Jamie Primrose, ‘Winter Impressions’- serene, scenic views around Edinburgh @ Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh.
Since 2003, Jamie Primrose has presented over forty solo exhibitions, specialising in city, land and seascapes from Scotland to the south of France. Back again at the Dundas Street Gallery this week for his second show of 2022, ‘Winter Impressions’ features fifty oil paintings, prints and Indian ink drawings depicting crisp snowy days and panoramic views around Edinburgh.
I’ve captured glistening light streaming through the trees in The Meadows creating shimmering reflections and snowy shadows to vibrant, wintry twilight paintings in and around the Royal Mile.’
Jamie Primrose
The Athens of the North has a unique and commanding setting, built around seven hills – a regular stomping ground for Primrose to sketch and take photographs of the changing light across the sky from dusk to dawn. Winter vista over the city from Arthur’s Seat is a majestic scene, the viewer placed in the centre as if standing on a snowy bank, overlooking the city with the distant Castle and tall church spires under a wide expanse of mauve-tinted, criss crossing clouds.
‘Half a Capital and half a country town, the whole city leads a double existence – Arthur’s Seat and the Pentland Hills that so quietly look down on the Castle with the city lying in waves around it. The soft northern sunshine throws everything into a glorified distinctness.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Sharing a mutual passion with RLS for the unique setting of Edinburgh, this quotation illustrates the artist’s signature style – ambitious panoramas of the majestic, magical city skyline juxtaposed by the rural landscape of rolling, green hills. Shimmering Light in the Pentlands offers another atmospheric scene with coral-pink streaks across the sky in the pale winter sunshine. Harlaw Reservoir looks as if it has a thin layer of ice and the crisp snow almost makes one shiver due to the raw realism of the scene.
Likewise, the bare branches along an avenue of trees look frozen, like white marble sculptures, as the early morning shards of rosy light cast slender, dark shadows on the powdery snow in Ethereal Sunrise on the Meadows.
Many other colourful, dramatic views around the city streets, parks and open ‘urban’ countryside, bathed in soft, glimmering sunlight with Turner-esque vision: tranquil serenity is emphasised by the rich golden-amber glow against the silhouetted woodland in Winter Sunrise over Duddingston Loch.
The colourful, cobbled Victoria Street from George IV Bridge to the Grassmarket is the place to shop for antiques, books, cheese, whisky, tailored tweed as well as the cosy Bow Bar. Devoid of the usual madding crowd, this chilly scene, Winter Impressions brilliantly captures the slushy car tracks up the road and the curving path cleared by pedestrians on the pavement, under a clear blue sky.
Also, a fine series of monochrome drawings in Indian Ink highlight the artist’s talent for architectural draughtsmanship, such as the towering turrets of the Assembly Hall, decorative design of Ramsay Garden and Castle Rock in Late Afternoon on the Mound.
In addition to the original oil paintings, there’s a selection of affordable, limited edition prints of these evocative winter scenes.
So take a visit to the Dundas Street Gallery this week for a tour around the historic Old Town and treelined parks, then a brisk trek around icy lochs and crisp white, snow-covered hills.
Winter Impressions is indeed another artistic ‘love letter’ from Jamie Primrose to illustrate the timeless, romantic beauty of Edinburgh.
Winter Impressions – Jamie Primrose
Dundas Street Gallery, 6a Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
Monday 7th to Friday 11th November, 11am – 6pm.
Saturday 12th November, 11am – 5pm.
HOME – Art and Design to decorate your home from the Green Gallery and Author Interiors at the Dundas Street Gallery
This is a most timely and inspirational pop up show bringing together two Scottish companies to present a colourful Aladdin’s cave of paintings, decorative arts, furnishings and festive gifts for your family, friends and your own home.
The Green Gallery was established 29 years ago by Becky Walker’s parents, and continues to present an ever-evolving selection of established and emerging artists across two venues in Buchlyvie and Dollar. These galleries showcase the art based around an interior design concept:
“Paintings are aligned with objects to create a more domestic setting, working with interior designers, furniture makers and glass blowers so clients can see how the work will look in their own homes.”
For the HOME exhibition, Becky has collaborated with Jane Adams of Author Interiors in rural Angus, an online shop and home design studio. The ethos is about slow, sustainable and ethical, hand-crafted British furnishings and homeware sourced from St Ives to the Scottish Highlands.
“All are luxury items .. unusual and unique created with love by artisans …sophisticated, exquisite interior classics designed for modern living to love for a lifetime.”
Step through the door of the Dundas Street Gallery to view a marvellous and magical collection of paintings – land and seascapes, portraits, still life, flowers, birds and animals by such artists as Mhairi McGregor, Simon Laurie, Jane Blair, Lucy Campbell, Caroline Bailey, Margaretann Bennett, Garry Harper, Erraid Gaskill, et al.
Unlike a conventional open gallery space, there’s a warm and welcoming homely environment featuring coffee tables, chairs, cushions, ceramics, glassware, candles, ornaments and vases. The display of art and décor has been beautifully curated to complement colour, shape and design.
Let’s take a browse around to pick out some highlights around the gallery, packed full of enticing objects.
A stunning, serene landscape immediately caught my eye – a calm winter scene, Sunset Loch by Rosie Playfair.
This is a masterly, atmospheric composition where the eye is drawn through the woodland of slender Silver Birch trees with bare, tentacle-like branches, down to the shoreline, the still water bathed in a soft salmon pink hue across the horizon at dusk: a moment of peace and tranquillity.
Placed below this painting are vintage ocean liner travel trunks, stuffed full of art frames and oh-so-cosy, mohair throws – just what we need to wrap ourselves up in this winter. Araminta Campbell is a renowned weaver of Scottish textiles in cashmere, lambswool and alpaca for scarves and home accessories, and has been commissioned to design bespoke tweed and tartan for such luxury hotels as the Waldorf Astoria, Fingal and Fife Arms.
Isabelle Moore is an Edinburgh-based furniture maker including decorative, practical tables with a round, removable tray made from laminated oak and solid oak handles. Gilded 24 ct porcelain vases are wheel-thrown by Jo Davies in her East London studio, with either a black or satin-matt stoneware glaze.
Neatly juxtaposed beside ceramics and coffee cups is the still life, Stove by Simon Lawrie which reflects his signature observation of household objects – kettles, coffee pots and fish – in a symbolic pattern. Also on show is Another World, a semi abstract design of geometric shapes to depict a vase, plate, flower and playing card.
Pears, apples and figs sculptured in bronze by Pomaris of Suffolk using the lost wax casting method, capture every natural detail of the fruit. They are so tactile and heavy – the perfect paperweight or attractive ornament around your home.
This year why not hang unique, artisan decorations on your Christmas tree with delicate handblown glass baubles crafted by Elin Isaksson at her studio in Dunblane – select from wine red, amber gold and dark purple glitter balls tied with a satin ribbon. The perfect family heirloom.
The quirky portraits by Margaretann Bennett are immediately recognisable for their caricature faces with a dramatic narrative to express emotion, remembrance and loss. In Forage one is not quite sure what this red haired lady is thinking but a serious expression plays around her wide, mascara-lash eyes.
Karen Gibson at Red Earth Designs, Northern Ireland creates painterly ceramics including these Ramekin dishes from Porcelain Flax clay with a honeycomb textured design and decorated with hand drawn bees and a gold lustre rim.
Figurative studies by Catriona Millar often include an animal as a companion: Monique is a bold and vivid characterisation with humorous wit, as she poses in a garden, a dog on her lap and a bird perched on her shoulder. Surrounded by flowers, her sideways glance with a perplexed look is enhanced by her plum-painted cupid lips and blushing cheeks.
The Green Gallery has a knack for sourcing new and interesting artists .. you can always find something surprising and unique. – Nick Nairn
Love, love, love Green Gallery! Forever brimming with an inspirational mix of work from a vast spectrum of artists .. that tug at the strings of temptation! – Jenni Mcallister
Jane at Author Interiors has an extraordinarily good eye, inspiration on a new level with every detail being thought about and meant. – Caroline and Hugh Black.
Author has been absolutely brilliant at sourcing of some really unique pieces – priceless pieces of art that will undoubtedly be passed down the generations. – William Frame.
At the preview launch for HOME, the hospitality was also curated with sophisticated style, serving the elegant, fresh and floral Kinrara hand-crafted Highland gin with a splash of tonic. The distillery is located amidst the wild landscape of the Cairngorms, an area of outstanding scenic beauty and nature conservation.
HOME @ Dundas Street Gallery, 6 Dundas Street, EH3 6HZ
A pop up show by Greengallery and Author Interiors
Exhibition open:
Thursday 25th and Friday 26th: 10am-8pm
Saturday 27th, Sunday 28th, Monday 29th & Tuesday 30th November: 10am-5pm
Wednesday 1st December: 10am-1pm
For more information:
www.authorinteriors.com/about-author/
Converge – a masterly, moody, creative collaboration by four Scottish landscape artists at the Dundas Street Gallery.
Converge: ‘to come together and unite in a common interest.’
Sarah Anderson, Kirstin Heggie, Gill Knight and Fee Dickson Reid share a passion for capturing of Scotland’s natural beauty from the Lowlands to the Outer Hebrides in their own distinctive, dramatic mode, mood and manner.
Sarah Anderson grew up in Galloway surrounded by countryside and coastline: My inspiration is derived from the Scottish landscape to reflect the dramatic effects of weather … and envelop the viewer in the prevailing atmosphere.
Paintings based on a recent summer holiday to Isle of Harris are expressed with a vividly, exuberant colour palette in majestic panoramic scenes.
With the dark, thundery clouds, Approaching Rain, Scarista is mesmerising with its expanse of inky blueness, a glimmer of sun shining on the beach where the sand meets the lapping waves and the sea touches the sky.
This is akin to a Rothko-esque abstract in its bold geometric blocks of colour: the slither of turquoise water is renowned on this west coast and on summer days the white sand beaches evoke a tropical island.
Likewise, Scotland meets the Caribbean in The Colours of Harris in a more representative scene of the striated layers of sand, sea with flecks of surf, distant hills and flurry of clouds. The stylised structure of the composition is stunning with an expressive use of shape, light and movement.
“Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings.” – Henri Matisse
With an element of Van Gogh’s impressionistic ‘Pine Trees against an Evening Sky,’ the delicate patterning and halo of gold in Glentress Forest Light draws the viewer into the scene as the eye follows the winding path through the winter trees bathed in dappled sunlight.
Kirstin Heggie also specialises in semi-abstract landscapes, ‘building up many layers of texture and colour, adding and subtracting paint using brushes, twigs and offcuts of wood. It is often a messy process!’
This method of collage painting is most effective in Tonnan Mara, (from the Gaelic: surging waves of the sea), a most atmospheric composition with thick, criss-crossing crusts of paint reflecting the elemental force of the treacherous waves and pitch black sky.
A calmer seascape in Pure Morning captured with delicate minimalism in soft shades of white, azur and grey streaks, with an almost invisible divide between sea and sky. Pure indeed in the subtle, smooth blend of blue-green tones and texture.
Against a rust-red crimson valley, a copse of three Skinny Trees stand out in the barren, sun-scorched landscape – almost desert like with a feeling of strong heat. There’s a hidden narrative here on place and time which creates a most enigmatic and melancholic image, like a painterly poem.
Working in oils, acrylic and mixed media, Gill Knight describes her abstract and semi-abstract work as “dark, moody, atmospheric and emotional.”
Capturing the season with an impressionistic flourish, Autumn Tide features a wild swirl of threatening rain cloud brightened with a flash of sun on the water. With the focus on the sky, the smudged brushstrokes and cool colour palette of grey and blue, depict the luminous effect of shifting weather.
The same masterly technique is shown in Autumn Sky, the amazing contrast of light and shade with glistening shards of red and yellow – perhaps rocks and seaweed – on the shore.
‘To thole the winter’s sleety dribble, An cranreuch cauld!’
Robert Burns
This line from ‘To a Mouse’ comes to mind when viewing Rain at Newhaven, such a drenching downpour in a dark night with hopefully no lost sailors out at sea due to the lighthouse guiding boats back to harbour.
The storm has passed over in Solace to depict a languid moment of peace and solitude – no wonder standing on a beach looking out into an almost natural ‘emptiness’, is so good for the soul.
Fee Dickson Reid first studied architecture before concentrating as an artist from 2009. Based in East Lothian, the subjects here range from boat yards and harbours to craggy rocks and beach scenes.
‘Sea, sky, sand is what I am drawn to paint big atmospheric pieces filled with light and often a sense of peace. The sea is a huge part of my life and my work. I live by it, I swim in it no matter what the season, and I paint it. It’s very much my muse’.
Fee Dickson Reid
Dramatic views from around North Berwick are prominent such as Lamb from West Bay – a simple line drawing yet with such detail, the curved sweep of the shoreline stretches out to the rocky islet on the horizon.
Here too is the bird sanctuary of the Bass Rock, its iconic pudding shape looming out of the night sky, so finely delineated as monochrome sketch. Her artistic technique is based on a blend of charcoal, ink, gesso, water and white pencil on Fabriano paper to create tone and texture.
Colour is also vanquished in Black and White Beach to produce such an evocative mood through lapping waves and flurry of clouds with such a sense of movement.
As we enjoy the golden days of Autumn, the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,’ here’s a sunny splatter of seasonal colour in A Garden of Birch, in fruity shades of tangerine, orange, lime green and plum around this rural scene.
This creative collaboration is a masterly showcase of how the Scottish land and seashore can be conveyed with such a variety of expression from natural representation to the abstract purity of colour and light.
Converge
Dundas Street Gallery
6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
27 October to 1st November
Open daily 10am – 6pm. Monday 1st 10am – 4pm.
Hebrides Edge: five artists from North Uist inspired by the flowing tide and time of island life @Dundas Street Gallery
‘Place and time are intertwined in North Uist in ways that are utterly unique. On the edge of time, on the edge of a continent, on the edge of the ocean. Painters and sculptors harvest the elements creatively, a reflection of the forces of geology, of tide and storm, season and moment.’
Ewan Allinson, Sculptor
The environment of the sea very much dictates the life and work of Fergus Granville who produces fine Scottish smoked salmon and shellfish at the Hebridean Smokehouse – “the best in the world,” says Prue Leith.
Earl Granville is also a sculptor, beachcombing to find driftwood, barbed wire, shells, skulls, bones and man-made materials washed ashore to create finely-crafted birds, busts, figures, flowers and fruit as if salvaged from the seabed.
Here are porcelain mosaic heads, nests of pebble eggs and, as shown above, Underwater Still Life which features two tall glass bottles completely enveloped in a crustacean crust.
The Venice Biennale 2017 exhibition ‘Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable’ by Damian Hirst – a showcase of relics from a sunken ship in the Indian Ocean: giant barnacle-crusted bronze figures, rusty swords, brine-damaged gold coins and necklaces.
Fergus Granville should invent his own Hebridean shipwreck narrative – perhaps a 16th century Spanish Armada galleon – and sculpt his own collection of ‘ancient’, archaeological treasures.
Marnie Keltie is also influenced by the shoreline near where she lives. “It’s my attempt to express the sense of exposure experienced on the Atlantic shore and mesmerising sound of the surf.” The natural marks and patterns she observes in rock pools and sand are wiped away in an instant by the next wave and her aim is to capture these lost traces in abstract paintings.
Shingle II is a simple yet powerful composition depicting the smooth, round and oval shapes of hard stones and pebbles in contrast to the fluid translucency of water with a magical sense of movement and rhythm. Her artwork embraces the natural beach environment quite literally as she makes pigments and inks from seaweed, rocks and charcoal made from driftwood.
Wave power is also at the heart of the delicate, decorative paintings by Sheenagh Patience. She searches the beaches on Berneray for tiny broken fragments of old china plates, cups and bowls washed up by the relentless flow of the tide.
Like an actual ceramic collage, Tectonic Plate I is a stunning painting of a large platter ‘jigsaw’. The various scraps of flowers and stripes are so realistic to show the fragile structure of pottery. Again, an aspect of lost personal treasures, as Sheenagh describes, “Their human function as a much loved vessel or container are now a memory”.
Fiona Pearson has lived on her croft in Uist for forty years at the end of a five mile single track road, overlooking a sea loch and surrounding moors. “An empty landscape, but the space is full of movement.”
In the captivating abstract landscape, Autumn Light, the wide expanse of grey sky and swirling clouds is a flurry of thick brushstrokes with a crisscross pattern to illustrate the flight path of birds.
This flat open space is surrounded by the warm auburn and gold shades of Autumn foliage, leading the eye to the horizon over the dark, stormy moorland where it reaches the edge of the sea. Her art reflects the mood of this poem.
If not the intensified sky, hurled through with birds
and deep with winds of homecoming.’
Rainer Maria Rilke
Catherine Yeatman is like the David Attenborough of the artworld, studying the seasonal migration and island habitat of seabirds up close and personal.
“I can often be found balanced on a rock somewhere with my sketch book. This past summer I have kayaked across the Minch and visited the great whirling bird worlds of St Kilda and the Shaints and pondered on the nature of passage.”
Like an animated cartoon, the mesmerising large scale work, Living Wall illustrates the population of guillemots lined up in rows across the rockface on the edge of a cliff. Each tiny bird resembles the quirky character of a penguin with their sharp beaks and black and white suits.
These five Hebridean artists share the same artistic passion, creatively inspired by the sand, sea, sky and the flotsam and jetsam which drift ashore in the waves, complementing each other with an harmonious, soulful vision.
Hebrides Edge – contemporary art from North Uist
Dundas Street Gallery, 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
26th September to 9th October, 2021.
Open daily 11am-6pm
More info at: https://uistarts.org/edge-hebrides/
‘Edinburgh & Beyond’ – The classic, artistic beauty of favourite cityscapes through the architectural eye of Adrian Tuchel @ Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh
Adrian Tuchel is an Architectural artist based in Cambridge, specialising in large format drawings and watercolours. This impressive exhibition presents a series of iconic vistas around Edinburgh, as well taking a tour of other favourite cities including Venice, Florence and New York.
After studying art and architecture, Tuchel experimented with a range of genres from abstracts to flower compositions and finally architectural landscapes using pencil, ink and watercolour.
His broad artistic expertise combined with a love of world travel provides the subject matter for his work:
‘They are few cities in the world with an exceptional skyscape. I always been attracted by Edinburgh. Last year in September, superb weather invited me to create some spectacular views of this unique city, to begin to discover the true Edinburgh’. Adrian Tuchel, 2021
Around the gallery is a diverse range of pen & ink drawings, original small and large scale watercolours and prints. However his signature, innovative artistic method is capturing wide angled panoramic scenes from specific viewpoints.
As observed from Princes Street Gardens, at first glance this is a sketchy, free flowing impressionist style but this technique is deceptive. There is extraordinary architectural detail here too in the realistic depiction of the Scott Monument, Balmoral Hotel, the skyline of the Old Town, with the higgledy piggledy row of classic buildings: Scotsman Hotel, City Chambers, Bank of Scotland, New College, the Hub spire and over to Castle Rock.
View from Calton Hill is also masterly in the minimalism of the composition, contrasting the giant cheese wedge of Salisbury Crag towering over the city and the Pentland Hills beyond. The soft palette for the sky in coral, yellow and pink catch the glimmering glow of sunset.
A few close up images show the delicate use of watercolour on the white textured paper to reflect a cool, clear transparent brightness.
View from the Castle and Arthur’s Seat are also part of this series, sketched and painted on innovative long, scrolls of paper to create unique, large format panoramic vistas.
Scroll painting is an ancient Asian art using fine brushes, inks and colour washes on a roll of paper or silk. “Long Landscape Scroll” (1486) by the celebrated Japanese artist, Sesshu is approximately 15 metres in length. In his inscription, Sesshu claims that this epic narrative depicting a landscape over four seasons was completed on a single peaceful day and thus regarded as a miracle of art.
Instead of being limited to standard art paper up to poster size, Adrian had always dreamed of painting large scale watercolour scrolls. A traditional French paper mill company, which had supplied the great Impressionist painters, was able to supply rolls of specialist watercolour paper measuring 20-35cm by 2.5 metres.
The original pencil or ink sketches are done on small individual sections moving across the roll of paper but Tuchel cannot see the entire drawing until completed, when it’s unrolled and laid down flat. These long panoramic landscape scrolls are accomplished at one sitting, ‘en plein air’ to retain the consistency and proportion of scale.
Poets, artists, actors and musicians have long been inspired by the surreal, dreamlike beauty of Venice. The Russian novelist, Turgenev believed that ‘No-one who has not seen Venice knows the full, indescribable charm of that magical city.’
If it’s difficult to describe the spirit of La Serenissima in prose, then Canaletto, Turner, Monet et al, – have done so in paint.
Venice is one of Adrian Tuchel’s most beloved cities, returning again and again to evoke the dramatic timeless grandeur, a painterly vision of sculpture and sea, in panoramic scenes. It is interesting to learn that Turner’s sketchbooks contain compositions spreading across many pages with folders of extra sheets – so he would have been wise to source a full roll of watercolour paper.!
Again, these are such atmospheric compositions of the ancient city wrapped around the lagoon and canals with an extraordinary aerial perspective.
Tuchel works regularly in association with the historic Caffe Florian, (est. 1720), in the centre of St. Mark’s Square, where he presents regular exhibitions:
‘Quick brush strokes and a distinctive palette, [Tuchel’s] Venice is dreamy, romantic, .. snapshots made of colour and light, a Venice where time stops.’ Marco Paolini, CEO, Caffe Florian, (February 2019)
Portofino is a traditional fishing village on the Italian Riviera, curiously transformed into a luxury resort town; Milan fashion boutiques, wine and seafood bars line the horseshoe harbour, where chic super-yachts are juxtaposed with old fishing boats.
Here below is an exquisite watercolour painting by Adrian Tuchel to illustrate the curving row of houses and restaurants, Hotel Splendido perched on the cliff, tall-masted boats on the azur water. The jagged brushstroke streak of sky in a turquoise tint, perfectly frames this tranquil scene in the summer sun.
“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.” ― Alexander McCall Smith
Taking centre stage at this exhibition however is Edinburgh with many delightful scenes of landmark sites – these watercolours would be marvellous inspiring illustrations for a richly colourful city guide book.
With a harmony of architectural lines and soft blended shades, this city of church spires and ancient monuments is bathed in a glossy wash of blue, rose gold and salmon pink, casting a luminous glow.
“Edinburgh is a new challenge, for me. I continuously discover new views and its great architectural history – I have come to like it more and more particularly enjoying a fine dram of whisky at the end of the day”. Adrian Tuchel
Do visit the Dundas Street Gallery if you can to view this artwork up close in more detail in the company of the artist and his wife, Barbara. Other cities include Cambridge, London, New York, Florence.
Original sketches, watercolours and Limited Edition prints. Small scale affordable framed and unframed artwork too. Large Watercolour Panoramas are neatly rolled in a cardboard tube – perhaps an empty Laphroaig whisky carton!.
“EDINBURGH & BEYOND” – Adrian Tuchel
Dundas street Gallery 6a, Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
1st to 7th July, 2021. Open daily from 10am to 7pm.
See the website for more information: https://adriantuchel.gallery/
The Aizle Collective of artists observe our human and natural world with imaginative, atmospheric vision @ Dundas Street Gallery.
Aizle: A Scottish word for a glowing hot ember; a spark. In the Philippines it means beauty.
This debut exhibition by five distinctly diverse, innovative artists presents a rather dazzling showcase, focussing on their experimental use of palette, pattern, texture and technique.
Inspired by the rural environment, Kirstine Drysdale captures the raw, physical elements in abstract land and seascapes. Incline seems to represent the geographical structure of a slice of hillside below a cloudy sky, through muted earthy, coral and tobacco browns with bright splashes of yellow, aqua and icy white.
Simply crafted in ink blots and stains is Tempest, a diamond-shaped kaleidoscope of lightening cracks and swirling storm with an iridescent glow. (see image below).
As if viewing through a microscope, Seaweed presents a translucent, fluid study of glistening water, slippery green foliage and lichen-wrapped stones in a shallow rock pool.
Kirstine also collaborates in art work with fellow Aizle artist, Rod Malloch, each taking turns to apply oil paint and cold wax, building up and blending the surface until they agree it’s finished. Craig means a rugged hill in Scots and Black Craig is pared back smoothly to a sheer veneer of the craggy rockface.
Kirriereoch Hill is a hill in the intriguingly named Range of the Awful Hand range in the Southern Uplands featuring a small, shallow, square shaped, freshwater trout loch, part of the Wood of Cree Nature Reserve. Their cool, composed landscape, beautifully shaped and shaded, is like an aerial bird’s eye view of the scene.
Having viewed the Paperworks exhibition during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over recent years, Trevor Davies is a versatile artist, accomplished in figurative sketches, still life, abstract designs, paper craftwork and sculptured collage.
The Italian photographer, Tina Madotti moved to Mexico in 1923 to join Kahlo, Rivera et al, where she perfected poetic studies of the the political intellectuals and creative labour such as ‘Worker’s Hands’ (1927).
Trevor Davies pays tribute to this portrait in Time to Rest, a delicate sketch in oil of the gardener’s dusty, sunburnt hands clasped over the handle of a spade. The juxtaposition of the background frame – a broken wedge of weathered, paint-spattered driftwood – neatly evokes the imagined scene of Madotti’s snapshot moment as the old man takes a break from digging the ground in the midday sun.
Davies is fascinated by using salvaged objects, scraps and fragment traces of human activity: “ there’s something of the old, worn, used, discarded, things half-hidden, marks left behind newly discovered.”
Memories Contained is a charming sculptured piece featuring a row of tiny rolls of paper with printed text and handwritten notes crafted from found materials. To illustrate the meticulous collage effect of oil paint and salvaged wood is Autumn Rain, with its scraped shards of gold leaves against a murky grey sky. (see below).
With an abstract expressionist air of freedom, two Rothko-esque paintings, Light Air and Dark Air, express the simplified purity of monochrome pale and dark colours on canvas. But look closer.
Within a billowing buttercream cloud in Light Air, is a slender slice of lime amidst a flurry of thick flowing streaks revealing soft pink and grey layers beneath. Likewise Dark Air could depict a thunderstorm with its flash of light in a rain filled sky. A contrasting double act ideally purchased as a pair of minimalist masterpieces.
Ronald Binnie specialises in painting, photography and printmaking as well as undertaking professional academic work into the understanding of non-human species. He has also studied the extraordinary visual effect when flocks of starlings form a Murmuration, one of nature’s true spectacles seen during the winter months.
This phenomenon is illustrated in a dramatic triptych, Murmuration 1, with its swirling swarm of birds in an aerial dance across the sky in a constant shape-shifting, circular sweeping motion. While at a distance, the effect is a dark mass, each starling is just a tiny tick, exquisitely sketched in black graphite on white paper.
Do visit the gallery to see this mesmerising artwork up close and personal to see the fine detail.
There’s also a different series of starling cloud patterns, crafted in a trio of digital monotypes.
Adapting the iconic silhouette of the starling in flight, in Murmurations 111 Binnie has designed geometric black, grey and red crown shapes of the bird wings overlaid on the original graphite drawing as a monoprint. This motif is also used in traditional quilt making.
Ronald Binnie combines his ornithological knowledge of murmurations – an activity which takes place to confuse and intimidate predators – with the technique of drawing, printmaking and digital imagery, to explore connections between nature and culture. Sir David Attenborough would surely be impressed.!
Catherine Barnes pursues artistic experimentation through photography, collage, paintings and prints to document the landscape. Island features several perspectives of seashore and sky with moody light and three scenic views of Autumn Landscape over hill, river, field and woodland are in miniature detail.
Specialising in the mixed media of oil paint and cold wax to form a thick impasto surface, Rod Malloch captures the wild environment of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. All the ancient Gaelic place names are so poetic such as Muchairt, Smigeadail and Dhudhhaich. Loch Bharradail with its three rivers is located in a remote glen on Islay, simply illustrated as a patchwork pattern to denote the barren landscape.
Drolsay is a bleak but beautiful moorland with a fishing loch on Islay surrounded by low hills, viewed here by Malloch with his signature bold, colourful abstract style with a soft glow of light in the sky.
If there’s an overall theme in this exhibition, it’s about deconstructing realism of the natural world to express the pared down purity of shape, colour and light with imaginative, atmospheric vision. The Aizle Collective of artists complement each other with their own luminous, languid, dark and dramatic reflections on the passing of time within the peaceful permanence of place.
Aizle Artist Collective – Debut Exhibition,
Dundas Street Gallery, 6A Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
Thursday 24 – Tuesday 29 June, 2021.
Open daily: 11am – 8pm. Tuesday 29 June: 11am to 4pm.
N.B. Do visit the Dundas Street Gallery to see this enticing showcase of affordable art with prices ranging from £55 to £480, as well as racks of other original paintings (unframed)
(Unfortunately there are no images available to illustrate the work of Catherine Barnes)
‘Shimmering Light’- an exhibition of new paintings by Jamie Primrose capturing his favourite walks and waterways around Edinburgh at the Dundas Street Gallery
“The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.
Seascape … it changes at every instant, the weather varies several times in the same day. It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way”.
Claude Monet
As well as depicting the wild natural beauty of the Hebridean islands and the lush, languid Mediterranean coastline, Jamie Primrose is renowned for his paintings around Edinburgh. Each of his biannual exhibitions takes us on a different journey of discovery observing new perspectives from city streets to the seashore, where he is “continually obsessed with investigating ephemeral light.”
This new collection of over 50 original oil paintings, ‘Shimmering Light’ was completed over the past year focussing on a theme inspired by favourite and familiar childhood haunts across North Edinburgh: Inverleith Park, Royal Botanic Garden, Water of Leith, Cramond, Newhaven, Portobello and the Forth Bridges spanning the Firth of Forth.
The glorious golden, lime-green and amber shades of the leaves and scattering of Monet waterlilies floating like flowering boats, against a baby blue sky in Shimmering Light on the Botanics Pond.
Across the road from the RBGE is Inverleith Park with its real Swan Lake – there are three cygnets this year. This large boating pond is painted from different views to study the avenue of trees as well as south over the city.
Here, a flurry of white wispy Spring Afternoon Clouds over Inverleith Pond scurry across the azur sky with such delicate luminosity and detailed clarity. This is an extraordinary panorama leading the eye from the reflection on the dappled water over the rugby ground to Stockbridge and the far horizon with the Castle Rock and the round mound of Arthur’s Seat.
Very much a trademark of Primrose’s painterly style is a range of sunsets following the slow shifting hues of dusky light, shade and shadow.
Amongst other boating scenes of this old fishing port, Winter Sunset over Newhaven Harbour is a majestic painting which simply sizzles in a palette of coral, ochre, peach with a splash of molten gold dripping across the horizon.
The criss-cross pattern of rose-tinted clouds and the streak of the dying sunlight glinting on the sea, like a beam from the lighthouse, has such a dramatic effect.
In quieter mood, Last Light at Cramond, shows the row of waterfront white-washed houses and bare winter trees under a chilly, dark sky suggesting the threat of rain. The glimmer of soft pink rays on the water is a painterly snapshot of this specific moment in time, akin to the click of a camera shutter for a photograph.
Moving away from this finely crafted realism, Twilight Skies over Cramond, is a mesmerising burst of indigo and orange with a sharp shaft of yellow casting a white pool of light on the waves, framing the shapely silhouette of distant hills.
This semi abstract seascape, blending layered blocks of rainbow colours, offers a fresh experimental style with Rothko-esque vivacity and verve.
Take a trip too in the early morning and the end of the day along the Water of Leith, the Shore in Leith, Portobello beach and along to Queensferry to view the three iconic rail and road bridges, in many other evocative, richly colourful compositions.
For instance, this is a wonderful view of the river walk past the weir near the Dean Village, where the sunlight glints through the trees to sparkle on the water in Reflections on the Water of Leith.
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of his professional art career in 2013, Jamie Primrose presented a retrospective exhibition, ‘Reflections on a City’ at the Dovecot Studios. In my review, I wrote that he had “perfected a precise artistic palette to create his own distinctive landscapes which show a true passion for the city of Edinburgh”.
In this charming exhibition, Primrose continues to follow in the brushstrokes of Monet, Cezanne, Pissarro et al, to capture the natural world through the daily shifting, shimmering quality of light from dawn to dusk with such a tangible sense of place through his masterly impressionistic style.
There is a accompanying Video which has been edited and crafted brilliantly, moving seamlessly from film footage of these locations to images of the associated paintings. A magical wee movie with a soundtrack piano music and lapping waves to create a delightful, dreamlike atmosphere.
Shimmering Light: 4th June to 12th June:
No appointment necessary – just walk in
Restricted number of visitors at one time with health and safety precautions in place.
The Dundas Street Gallery
6a Dundas Street, Edinburgh
EH3 6HZ
Thursday 10th June, 11am – 6pm
Friday 11th June, 11am – 6pm
Saturday 12th June, 11am – 5pm
View images on line:
https://www.jamieprimrose.com/latest/index.html
Shimmering Light video tour of Edinburgh locations and paintings.
Callan at 60 – An exhibition of evocative and elegant Figurative paintings by Damian Callan @ the Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh
As he celebrates his 60th birthday in December 2020, Damian Callan can reflect on a most successful career, specialising in figurative painting and portraits, teaching art classes for adults and children, and as the author of two books, Paint Like Degas and Paint Like Renoir.
This exhibition is partly a retrospective collection from the past twenty-five years (kindly lent by the owners), which are complemented by new sketches and paintings. The subjects for these figurative scenes are his wife Ruth, their four children, cousins and friends while on holiday in Argyll and Outer Hebrides.
Damian Callan has followed in the tradition of two Scottish masters in the genre of painting children. Joan Eardley is renowned for her iconic portraits of the twelve Samson bairns who lived near her Glasgow studio. Born in 1835, William McTaggart grew up on a remote farm in Aros, Kintyre, a memory which would later permeate the subject of his paintings: “the fisherfolk of his past and a recurring vision of children playing in the surf …rosy cheeked kids, bathed in perpetual summer sun.“ Lachlan Goudie, The Story of Scottish Art.
Here too are Callan’s painterly reflections to illustrate the family’s seaside adventures in the summer sun, between 2003 to 2014, from Skipness, Kintyre to the Isles of Berneray. These colourful “snapshot” images capture the joyful sense of freedom as the kids run on the beach, play in the sea, and gather cockles in rock pools.
There is such a tangible feeling of movement in their exuberant, arm waving gestures, as the kids jump and splash in the waves. Several charming paintings show the fun of messing about in boats and rowing a dinghy.
The process starts with photographs and from these prints, sketches are made to create a loose impression of the realistic images, and then finally, working on the composition in oil on canvas, panel or paper. Callan has perfected the inventive use of a printmaker’s roller, to add texture to the surface of the paint to depict the shimmering water and frothy white surf.
These timeless images of happy carefree days bring a real sense of nostalgia for our own childhood, whatever age we are. Children and Lighthouse in particular, has a vintage quality, reminiscent of favourite stories such as Swallows and Amazons and the Famous Five adventures by Enid Blyton.
Fast forward to 2020 and a diverse range of new work – seascapes, figurative sketches and fashionable frocks with oil paintings, small studies and prints for sale.
From the earlier style of composition with impressionistic, smudges of brush strokes, there is now a bolder, brighter approach with vivid colour and clarity.
As shown in Running In and Running Out, these are gleeful moments of youthful energy with a fine depiction of movement, in Callan’s distinctive, characteristic painterly style.
Escape is a lovely picture of a wee boy, standing in the boat as if pretending to be a Venetian gondolier, as the children look out for fish and crabs along the seashore. Again, the vision of carefree, childhood fun, evoking the nostalgic world of Enid Blyton.
Damian Callan has long been influenced by the figurative paintings of Edgar Degas, whose work he examined and explored in academic detail, to write his book, “Paint Like Degas.”
“Degas was spectacularly inventive in his approach to composition,” he says, “Movement characterizes many of his subjects –the dancers, the racehorses – .. .. the pattern and rhythm of repeated figures, the dancers in a line on the Barre.”
With similar, elegant, Degas-esque mood and manner, there is a series of beautifully composed paintings of Damian’s wife Ruth, pinning up her hair, dressing and posing in silky, floaty cocktail gowns.
These are delightful, intimate portraits of the artist’s slender model, as she zips up a blue dress and shows off her posh, crimson-plum frock – humorously described as Lockdown Bedroom Dress. Sadly all dressed up and nowhere to go for a night out at the Ballroom or go to the Ballet.
“Callan at 60” is a most impressive retrospective of his career, from the tranquil, domestic portrait, Ruth, Daffodils and Kettle, (1995), through a time-travelling trip around atmospheric seascapes to the recent Vogue-style fashion shoot.
William McTaggart painted young children to portray “an optimistic symbol of renewal and rebirth.” Likewise, Damian Callan has preserved his memories to portray family life and the innocence of childhood with imaginative vision, humour and heartfelt love.
Callan at 60 @ Dundas Street Gallery, 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
11th – 17th December, 2020 – open daily, 11am to 6pm.
A well illustrated catalogue with an inspiring introduction by Ruth Callan is available at the gallery.
For more information, view a Gallery of images and details of Online events, see the website:
https://www.damiancallan.com/events.html
Monday 14th December: 10am, Live Virtual Tour of Exhibition
Tuesday 15th December: 10am. Artist’s Talk & Short Film with contributions from collectors
Wednesday 16th December: 10am, Painting Demonstration
“Ethereal Silence:” Paintings of Edinburgh through the seasons by Jamie Primrose @ Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh
“Edinburgh isn’t so much a city, more a way of life… I doubt I’ll ever tire of exploring Edinburgh, on foot or in print.” Ian Rankin
Jamie Primrose is sure to agree with this sentiment, as he is unlikely to stop exploring Edinburgh on foot or in oil paint.
Springtime in Edinburgh, 2020 was rather a different city than usual. Like all of us, isolated at home, the artist Jamie Primrose was unable to visit his studio to work. But he could get out and about to observe, photograph and sketch his favourite places and picturesque scenes at a time of complete solitude and tranquillity.
This collection of over fifty original oil paintings, aptly entitled “Ethereal Silence,” is based on his wanderings around the city this year, celebrating Edinburgh through the seasons.
Follow in Jamie’s footsteps on those daily walks during lockdown around his local neighbourhood, Marchmont, and across the wide open space of the Meadows, flourishing in pink blossom. The magical effect of shadows cast by the sun through the trees is captured so well in such works as “Hazy Afternoon Light in The Meadows” and “Spring light on Jawbone Walk.”
At different times of the day and evening he would trek around the craggy landscape of Arthur Seat, and to the top of Calton Hill for a panoramic view across the city of spires. Explorations on foot too around the Old Town, such as the charming curve of Victoria Street, and a stroll through Princes Street Gardens in the summer sun. Primrose’s favourite places now transformed into works of art.
Jamie Primrose is a master at depicting the shimmering soft glow of dawn light as captured in a series of paintings such as “Sunrise from Arthur’s Seat,
and at the end of the day, experience the coral pink and mauve tinted clouds in “Sunset Skyline over Edinburgh.”
Not quite sure of the meteorological term for a mackerel sky, but the distinctive cloud patterns in many cityscapes brilliantly reflect a sense of movement and atmosphere.
Most impressive is “Sunrise over Edinburgh Castle,” a moment in time to catch the golden glimmer of a new blue sky day. It illustrates perfectly the poetic description of the Castle:
“.. this gigantic rock lifts itself above all that surrounds it, and breaks upon the sky with the same commanding blackness of mingled crags, cliffs, buttresses, and battlements.” J. K. Lockhart.
On this painterly journey through the year, you can almost feel the shift in temperature too, by the clarity of light and brightness of Summer sun to the icy grey chill in “Winter Morning looking down Middle Meadow Walk.”
These are just a few key highlights from this captivating and finely composed collection. The exhibition is at the Dundas Street Gallery but if you are unable to visit, you can view the online gallery and take a video tour of the show.
Limited Edition Prints:
In addition to these new original paintings, there are framed limited edition prints of The Meadows, Old Town scenes and city skylines. Also available, East Lothian and West Coast seascapes, atmospheric vistas of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Venice, & South of France.
Jamie Primrose: ‘Ethereal Silence’
Thursday 5th – Saturday 14th November 2020
Open Monday to Friday, 11am to 6pm by appointment
To book your appointment contact: Mari Primrose
mari@jamieprimrose.com
Saturday – walk in visits from 12 noon – 5pm
The Dundas Street Gallery
6a Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
View the works on the website: https://jamieprimrose.com/latest/index.html
Video tour of the gallery: https://vimeo.com/476041741
Solace
Botanical paintings by Julie Croft & photographs by Alexander Van Der Byl, Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh.
Solace – as defined in the dictionary, a noun to mean “comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness.”
During this difficult, disruptive year to normal life, work and travel, many people have been inspired by nature – whether city park, country ramble or a wind-blown stroll along a beach. This strange, surreal time at home has given the opportunity to listen to bird song and observe blossoming flowers in Spring and now the changing trees in Autumn.
Julie Croft studied illustration at Leicester Polytechnic, and then developed her artistic technique and medium as a mural artist during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Today, her paintings are on a much smaller scale, working at her home in Edinburgh.
The theme of Nature and the Landscape has inspired Julie over the past few months, during the worst times of lockdown, the brighter days through the summer and now heading through the Autumn into Winter. Here is a most wonderful series of her botanical illustrations and miniature landscapes.
So take a look back to the emerging flourish of plants during April and May with charming watercolours such as Spring Greens. These slender twigs with their tiny leaves and burst of buds is beautifully sketched and painted in soft colours with such delicate detail.
Moving on swiftly into June and July, blossom blooms with a whiff of Summer Scent from three flowers, which look like, a pink poppy, white daisies and lilac grape hyacinth. They do transport you into the garden on a warm summer day.
On a walk in October, it’s all about berries, conkers and all the leaves turning golden brown. This is another charming trio, with a small, dry, curled up leaf, in Autumn Berries.
And a wonderful collection of golden, sand and burgundy leaves fallen from the trees in the soft shades of the Fall.
Winter Trees is a lovely pencil and watercolour sketch which perfectly sums up the chilly days at the dark end of a year in Nature.
The wet dawn inks are doing their blue dissolve.
On their blotter of fog the trees
Seem a botanical drawing —
Memories growing, ring on ring,
A series of weddings.
Winter Trees, Sylvia Plath
Julie Croft also paints atmospheric land and seascapes – watercolours on Daler Rowney paper which create a richly textured backdrop. These intimate, small scale scenes are so pleasing to the eye.
At the other side of the gallery is a collection of photographs by Alexander Van Der Byl who is in his final year as a Photography Student at Edinburgh College of Art.
A successful career is already on the cards as this year he was awarded the Astaire Art Prize 2020. It is presented for outstanding undergraduate work by a third or fourth-year student at the ECA, founded by Mark Astaire, a University of Edinburgh Politics graduate and investment banking professional. This year four winners were chosen from a shortlist of twenty artists, each receiving £250.
“I could see all the students produced such wonderful and varied collections of work. It was difficult, but I had so much fun trying to select just four works!” Mark Astaire
“ … work that is sophisticated, intelligent and dynamic.” Gordon Brennan, School of Art Painting Lecturer
Van Der Byl’s award winning photograph is entitled The Anticipation of Change, which was taken in a former carpet shop in Leith; shabby, peeling flock wallpaper, tartan lino, blue carpet, gas meter, the table laid with a teapot and glasses, beneath a Vettriano print of the “The Billy Boys” on the wall. A cold, empty room perhaps, but there is a sense of pride and belonging in what is someone’s business.
This photograph is part of a series called “Return to Sender, No Such Address” of ten Hahnemühle German Etching Photograhic prints, “documenting the process of leaving a domestic space, (and) explores a presence which is transient and short lasting.”
Home from Work focuses on another empty room, with an enticing warm light shining through the open door, perhaps the kitchen and a meal being prepared for the person arriving back home at the end of the day. With shimmering shadows and a half hidden portrait, this is such a haunting image.
Again, a fascinating glimpse of a domestic scene, with a television, an empty bookshelf, plant, vase, lamp in Rocking Horse Winner – the blurred effect of a child’s toy horse cleverly depicting a flash of movement.
Here are also a few black and white portraits, which capture the thoughtful facial expression of the subject, in a quiet, quick, snap shot moment.
From Julie’s painterly nature walk through gardens, woodland and the seashore, enter Alexander’s contemplative world of deserted rooms and streets. With their distinctively different artistic vision, they share a theme of nostalgic memory, time past and present, the experience of isolation and silence, with a comforting, joyful sense of peace. Solace indeed.
SOLACE – Dundas Street Gallery, 6 Dundas St, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
17th – 24th October, 2020. 11am – 6pm daily.
Exhibition closes Saturday 24th, 2pm
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