With the summer once again upon us, The Whitehouse Gallery turns its attention to the biggest exhibition of the year.
The Summer Exhibition will run from 27th June – 29th August. The exhibition Preview Opening will be on Saturday 27th June, with doors open from 11am. All are welcome to attend, and enjoy a complementary glass of bubbly and handmade chocolates. This annual exhibition has always attracted a lot of attention, particularly as the town is so busy in the summer months with art lovers and visitors. As a result, the list of exhibiting Fine Artists is always of an extremely high standard, bringing together well established names in the art world along with up and coming local talents. Paintings from the late Moira Beaty and Archie Sutter Watt RSW will be a highlight of this exhibition, to commemorate the recent passing of Beaty earlier in the year, and to further celebrate Sutter Watt’s centenary celebrations. Beaty loved to ‘paint her life’, and although well known for her still life and landscapes, this exhibition will be focusing upon her figurative work.
Coincidentally the date of the opening would have also been Moira’s birthday, something which she celebrated exactly a year before at the opening of the Glasgow Girls in Kirkcudbright Town Hall. Watt is still one of the best loved artists of the region, and his centenary celebrations have included a solo exhibition of unseen work at Gracefield Art Centre in Dumfries. This exhibition will feature a small collection of Watt’s oils, watercolours and pencil drawings. Exhibiting for the first time will be Dronma, whose paintings have gained her a reputation amongst discerning buyers of contemporary Scottish Art, as a ‘New Scottish Colourist’. Dronma searches for the atmosphere of place in her paintings, ‘a feeling of being in the ‘now’ with the elemental forces, whether they are wild or calm.’ Linda Park has a penchant for painting bold and dramatic landscapes, inspired by her native Scotland and frequent trips to France.
Park likes to revisit places that inspire her at different times of the day, to capture the variations of light and textural qualities which she then brings to life in oils. By using a variety of brushes, knives and other implements, she creates a rich and evocative world of colour, movement and texture in her paintings. Another artist inspired by Scotland and France is Andy Cross, who has exhibited his still life and landscape paintings with the Whitehouse Gallery for many years. Cross is more interested in creating an atmosphere in his landscape paintings, from the damp and dreich Scottish weather, to the sunlit paintings of Provence. His still life work is very much influenced by Japanese art and design, where some elements are flattened and simplified, rather than conveying three dimensional objects.
Newton Stewart based Stewart Lammie returns with a new collection of his sought after oil paintings, which capture familiar local landscapes. Also returning is Morag Muir, one of Scotland’s most prolific and dedicated contemporary painters. Her work reflects the studio environment, and her still-life work focuses upon characters and objects which add a narrative to the canvas, with windows, flowers, textiles, toys and ethnic bric-a-brac sharing the space. Still life works will also be exhibited by local artist Margaret S Milligan, who likes to paint everyday objects in oil, capturing light beautifully and adding a sense of nostalgia in the process.
Borders based Helen Tabor is exhibiting a collection of her enchanting figurative work and powerful seascapes. Tabor’s paintings usually start with a background of collage to create a textured effect, upon which she applies her oil boldly to build the paintings up. She is interested in the properties of colour, the effects created by the movement of the paint and in the mood created in a painting. Tabor will be showing alongside her fellow Borders artist Fiona Millar, who is undeniably the gallery’s most successful, best selling artist, with her art deco style still life and landscape paintings often featuring belties. Figurative work will also be on show by Madeleine Hand.
Hand specialised in illustration at GSA and her work is defined by an immaculate sense of line and colour, with the ability to make the everyday moments of life beautiful. Joining Madeleine will be returning artist Sylvia Paul, who is exhibiting a collection of her exquisite mixed media collage work, and Linda Lovatt with some of her extremely popular verdigris copper and mixed media framed assemblages.
We are delighted to welcome back Alexandra Shorey with some horse sculpture, alongside a collection of glass by Corsock based Amanda Simmons. New collections of ceramics will be exhibited by Vicky Lindo and Debbie Barber, with hand-felted hare sculpture by Karen Norton and new cushions by Jo Gallant. There will also be new jewellery collections by Sheana M Stephen DA and Caroline Temple, and much more. The Whitehouse Gallery is part of the Own Art scheme. Summer Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm Open Sundays as advertised, including Sunday 28th June from midday to 4pm
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