Friday 21 April to Saturday 6 May 2017

‘Invasions and Excavations’ is my first solo exhibition in central Edinburgh since 1994 and I could not be more thrilled to be showing at the Open Eye Gallery. The show comprises of a series of compact oil paintings depicting my visual meanderings with civic structures, institutional barriers and personal loss  – with the occasional reference to my childhood obsessions of sci-fi and adventure comics. The paintings show huddles of characters who are contained, locked in or shut out; some willing victims, others fighting injustices. All have been derived from a three or four year period of intensive drawing – a combination of direct observation, visual daydreaming and pictorial mischief making. The use of the ‘proscenium arch’ or dolls house as a pictorial and theatrical device opened up for the possibilities of staging multiple stories within each picture. The loss, in 2016, of my own mother, who herself was a performer, writer, poet and maker, has informed and fuelled many of these works – which I hope are a fitting tribute to her much missed vitality, creativity and infectious and loving enthusiasm.

The exhibitions runs from Friday 21 April until Saturday 6 May 2017 and images of the works will be viewable on the Open Eye Gallery website shortly before it opens.

Image: ‘Centre for Life Supported Learning’, oil on panel 2016-17, 60cm x 76cm

Open Eye Gallery
34 Abercromby Place
Edinburgh
EH3 6QE
www.openeyegallery.co.uk