SMALL AND BEAUTIFULLY AFFORDABLE

Submitted by Editor on Thu, 17/01/2013 - 16:37

It's the Little Things this month at the Union Gallery features comparatively small works by contemporary Scottish artists.

There is no overarching theme, just original works that won't require a wall the size of a bus and a bank vault to match in order to enjoy them. A few favourites are reviewed below.

Mark Nicholas Edward's sensuous koi carp have been seen in various combinations here before, and evoked responses among Spurtle readers ranging from fascination to disgust. I find myself increasingly drawn to them and the fluid, dancelike beauty of their convolutions. They are laconically numbered in this exhibition, the titles providing no clue outwith the images themselves by which to judge or compare them. Choose your own balletic curve of muscle, poise and grace.

Martyn McKenzie graduated from Edinburgh College of Art only last year, but has already featured twice in the Landmarks exhibitions at Union in 2009 and 2010. He describes himself as an observational artist. 'Painting is a language I want to learn,' he writes. 'Something that speaks with colour, line, marks, energy, texture, space, light.'

That linguistic effort is clearly visible in his oil and pencil paintings here: three selected studies towards a larger project called 'Estuary East'. Each depicts an autobiographical scene from the shore of the Forth. My favourite – with its fascinated study of currents – is 'Bass Rock and Moon' (below).

Spurtle featured Jackie Gardiner's 'At the Boatyard' in a review last year (Breaking news, 10.9.12). She is heavily featured again in this month's exhibition, with my favourite being the blues and citrus greens and yellows of 'April by the Sea'.

Glasgow-based Ian Rawnsley's atmospheric evocations of sea and sky have been a personal favourite since first encountered here in 2010. His oils, based on emotional responses to recalled places, have recently moved on to depicting landscapes, and the sodden 'Rannoch Moor' below – a place I know well in the sense that I have several times been lost there – is a superbly rendered example.

Now thaw yourself out with one of Olivia Irvine's curious little mysteries. Her sometimes affectionate, sometimes unsettling glimpses into private moments and fleeting impressions – often including children or suggesting children's interpretations of the world – are full of warmth and brightness. I enjoyed the quirky but satisfying 'Balcony', its summer airiness, its simultaneous incompleteness as a building and structural coherence as a painting.

Other artists well worth checking out here include Janet Melrose, Sophie McKay Knight and Trevor Jones. Look out too for some highly afforable Stewart Bremner studies by the door – a snip at under £50. AM

It's the Little Things continues at the Union Gallery, 45 Broughton Street, until 4 February.