Henry Fraser and Paul Barnes

Our Tim'rous Beasties exhibition has some fabulous artists exhibiting, and here are two of them: Paul Barnes and Henry Fraser.





King Monkey by Paul Barnes





The Dawn of The Golden Owl by Paul Barnes

 

Paul Barnes' work is instantly recognisable. His ethereal works enchant the viewer. The subjects seem as if from a world of extended metaphor and gentle strangeness.

Black Deer by Paul Barnes

 



 

They are exquisitely painted in fine detail on a textured plaster base.  This creates a lovely juxtaposition between the rough and the delicate.

 

 

 

Craw Bogle by Henry Fraser

Henry Fraser is another artist whose work grabs the attention and intrigues the viewer.



We Use These For Meat by Henry Fraser



His paintings compel the viewer to connect at a deeper level. Whether it is the emotions felt or the memories triggered, the experience is a significant one and the lasting impression is one of warmth and affinity, but not always.





Not a Happy Bunny by Henry Fraser



Craw by Henry Fraser



These works and many more can be viewed until 18 May.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie



Alice McMurrough RSW RGI PAI and Neil MacDonald RSW RGI PAI

Alice McMurrough RSW RGI PAI and Neil MacDonald RSW RGI PAI are two of the artists exhibiting in our current exhibition.  They create some of the more fantastical, narrative paintings.

 

 

 

 

All The Way Home by Alice McMurrough

 

 

 

 

Alice intertwines memories of personal events with contemporary issues, family legends, cultural myths and religious fables.

 

 



Along Came A Spider by Alice McMurrough

 

 

 

 

Objects, colours and scale are employed for symbolic purposes.  She often finds archetypes in old children's books, toys and television programmes.

 

 

 



For Enduring Friendship by Alice McMurrough

 

 

 

The resulting images display theatrical characters on stage-like sets, inviting open narratives and subjective interpretations which have a fairy-tale appeal.

 

 

 



The Incredible Curtsey by Alice McMurrough

Neil's paintings appear realistic, yet on closer inspection they are subtly distorted.  They aim to engender the mood and poetry of a place. 

 

The Tower by Neil MacDonald

 

 

 

 

 

He does this through quality of light and distortion of scale underpinned by sound academic drawing.

The Palace Fox by Neil MacDonald

This creative pair have a few things in common.. They have both been recently awarded the accolades of membership of the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Royal Society of Watercolourists.  They create intriguing paintings full of hidden narrative. They also happen to be married.

 

 

The Truffle Hunters by Neil MacDonald

 

 

 

This wonderful work can be seen as part of the Tim'rous Beasties exhibition until 18th May.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie

The Opening

 

Our new exhibition Tim'rous Beasties opened on Sunday and what a beautiful day it was for it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After much preparation, all was ready and looking pretty good!  The invited artists had created an amazing mix of paintings and sculpture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 All the beasties were ready and waiting . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . . . and I'm pleased to say we had a great crowd!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone for coming, art-lovers and artists alike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More of this exhibition can be viewed on http://www.smithygallery.com/

 

The exhibition continues until 18 May.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie

The Beasties Are Almost Ready

There is a lot of work that goes into putting an exhibition together and this one is no different, except it is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well as working with the paintings, we have the pleasure of working with a lot of dynamic sculpture.

 

 

 

This is of course the Tim'rous Beastie exhibition and so we have had to come up with creative ways of displaying some fantastic animal sculpture alongside the paintings.

We've still got a way to go, but we're getting there.

This exhibition previews Sunday 20th 2-5pm and some of the works can be viewed now on:

www.smithygallery.com


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

All The Beasties Are Here!

We have some stunning paintings and sculpture arriving for out new exhibition, Tim'rous Beasties, opening this Sunday.

 

 

 

Along Came A Spider by Alice McMurrough RSW RGI PAI

Hare by Tom Allan

 

 

The invited artists have excelled themselves.  The quality of work that has arrived is beyond our expectations.

 

The Tower by Neil MacDonald RSW RGI PAI

  

Enchanted Garden by James Cosgrove RSW

The breadth, depth and variety is huge and only represented in a small way in this post. 

 

 

 

A Plethora of Dreams by June Carey RSW

Cygnus by Barbara Franc

Some of our tim'rous beasties are more subtle than others and not so easy to spot.

Craw-bogle by Henry Fraser

We have a huge variety of works in this exhibition.  It opens this Sunday, 2-5pm.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

Tim'rous Beasties

Our next exhibition is inspired by the great poem by Robert Burns:

 

Now it's not short, but it's a piece of perfection about the shattered dream, the grief and pain instead of the promised plan.  It is said that Burns penned it after disturbing a nest of mice, comparing the plight of the mouse to the plight of man.

To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough (1785)

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request:
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,
An' weary Winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald.
To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear

 

 

 

 

Our best artists have been inspired, and here are just a few examples of what will be on show:

 



Paul Barnes

 

 

 

 

Stanley Bird



Joe Hargan PAI




 

June Carey RSW

 

 

 

Henry Fraser

 

 

 



Joyce Gunn Cairns SSA VAS



 

 

Kevin Low

 

 

 

 

Christine Woodside RSW

 

 

 

 

Barbara Franc

 

 

 

Our tim'rous beasties can't wait for this exhibition to open on 20 April!

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie