GEORGINA COBURN explores the new work in the summer show at the Castle Gallery

WITH THE latest downturn in Highland weather stepping into the Castle Gallery’s latest show was like experiencing a visual summer. The accent on fine contemporary glass works by artists such as Will Shakspeare, Mike Hunter, Bill and Jacquie McNeill, Phil Atrill, Alex R, Karinna Sellars and Graham Muir seem to capture every glimmer of available light, while works such as Jane Gray’s Dreaming of Summer and Icecream (Oil and Beeswax) and Morag Muir’s vibrant Red Rug (Acrylic on Board) add a much needed dose of colour to life in general.

Will Shakspeare’s Nougat Goblets and his series of Tableaux Wall Panels with their colourful and incandescent fusion of elements are an example of the range of work, from functional, decorative pieces to the more sculptural or experimental in the latest show.

Natalie Aird’s Loch an Eilein, with its layered glass surface, creates both a physical representation of the subject and an imaginative sense of depth. On one level it reads like the contours of a survey map; however, it also suggests an approach to the landscape that is more mindscape than geography. Having such a work in proximity to more traditional treatment of the Highland landscape creates a very interesting dialogue.

Illona Morrice’s Swan in lemon and green soapstone is a lovely example of an artist in tune with her materials. The simple elegance of form combines with the natural properties of the stone, fissures of white on green wonderfully suggestive of feathers. This detail is perfectly aligned with the restful pose of the bird, its head resting upon its back in a supine curve that brings the stone to life.

Morag Muir’s Red Rug reads like a piece of stained glass in its saturation of colour and central vase of living flowers illuminated by an arch of light behind. The outline of alizarin crimson and purple adds definition to the still life, displayed on a patterned ground. A smaller work, Birthday Table, presents a more abstract formal design in the background, upon which celebratory objects – icecream, cake and flowers – are displayed. In this work, as in Red Rug, a warm palette conquers any temperance of cool greens.

Contemporary original printmaking has always had a presence at the Castle Gallery and Brenda Harthill’s collagraph Golden Magic Trees 1 ed 15, with its rich textures in jewel-like burnt orange is an excellent example. Karen Keogh’s Burnt River II ed 7 (Colour etching), reminiscent of Franz Marc in its abstracted layering of diagonals, verticals and curves in the trees and landscape, and works by Fiona Watson embracing both digital and traditional methods of printmaking are further highlights of this section.

Watson’s exquisite etchings in black and white, The Sound of Birds ed 23 and A Feast of Sparrows ed 19, convincingly combine strong composition and delicacy of mark that clearly underpin and compliment her use of the digital medium.

John Johnstone’s The Colonel Ascending (Oil on board) is a singular and intriguing piece of work, a surreal image which feels like stepping into a realm of personal memory and dreamscape. The architecture of the composition is immediately psychological, the central square landing providing a vantage point for descent via a serpentine staircase to the floor below carpeted in vermillion.

The dominance of grey/blue accented with pink gives a submerged quality to the scene, and the progression of figures upon the landing – the child in striped pyjamas with his back to the viewer, the schoolboy in mid-run opposite and a youth in women’s drag beside the open doorway – all feel like stages of life and experience of the same central protagonist, witnessing the figure of the Colonel as he ascends the staircase below.

Overlooked by historical portraits, animal trophies and a suit of armour, the stately house in which the scene is set adds to its ambiguity. Every figure and object adds a strand of potential narrative to the scene as our eye is convincingly led into an imaginative space where ideas of perception, time and memory all have a role to play. The child in the foreground who occupies almost the same space as the viewer also succeeds in drawing us compellingly into the work. It would be good to see more works by Johnstone on display in future shows.

The presentation of work in this latest exhibition, especially the dominance of glass, presents delightful accents of colour at every turn. This, together with the introduction of new artists to compliment the high standard of work by the gallery’s regular exhibitors, is immediately refreshing.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

Links

• Castle Gallery