New exhibition at Open Eye Gallery

Two new exhibitions open on 30 January 2012 at Open Eye Gallery, A Retrospective with New Works by Rob Fairley and New Paintings by Kirsty Wither.

The exhibition by Rob Fairley is called An Olympus in the Dream.  The Reporter went along to the gallery just before it opened to take a look at the new offerings. It turns out there really is more to art than meets the eye as we found out when speaking with the gallery owner, Tom Wilson:-

As you have heard in the interview, Rob Fairley was the founder of the Room 13 project in Fort William and you can find out more about that here.

Kirsty Wither is a graduate of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, and has exhibited in the Open Eye very successfully before.

The gallery is situated in Edinburgh’s New Town at the corner of Abercromby Place and Dundas Street in an area awash with galleries of all kinds.

Open Eye Gallery 34 Abercromby Place EH3 6QE Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm

T 0131 557 1020  mail@openeyegallery.co.uk

AUDIO – Some of the highlights at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery reopened at the beginning of December 2011 after two years of extensive renovations. The whole project has incorporated both internal and external works, and the public floorspace has been increased by about 60 per cent. The building dates from the 1880s and was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson to show off the nation’s people. There is a huge array of portraits, but curiously the new exhibitions include some landscapes too where the curators have thought it necessary to portray Scotland and the Scots relationship to it. Photography has a firm place in the gallery now and you will no doubt love the Hot Scots exhibition which is on the left as you enter the main door, featuring photographs of David Tennant and Robert Carlyle, as well as artist John Byrne, a well-kent face about Edinburgh.

One of the most striking features is that the top floor interlinking galleries are now lit by skylights and form a wonderfully inviting airy space. An innovative plan has been to put screens in front of windows where daylight might otherwise damage some of the works displayed, but these can be easily removed for future exhibitions.

Another is the 48 person lift which will whisk you to the top floor. The cafe on the ground floor is busy, even at 10 o’clock in the morning when the gallery first opens. The whole atmosphere is one of renewed interest in all things Scottish, and the renovation has done much to make the space much more inviting to the public.

Just before the gallery reopened, The Reporter spoke with two of the curators, David Taylor and Imogen Booth to bring you just a small flavour of what is there waiting for you on your visit.

 

 

Scottish National Portrait Gallery 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD 

pginfo@nationalgalleries.org

Open daily 10am to 5pm and until 7pm on Thursdays

Exhibition at The Leith Gallery – Christmas Calling Birds

Emma Butler-Cole Aiken’s stained glass birds, ‘Stanley’ and ‘Elspeth’ sing out colour and harmony in the Leith Gallery’s Christmas exhibition. The birds are just two of the exhibits selected by Gallery Director, Jan Morrison, for this year’s festive show which runs until 7th January 2012.  The stunning and eclectic selection of paintings, glass and ceramics will reward any stroll down to the shore.

Emma studied at Edinburgh College of Art and became a self-employed stained glass artist in 1994. Since then she has completed over 40 commissions and in September this year she received a Saltire Society Art and Craft in Architecture Commendation for her window ‘Dove’ in Broxburn Parish Church. Emma’s bluebirds are accompanied by yellow hued ‘Jerome’ and the loveable ceramic dogs of Virginia Dowe-Edwards.

The paintings on show include landscapes of the Scottish islands of Harris and Coll by Dumbarton born, Joyce M Borland, and Provence in France by Jennifer Irvine who graduated from Glasgow School of Art.

The gallery is open 6 days a week, from Monday to Friday between 11am and 5pm and on Saturday from 11am to 4pm. It will be closed for the festive season from 24th December to 3rd January 2012.

The Leith Gallery, 65, the Shore, Edinburgh, EH6 6RA, UK
Tel 0131 553 5255 Fax 0131 553 5655 e-mail info@the-leith-gallery.co.uk

First Minister’s Christmas Card by Alasdair Gray

The First Minister’s official Christmas card for 2011 will feature a painting by renowned Scottish artist and author Alasdair Gray, it was announced today.

Bella Caledonia features an image painted by Alasdair Gray as part of the spectacular ceiling mural in Oran Mor in Glasgow, and that venue was chosen by the First Minister as the apt location for his launch reception this afternoon.

The painting will be auctioned in the new year with proceeds given to four Scottish charities: Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS); Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF); Glenachulish Preservation Trust; and the Small Tribes Trust – a charity chosen by Alasdair Gray.

Last year’s card – Let’s Twist Again by Jack Vettriano – raised £86,000 for the Bethany Christian Trust, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, Quarriers and Teenage Cancer Trust.

That took the total raised by the First Minister’s Christmas cards to more than £127,000 since 2007, with charities including CLIC Sargent, Joining Against Cancer In Kids Foundation, Mary’s Meals and the RNLI all benefiting from the auction sales.

First Minister Alex Salmond said:

“Alasdair Gray is one of Scotland’s most iconic and prolific artists and authors, and I am delighted that he accepted the challenge of painting this year’s charity Christmas card – which with his involvement is going to raise significant amounts of money for this year’s four charities.

“Bella Caledonia personifies Scotland as a strong woman with a passion for social justice, and Alasdair Gray has said she represents the qualities that Scotland should aspire to – a view I am happy to endorse at Christmas-time and year-round.

“As in previous years, the original artwork unveiled today will be auctioned off and the funds raised will be handed to four deserving charities in Scotland.

“Since 2007, my Christmas cards have raised more than £127,000 for a variety of causes in Scotland. And this year, the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the Glenachulish Preservation Trust; and a charity chosen by Alasdair Gray – the Small Tribes Trust – will all share in the auction proceeds.

Alasdair Gray said:

“In Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s ‘Sunset Song’, the heroine is referred to at one point as Chris Caledonia. I called my character Bella Caledonia for the same reasons as Gibbon – because she is a representative of all Scotland.

“Bella Caledonia first appeared as an illustration in my novel ‘Poor Things’. She was wearing a Gainsborough-style hat, with a view of central Scotland behind her. The post is based on the Mona Lisa, with crossed hands, looking sideways.

“The original is lost long ago, but I have painted different versions of Bella. I changed the hat to a Glengarry and put a tartan plaid over her shoulder. The character is a strong woman with an enquiring mind and a sense of social justice, the qualities we would like Scotland to have also.

“That sense of social justice and compassion is reflected in the work of the charities who will benefit from the painting. At Christmas, that is very appropriate.”

Maria Gill, CHAS Chief Executive, said:

“All of us at Children’s Hospice Association Scotland feel very proud to have been chosen to benefit from the First Minister’s Christmas card. We have been touched by the interest shown towards our work by the First Minister since his visit to Rachel House Children’s Hospice in March of this year.

“CHAS provides much needed care and support at Scotland’s two children’s hospices, Rachel House in Kinross and Robin House in Balloch, as well as helping families in their own homes with our CHAS at Home service. Christmas is a particularly poignant time for children and young people with life-shortening conditions, and their families. We are incredibly grateful to the First Minister for supporting them in this way.”

Lorraine Currie, SCIAF’s Head of International Programmes, said:

“We are delighted that the First Minister has chosen to show his support for SCIAF’s work in this way. Too many people are still going to bed hungry each night because of crippling poverty and social injustice around the world.

“The proceeds from the First Minister’s Christmas card will provide vital additional funds to help SCIAF address these problems and we will make sure that every penny raised is spent where it is needed most.”

Dr Jennifer Frances, Chair of Trustees of the Glenachulish Preservation Trust, said:

“We have been completely taken by surprise to be chosen as a beneficiary of the First Minister’s Christmas Card 2011, and are very appreciative.

“We are a small, recently formed charity run completely by volunteers, which aims to preserve in working order the last turntable ferry in Scotland. Once a common sight throughout the Highlands ‘wee ferries’ such as our MV Glenachulish were road links before the widespread building of bridges to improve the road network in the 1970s.

“The Glenachulish sails the historic route between the Isle of Skye and Glenelg, the shortest crossing to the island, and offers the people of Scotland an opportunity to experience an important aspect of our culture and heritage first hand. Money donated will begin the extensive restoration programme for the vessel.”

Christmas Coloured – Open Studios at Stockbridge

Artists in WASPS studios at Patriothall, off Hamilton Place in Stockbridge, are celebrating the festive season by having an Open Studio on Saturday 10th December between noon and 5pm.

The building, which hides behind an entrance way opposite Stockbridge Library, has a Spartan exterior which belies the dazzling powerhouse of art and activity inside. Colour, texture and shape combine and recombine here to excite the senses and banish any winter blues.

Tapestry artist , Fiona Hutchison weaves the movement and the stillness of the sea in her current pieces while artist Diana Hope’s paintings are sumptuous patchworks of intense colour. They and other artists including Michael Craik, Anna King, James Lumsden and Trude Blows are opening their studios to reveal some of the secrets of their art and will be at hand to chat about their work.

As well as the open studios in the main gallery there is also an exhibition of the work by other artists who work at WASPS.

Everyone is welcome and there will be wine and mince pies.

Bourne Art – new exhibition

 

New Exhibition entitled Jock McFadyen – Fragments of Scotland from 25^th November – 3^rd January

Image Details: Inganess Bay 5, oil on mdf, 14 ½ x 20

 

Commanding the attention of the audience and challenging notions of genre and common conceptions of social practice, McFadyen’s work makes anything but a diminutive statement. With eyesores depicted as though they were architectural gems and the marginalized and disregarded immortalized on canvas, he inescapably represents society’s eschewed.  This Scottish artist deals in bringing the background to the fore; in celebrating elements of urban and now rural life that we tend not to take into account.

 

Educated at Chelsea School of Art, Jock McFadyen has had over 40 solo exhibitions and his work is held in almost as many public collections, both in Britain and abroad. Included in these are the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Scottish Arts Council, the Contemporary Art Society and the British Museum.

 

McFadyen’s searing visions of the physical and social decay of the urban are in this exhibition replaced by hauntingly sparse visions of rural isolation and occasionally-disquieting calm. Heavy skies, brooding mountains and isolation characterize these paintings which retain McFadyen’s characteristic sense of ambiguity.

 

Caroline McNairn – One Foot in Eden

25^th November – 3^rd January

Image Details: Untitled 5, mixed media, 16 x 22 ½

 

Born in Selkirk in 1955, Caroline McNairn studied Fine Art at Edinburgh University from 1972-8. One of a group of artists including Fiona Carlisle, June Redfern and Ian Hughes who became closely associated with 369, the innovative Edinburgh gallery that opened in 1978, McNairn also forms part of an on-going tradition of Scottish colourism, stretching back to the likes of John Duncan Fergusson and Francis Cadell. This small exhibition of her last paintings retains the language of assured design and colour strength characteristic of her work in the 1970s and 80s. The paintings are visually complex yet not busy, and, amidst their sense of strident handling and colour, are lushly evocative of the forests and gardens implied by their elusive representation elements.

 

Bourne Fine Art

6 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ

Telephone +44 (0) 131 557 4050

Open: Monday to Friday 10 – 6pm Saturday 11 – 2pm

 

 

Triptych of Portraits wins The John Byrne Award

 

This has been a busy week for Edinburgh based artist, John Byrne. On Tuesday he was a nominee at the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards, this morning he officiated at the opening of The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and last night he was handing out the prizes at the Ingleby Gallery in the competition bearing his name. We imagine he may be off for a wee sleep now!

 

Last night a team of sixth year pupils from St. Thomas of Aquin’s High School won the John Byrne Award 2011 for their triptych of portraits inspired by triptychs from early Renaissance painters. The artist, playwright and writer, John Byrne, presented the winning team with a £7,000 cheque, £5,000 of which will be donated to one or more social projects chosen by the winners. The remaining £2,000 will be spent on personal development for the team.

Photos Rob McDougall

 

Edinburgh Fundraising Diary – Art Auction for Barnardo’s Scotland 30 November 2011

Joseph Pearce bar hosts top-notch art exhibition and auction for Barnardo’s Scotland

Time is running out to view or bid for an original or limited edition piece of artwork produced by Scottish and UK-based artists!

On 30 November Joseph Pearce’s Bar in Edinburgh will hold an art exhibition and auction to raise funds for children’s charity Barnardo’s Scotland.

Among those exhibiting are Arron Lindsay, featured on Saatchi Online, Japanese illustrator Ryoko Tamura, graphic designers Wet Yeti, and Glaswegian photographer Neil Macmillan.

‘Until the Long Shadow Fades’, a mixed media artwork created by Mike Inglis, Pete Martin, Rachel Levine, Kirsty Whiten, Skint, Fraser Gray, and Martin McGuinness in 2009, has been hanging in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and was kindly donated to the Leith exhibition by Shawn Coulman.

More than 52 pieces will be auctioned off over the course of one evening, including artworks, jewellery and boutique fashion, and the silent bids have already started rolling in.

You can view and bid for art across a variety of styles, with proceeds going to Barnardo’s Scotland’s RAFT project, which provides residential care and support for primary-aged children who have experienced multiple placement breakdowns. Children from RAFT have also created their own artworks, which is proudly displayed alongside professional and budding artists.

Anna Christopherson, the businesswoman behind Joseph Pearce’s and sister bars, Boda, Sofi’s and Victoria said:- “The RAFT project does an amazing job helping the kids staying there, and since I have my own kids I know how important it is that children get support, encouragement and care. It feels great to be able to do something to help them and over 50 artists and 25 local businesses have donated to raise money for RAFT project!”

Nigel Beal, RAFT service manager said: “We’re really excited about linking up again with Anna of Pearce’s Café bar to raise money for the service. The children can’t wait to take up their offer of having lunch at the Café bar and for them to see their pictures up on the wall along with the other artists. I remember last time they got a really great boost from the event, and we used the proceeds to take the children away on a special summer holiday – we hope to do the same again.”

Barnardo’s Scotland are extremely grateful to Anna, the talented artists, and Edinburgh’s local businesses for their support and donated prize draws, including a £50 voucher at Kitchin, a magnum bottle of Roederer Champagne, a free golfing session, and £50 worth of free house cleaning!

For more information about the art exhibition and auction or Barnardo’s Scotland please contact Community Fundraising Volunteer Manager, Jonathan Ogilvie on Tel: 0131 334 9893, or Mobile: 07827881451, or Email Jonathan Ogilvie

 

Rare painting to be auctioned in Edinburgh

An early 19th century watercolour showing two boys playing golf on the Old Links of Musselburgh, where the game has been played continuously for 550 years, is for sale in the Bonham’s 19th and 20th Century Pictures and Prints sale in Edinburgh on 8 December. It is estimated to reach between £20,000-30,000.

The Old Links of Musselburgh, six miles east of Edinburgh, is the oldest operational golf course on earth and is one of three contenders for the original ground on which the game of golf began to be played in Scotland, probably in the mid-14th century.

The painting, by William Douglas, was painted in 1809 and depicts features of the course still seen today. In the middle distance is the great sand bunker, still known as Pandemonium. Also visible is the public house now known as Mrs Forman’s, where golfers paused to slake their thirst. Behind the boys are the Prestonpans potteries, the village of Aberlady, the promontory of Kilspindie and Gullane Hill, while in the background the distinctive conical shape of Berwick Law is clearly seen.

The boys are believed to be sons of Captain Andrew Wauchope of Niddrie. One of Captain Wauchope’s other sons, Robert, later a Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy, was also depicted by William Douglas as a golfer, wearing almost identical clothes to those worn in this picture.

This rare watercolour appears historically accurate and is a gold mine for golf enthusiasts. The golf clubs – ancestors of the modern driver – both have leather grips and exhibit wooden shafts, probably of flexible ash or hazel. These are attached by whipping to a hardwood club head, probably beech or holly.

The golf ball depicted is a ‘feathery’, which was produced by a time-consuming process requiring considerable expertise and involving, in its final stages, the pressing of a top hat full of feathers through a small hole in a softened leather ball. Each craftsman could only produce three or four featheries per day, with the result that each cost as much as 4 shillings. The feathery was not a durable ball and the boys might carry 4-6 for their round. They could, however, be hit for up to 250 yards.

The golf hole depicted seems substantially larger than the present-day standard. However, this may not be artistic licence as standardisation of hole size had not arrived by 1809 and, when it came, it was from the links depicted in this drawing. In 1829 the Musselburgh Golf Club invented a hole-cutter which was 41/4 inches in diameter. This found favour with the game’s governing body, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and was adopted as a worldwide standard in 1891.

Golf has long been encouraged among the young in Scotland, the optimal time to take it up being the age of the boys depicted here. At Gullane, a few miles along the coast from Musselburgh, there is a short children’s course. On its 1st Tee, a stern notice warns: “Adults may only play on this golf course – if accompanied by a Child“.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery – photographic portraits

Some of Scotland’s most famous faces from Sir Sean Connery to David Tennant are to appear in a new collection of photographic portraits which will be unveiled in the refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery when it opens on Thursday 1 December.

Hot Scots, a display of 18 works, recently acquired for the national collection will feature well known Scottish names from TV, film and music including current Hollywood stars James McAvoy and Gerard Butler. Among the other new portraits on show will be images of Dr Who actor Karen Gillan, writer Armando Iannucci, singer Paolo Nutini, Michelin star chef Tom Kitchin and artist and playwright John Byrne. The portraits have been taken by celebrated photographers from Eva Vermandel to Albert Watson.

 

 

Award winning Scottish photographer Albert Watson’s first photograph to be added to the National Galleries of Scotland’s permanent collection is Watson’s iconic 2003 portrait of Sir Sean Connery. Donations to Hot Scots also include David Eustace’s 2010 portraits of artist and playwright John Byrne and Ken Dundas’ 2011 portrait of actor Robert Carlyle.

The new Scottish National Portrait Gallery will, for the first time, include a major space dedicated to showcasing the Gallery’s unparalleled holdings of Scottish and international photography, as well as newly commissioned work by contemporary photographers. Alongside Hot Scots the significance of photography is highlighted throughout the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Romantic Camera: Scottish Photography and the Modern World, Migration Stories: Pakistan and Close Encounters: Thomas Annan’s Glasgow.

Hot Scots will be shown in the new Contemporary Gallery on the ground floor. Home to special loan exhibitions and a series of displays from the Gallery’s collection of contemporary portraits, the new exhibition space will also feature commissions from some of Scotland’s most celebrated contemporary artists. The opening displays include Missing, a video installation by Graham Fagen, commissioned as part of a unique partnership between the Portrait Gallery and the National Theatre of Scotland.

 

James Holloway, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery said:

“It is absolutely right that faces as familiar as David Tennant and Karen Gillan should be on show in the new Portrait Gallery. The Gallery is about Scotland today as well as Scotland of old.”

 

Next Page »