Wednesday, 3 October 2012

A day around the galleries.



I’m just back from staying with a very good friend of mine in her cottage deep in the Angus countryside. We’ve had a bit of a sightseeing day today, we drove up to the glens, admired the view, watched the sheep and caught sight of a red squirrel playing by the side if the road. But yesterday was spent visiting a couple of galleries in the area. First on the list was the relatively new gallery space at the Dundee Botanical Gardens. We went there because my friend is having an exhibition of her work there in a couple of weeks and she needed to leave flyers and posters. We had a quick look around; there is an exhibition of figure work by local Dundee artist John Stour. I loved his work, probably because when I draw or paint, life study is my favourite subject and I truly appreciate how difficult it can be. These pictures do not do justice to his work; it is so much better when seen in the gallery. And these paintings are not the same as the ones we saw yesterday but they do give you a taste of what he can do.

Botanical Garden gallery Dundee John Stoa

http://www.johnstoa.co.uk/

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/botanic/exhibitions/

 
 


We also visited a tiny gallery in Dundee called The Queens Gallery. Here we saw work by Scottish artists Heather Soutar and Hulka Macintyre. Heather paints intricate fantasy images resembling fairy tale characters journying into unknown lands on whimsical vehicles. She usually paints in Acrylic on board and her paintings tend to be mostly in shades of blue.
Hulka produces wood cut prints, paintings and ceramic tiles but it was her ceramic work that was on display yesterday. I’ve seen her work before, I like it, it’s completely original and full of unexpected surprises.
Queens Gallery, Dundee; Hulka Macintyre

 http://www.queensgallery.co.uk/index.html


http://www.macintyre-art.com/hilke/
 Queens Gallery, Dundee; Heather Soutar

http://www.galleryq.co.uk/manufacturer.php?id_manufacturer=94



Lastly, we visited the most recent exhibition at the Meffin Gallery in Forfar where we saw the work of Louise Ritchie. I loved her colours, her work brought a smile to my face on a cold windy day.

Meffin Gallery Forfar Louise Ritchie

http://www.angus.gov.uk/history/museums/meffan/default.htm

http://louiseritchie.com/

 

at

2 comments:

  1. MitchyLR4 October 2012 at 00:25

    You got to see a nice range of works at the different galleries. I really like John Stoa's work, and also Louise Ritchie's.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Forgetmenot5254 October 2012 at 02:08

      Thanks Mitch, I really liked John Stoa's work too. I wish I could show his work here to its full effect, these pictures do nothing to show how good he is at figure drawing/ painting. Seeing his work was very good for me, I love life drawing and painting, if I never drew anything other than the human form again I would be quite content. But every one, and I do mean EVERYONE from tutors to dealers to artists have all told me there is no demand for life studies and I should practice drawing/ painting other things, he has shown me people can and do show life studies.

      Delete