The Sutton Gallery’s Winter Show is becoming one of my favourite traditions at this time of year.
One reason is that it’s one of the few places left in Edinburgh where Christmas isn’t forced on you. Another is that it looks back at some of its highlights over the past 12 months and also looks ahead to what's coming in the next.
There is no set theme to this exhibition, not even a winter one, although there are some close connections. Each artist blends seamlessly into the next, complementing each other as they pass.
Let’s start with Iona Leishman. Leishman was Historic Scotland’s first artist in residence and she worked in Stirling Castle between 2011 and 2012. Her dark and somewhat gothic studies (see ‘The Watcher' and Soothing the Soul’) are fascinating and creepy. These works are part of her Gothic Edinburgh series, which includes watercolours of Greyfriars Kirkyard.
I also liked Leishman’s abstract work ‘Crossing Horizons’. The colours and technique are superb.
Lucy Jones has become a regular fixture in Broughton and in these pages (Breaking news 9.2.15, 12..7.15, 17.07.15, 1.10.15) so I’ll try and keep it brief. I very much liked ‘Ann Street, Stockbridge’ and I wondered how she manages to keep such rhythm in this hectic collage. The pages from the book that make up the work seem to be part of a dialect dictionary. Is this a deliberate statement on Ann Street’s residents?
Cécile Simoni’s cyanotype works are full of detail and there is a rich story behind it all. I particularly liked ‘Castle’, which looks like an apocalyptic Edinburgh where Zeppelins circle above and bears and monkeys live in Princes Street Gardens below alongside humans.
Martyn McKenzie will have his own solo show at the gallery in May and, judging by what I’ve seen so far, I’m very excited about it. Here we have a sneak peek at his intriguing works, which include ‘Loch Long (Octet)’, a series of small watercolours capturing the same loch from the same angle but at different times on different days. It makes you think about the changes that the scene goes through and how each day the cycle will be completely different.
Kate McAllan seems to encapsulate the winter theme with ‘Night Walk' and 'Winter Box’. In ‘Night Walk’, she paints a beautiful starry night scene, which would outdo any Christmas card.
‘Winter Box’ seems to be McAllan’s interpretation of winter. A white, rugged and dreary landscape, which leaves you cold – but there’s something to admire about this piece and the different aspects of it. The poem at the top of the page leaves us in no doubt that summer is long gone:
The year moves,
Leaves drift and after 3 months Summer dies.
November. Ice appears each
morning like a nocturnal
ghost coming and going,
And we are frozen in its hold.
Is hasn’t been long since Thomas Cameron showed that he could hold his own with a solo exhibition at the gallery. I particularly liked 'Forest Fire', where once again he is trying something different but still with his characteristic meticulous style.
Joyce Gunn Cairns managed to intrigue me in the strange and eerie portrait ‘Mirror Image/Two Turtle’. Something’s not quite right … Is it really a mirror image or is it two separate people or a bit of fun artistic licence? I didn’t hang around to find out.
Finally, we come to her ‘Winter Beckons’, whose subject bids us a fond farewell as we leave the gallery. What’s not to like about this lovely and charming little painting?—Rhys Fullerton
Winter Show 2015 continues until 23 December at The Sutton Gallery (18a Dundas Street). Admission free.