cm, £295
Above: ‘Edinburgh from Calton Hill’, acrylic, gold frame with cream slip,
58cm by 42cm, £450
Below: ‘ Reflected Blue, Kelvingrove’, acrylic, gold frame with cream slip,
27cm by 27cm, £175
Karen Cairns
In her own words, Cairns’ colourful recreations of
streets and monuments in watercolour represent
attempts to 'exploit the paint's natural freedom'. With
loose outlines, and fearless application of bold colours,
she dexterously conjures in our minds the essential im-
pression of a host of familiar locations. We see this es-
pecially as the luminous shape of St Paul's merges with
its reflection in the Thames in 'Big City Lights, London
from the South Bank', or else as the glow of the sunset
over Ashton Lane in 'West End Girls' finds a perfect
counterpoint in the radiant colour of the girls' hair,
bottom left.
Right: ‘West End Girls’, watercolour,
black with cream mount, 33cm by
42cm, £285
Above: ‘Glorious Glasgow, Campsies
from Queen’s Park’, watercolour, dark
brown curved frame with cream mount,
78cm by 47cm, £1100
Right: ‘Wee Pokey Hat’, watercolour,
black frame with cream mount, 33cm by
42cm, £285
Below: ‘ Big City Lights, London from
the South Bank’, watercolour, dark
brown curved frame with cream mount,
57cm by 100cm, £1600
Fiona Wilson
We have noted before Fiona Wilson’s preoccupation
with ‘faded glamour’, yet this was in reference to the
portraits and nudes which are a familiar feature of the
gallery’s collection. In her reflections on Venice, we see
the same muted colouration depicting intricate archi-
tectural structures, and find the effect strangely and in-
tensely moving; for all the glorious late sun of her
‘Late Sunday Evening, Venice’, the piece appears calm,
reflective, almost wistful.
Below left: ‘Curved Door, Venice’, Oil on canvas panel, grey hand-finished
frame with cream slip, 30cm by 30cm, £1200
Below Right: ‘Blue Door, Venice’, Oil on canvas panel, grey hand-finished
frame with cream slip, 30cm by 30cm, £1200
Above: ‘Chiesa di San Rocco’, Oil on linen, grey hand-finished frame with
cream slip, 50cm by 60cm, £2300
Margaret Evans
Evan's expert, highly popular portrayals of fleeting,
fickle Highland skies in pastel and gouache are famil-
iar to us at the gallery; it is hugely exciting to see those
same skills focussed upon the waters of Venice. Her
proficiency in conveying mood through shadow trans-
fers excellently to these new subjects; the dark, murky
figures of the gondolas in 'Midnight...' are intensified
by the dim, reflected light we see strewn across the ca-
nal.
Below Left: ‘Midnight II’, pastel, dark grey frame with silver slip, 48cm by
58cm, £895
Below Right: ‘Midnight III’, pastel, dark grey frame with gold slip, 43cm by
57cm, £895
Above: ‘Chiaroscuro’, pastel, dark grey frame with silver slip, 35cm by
45cm, £695
Adrian McMurchie
McMurchie's style may well be familiar to anyone liv-
ing in Glasgow, as his studies in ink and watercolour
feature in establishments all over town. They expertly
toe the line between absolute fidelity to the subjects ex-
pressed, and a certain looseness in their depiction; free
-hand lines and swiftly sketched figures in his panora-
mas belie the intimate, and comprehensive knowledge
of the location's architectural character which the artist
displays.
Below: ‘Graduation Day’, watercolour and ink, brown wood stained frame
with cream mount and brown slip,93cm by 71cm, £565
Above: ‘Atlantic View, Lisbon’, watercolour and ink, limed wooden frame with
cream mount, 91cm by 63cm, £545
Below (left): ‘Early Morning Stroll, Merchants’ City’, watercolour and ink, metallic
frame with cream slip, 48cm by 58cm,
£395
Below (right): ‘Pisa Baptistry’,
watercolour and ink, limed wood frame
with mount, £365
Ron Eardley
Eardley’s background in book illustration is
discernible in the ‘George Square’: loosely sketched
birds against the backdrop of the likewise freely
rendered City Chambers. Yet his proficiency with
various different painting styles and subjects is
evident from the mesmerising reflection of the
‘Palazzo Sagredo’; disparate pinks and blues merging
harmoniously in the Venetian waters.
Below: ‘George Square, Glasgow’, mixed media, white frame with gold slip,
37cm by 37cm, £335
Above: ‘House for an Art Lover’, mixed media, white frame with gold slip,
£385
Below: ‘Palazzo Sagredo’, mixed media, white frame with gold slip, 39cm
by 39cm, £335
Thankyou for visiting ScotlandArt
ScotlandArt.com is a dynamic art gallery based in
the centre of Glasgow, boasting a diverse and well-
respected collection of works by some of the most
accomplished contemporary artists based in or in-
spired by Scotland.
Alongside our gallery space we also arrange mixers
and networking events for local businesses and soci-
eties, lease artworks on a short term basis for com-
mercial and domestic use and offer a professional
advice and facilitation service for those looking to
commission original artworks for their homes and
offices.
Email enquiries to join our mailing list by emailing
[email protected] and receive invites to
our gallery events.