View from a Croft
Artist: Sarah Helen Dowse
Exhibiting: May & June 2022
Working mainly in pastel on paper or card, Sarah has taken inspiration for her exhibition from the views she sees daily from her home as well as still life studies of homegrown flowers, fruit and vegetables.
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From those who work within the landscape to those exploring it during their leisure time, we all have a connection to - or an interaction with - the coastline, hills, woods, straths and croftland of the Highlands.
This exhibition gathers together the artistic responses of Aileen Grant, Fiona Macintyre, Jane Rushton and Beth Robertson Fiddes to the land and seascapes of the Highlands and Islands. Through their artwork, we encourage you to reflect on your relationship with the land, to recognise its beauty and diversity, to understand the many (sometimes competing) uses we make of it and to acknowledge, despite the grandeur and majesty its fragility.
Our Fragile Land
May & June 2024
Aileen Grant
Fiona Macintyre
Beth Robertson Fiddes
Jane Rushton
Jane Rushton
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I am a mixed media artist based in Mallaig. My practice is about exploring and forming a visual understanding of the world around me. Often themes of fragility, transience and endurance provide a focus, plus the interplay between the micro and the macro.
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In terms of methods, I am often led to echo the processes that create the features and characteristics of the landscape, and allow these to play out on paper and canvas
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I aim for a poetic response to my surroundings with the ultimate hope of provoking a slow, deep, and fulfilling experience.
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Aileen Grant
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I sketch outdoors in all weathers – I find that sketching helps me immerse myself in a place and capture something to explore and develop further. In the studio I re-work sketches using different media – sometimes painting, sometimes printmaking. For this exhibition, I've been focusing on fragile, damaged and recovering landscapes within the Wester Ross UNESCOBiosphere, particularly woodlands. My aim is to share with you something of the character of these mature, living places.
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Originally from Fife, I graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and also studied at Leith School of Art. I've had work selected for various open exhibitions including RSA, RSW, SSA and VAS.
Fiona Macintyre
This corner of Wester Ross has been a part of me for a very long time. The sea is the major player in my work but between water and mountain lies the fragile magic of river, moor and loch too.
Walking inspires me. My sketchbook will gather drawings, scribbled notes and colour references to be worked on back in my studio in Badachro.
A graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (1970 – 1975) I have exhibited regularly throughout Scotland. I was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 2016.
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Beth Robertson Fiddes
I am based in Elphin in the North West Highlands of Scotland and paint land and seascapes. I’m interested in the passage of time, how certain things seem transient, fleeting and elusive - almost alive. With tides, splashes, breaking waves and angry waters I’m trying to catch a moment, to imagine that moment is all the time I have, a life in a millisecond, and to find, save and preserve forms and structures in the movement.
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In pieces based on the seemingly unchanging, immovable rocks and mountains, I look for evidence of movement and change. My method of working on the paintings reflects this. I add paper and paint, wash bits off, sand things back time after time until I’m happy with it. There are elements of, I hope, controlled experiment and accident in order to move technique forward.
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https://bethrobertsonfiddes.com/
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