Two Inverness-born painters will be coming together to open an exhibition of their artwork on Friday 5th April at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery.
Open Light is an exhibition of new and recent paintings by James Lumsden and Eric Cruikshank. Both artists take the landscape as their inspiration but their interpretation of it is very different. The work is not about literal representation, more an emotional response to it.
They share an interest in the creation of a sense of light, space and depth in their work, which although influenced by minimal, abstract and reductive painting, is rooted in landscape and a sense of place.
Eric Cruikshank takes landscape as an initial starting point and his paintings focus on the emotive qualities of place. Commenting, Eric said, “Using an objective palette tied to the Scottish landscape, colour acts as a vehicle to reveal the picture planes, underlying points of reference. With the structure, design, and colour harmony being grounded in the everyday, the viewer is encouraged to readdress notions of their surroundings, where the familiar is opened and made full of possibility.”
Eric Cruikshank inside the studio – photo credit Rob Gunn
James Lumsden works between the Isle of Lewis and Edinburgh, developing separate yet related series of work in each studio. Rooted in considerations of light, depth, and mark – although essentially abstract – his paintings allude to landscape and a sense of place which has developed from living on the island. Building multiple thin layers of translucent colour, each painting is imbued with an internal light; not a depiction of light but the search for a sense of light emanating from within the painting. His aim is to create open paintings which are positive and affirming, something brought to life, struggled for, with a sense of it having its own history. With titles that often relate to music he hopes that the viewer will respond to the paintings as they would to a piece of music, without the need for words. As with music he hopes that the work instils feeling in the viewer.
James commented, “My primary concern as a painter is the creation of a sense of light, colour, space, depth and feeling. I build multiple thin layers of translucent colour; layer upon layer, glaze upon mark upon glaze – concealing, revealing, action, reaction, until a sense of light and depth is achieved within the process.”
Cathy Shankland, Visual Arts Curator at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, said, “We are delighted to welcome these two acclaimed artists back to Inverness, the city of their birth, with an exhibition of this new thought-provoking work.”
‘Shandwick’, by Mairi Strachan
In the Small Gallery, Drawing from Life, an exhibition of recent work by Highland Artist Mairi Strachan, will also be opening. Mairi takes a very different approach to the world around her. Mairi commented, “My work is a drawn interpretation of what I see – found in my kitchen or in landscapes around me. The drawing process reveals details that looking alone does not. Each drawing seeks to understand the structure of the object or figure and how to honestly represent it; a translation from the three-dimensional to the flat page, retaining as best I can the integrity of the original.”
The exhibitions will run at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery until 25th May.
