Scratching the Surface

Images of my recent exhibition at the Patriothall Gallery in Stockbridge, Edinburgh entitled 'Scratching the Surface'

This is a body of work I produced for the exhibition, a series of 22 small scale works on wood. Each looked at the city from the often distorting and surprising angle of looking upwards. I used a variety of Media on each, individual images can be seen on my new website soon to be updated (links to which will be posted on here).

An image showing two works I made (Left and Centre) using copper leaf and patenation with various chemicals as well as oil paint and spray paint. The work to the right is by Allan Robertson, a fellow exhibitor (more of whose work can be seen at http://www.allanjrobertson.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/).

A view of the second room of the exhibition showing works by Allan Robertson (two paintings on the right) and Scott McCracken.

Two paintings by Scott McCracken (more of whose work can be seen on his website at http://www.scottmccracken.co.uk/)

A view of the main room of the gallery showing the view opposite my own paintings.

The exhibition was a great success, as the first one I have had since coming back from Germany and graduating. I hope to produce more works for a joint/collaborative show coming up in November as well as Scratching the Surface Part two at the end of March.

EXHIBITION : Patriothall/Arts Com?lex

I am having an exhibition in two parts, at the Patriothall Gallery in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. The first part will show new paintings, the second part in the Arts Com?lex near Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh will showcase drawings and studies.

Exhibition Statement : 

Scratching the Surface is an exhibition of work by three Edinburgh based artists presented in two parts. These exhibitions bring together Scott McCracken, Andrew Smith and Allan Robertson who all work within the medium of painting.  Each artist has his own motivations and observations, but they are united in their appreciation and practice of paint’s materiality and the possibilities of painting as a contemporary medium.  The first exhibition will be hosted at the Patriothall Gallery in Stockbridge and will show recent paintings by the artists.  The second exhibition will take place at Arts Complex at St Margarets House and will showcase recent drawings, prints and smaller works.

Artists Statement:

Andrew Smith's recent work has been a continuing evolution of previous years' paintings looking at the city in the context of civil liberties and notions of how society is sculpted. Andrew's paintings are representations that are realistic, blending into abstracted forms of the city from the distorted perspectives. I am interested in the strata of society, how this is manifested, be it visually or in a more subtle manner and questioning it through a visual means. The human environment, that is to say one that humans have specifically and systematically sculpted, has been a particularly strong theme that permeates through my work. What interests me about these environments is both their psychological effect and the social/ideological issues that they establish as well as the layers of history they reflect.


~~~ Look forward to seeing you there!

Olympian Exhibition Edinburgh

I have paintings for sale at Olympian Furniture store on Angle Park Terrace (Gorgie-Dalry down from the Diggers Pub) along with several other artists. My small copper paintings are for sale and available now! The aim of this exhibition is for Olympian Furniture to support local artists from Edinburgh.

The paintings are the small copper paintings I have talked about in previous posts. One of the main inspirations of the pieces was the artists Paul Bril and Adam Elsheimer (images of work available on the National Galleries of Scotland website online collection and in the gallery itself on display). The idea of cabinet paintings inspired the scale of these paintings, a small painting placed in a small room in the house for contemplation and privacy.

'Mass Games' 20 x 15cm. Acrylic on incised, patenated copper. £350

'Off Work' 20 x 15 cm. Oil on incised and patenated copper. £350

'Mass Games' £350

The paintings are all for sale at £350. Please do pop into the store to take a look at;

8 - 13 Angle Park Terrace
Edinburgh
EH11 2JX

Tel. 0131 337 9284

Public Art Erfurt

Here's some pics of public art from Erfurt, Germany

A pretty excellent use of a tree I'd say and rather witty too!

Sketches from Paderborn

Greetings all!

I have been busy working on several new painting projects but thought I would upload the last of the sketches I did in Germany that are worth looking at in this stage.

A drawing of the Cathedral in Paderborn drawn from a park on the lower side. The whole town of Paderborn was revolved around the cathedral (at least in some aspects). The cathedral is the resting place of the relics of St Liborious who draws massive pilgrimages once a year when they are removed from the crypts for public display. It was very interesting looking in the cathedral which was very badly destroyed during the second World War. You could not tell it was refurbished, apart from the stained glass a lot of which was designed by modern artists. In this sketch I wanted to capture the cathedral from a lower angle which got in the Palace of Charlemagne in the mid-ground and the park in the foreground.

When in Paderborn we were staying in the glass workshop of the company Glasmalerei Peters. Peters is a well established and worldwide glass company that produces modern glass project from various buildings, from embassies to renovated churches. They also restore glass. They were very welcoming to us and we enjoyed staying in this building which was full of mad glass everywhere. I wanted to sketch this to capture the original building with the modern glass attachment.

This sketch is of the medieval city wall of Paderborn. I liked the way it was incorporated into the modern world, history peeking out of the cracks in the city.

Arsenic Mines

Here's some pictures of a large scale painting I am working on. It's of Tin Mines in Cornwall and is based on the strange structures left behind on the landscape after the centuries of mining in the area.

The remains of what were arsenic mines and processing buildings were dotted all over the landscape close to Lands End. Cornwall was once the world's biggest producer of arsenic, besides copper and tin. See http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/story/earlymod.htm for more info if you are interested. Now all that is left are strange structures rising out of the orange soil like standing stones. The landscape is bleak but beautiful with a strange mix of windswept cliffs and half buried mines dotting the cliff edges. The soil too has a weird colour, the heavy metals present prohibit any type of farming.

In this painting I am working on it in oils, ink and gouache. I intend to have it finished in the next week or so ready for exhibiting and will buy a few more canvas/board of a similar size to do a few more. The subject matter fascinates me, a 'wild' landscape that when viewed closer reveals centuries of heavy industrial activity.

A close up of the concrete pillars. The weathering effect of the Atlantic Ocean made these very beautiful and aged. More detail to come..

Neo Rauch At Museum Bilden Kunst Leipzig

Whilst in Leipzig I went to the Museum Der bildenden Kunste. It is located centrally about 5 minutes from the main station. It has a very good collection, and the building really shows of the paintings, sculpture and installation well. The gallery is literally a big cuboid that has been spiced up all modern by cladding glass over the entire building.

Whilst there I got to see the Neo Rauch exhibition. It was very good, it is not often you are really impressed with both the layout and the overall quality of an exhibition but Neo Rauch's work was very good. I have only ever got to look at his paintings in books before and in person they are all the more impressive. I managed to get a few snaps, despite the gallery's guards impressively dogged security (they would follow you from room to room which in the upstairs galleries was a little unnerving being the only person on an entire floor, it was a little like having a surly guide who didn't speak. Just stared at you..). The exhibition is sort of a retrospective with works spanning from his early career right up to the present including works he created while Professor at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts.

Scale clearly plays an important part in his work and some are huge. The juxtaposition of almost every element in the painting, be it historical period, figure and landscape creates a strange hybrid between surrealism and socialist realism.

The Museums website states:

'Neo Rauch, born in Leipzig in 1960, is undoubtedly the most internationally important and most discussed German painter of his generation. The Museum of Fine Arts and the Pinakothek der Moderne Munich dedicate his work in a comprehensive exhibition, which is to see both places simultaneously. For more information about the exhibition on www.neo-smoking-ausstellung.de' (http://www.mdbk.de/start.php4)

The pics aren't great but they give an idea of the works.

Some of the paintings in the collection were extremely good. Highlights include Caspar David Freidrich's, Arnold Brocklin 'Isle of the Dead' (third version), Max Klinger 'Peeing death' as well as his sculptures. So all in all if you are ever in Leipzig I recommend you go!

PS: A website with better pictures of Neo Rauch's paintings: http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/12/selected_works_1.htm