Cathy Campbell

We are delighted to be exhibiting paintings by oil painter Cathy Campbell in a two person exhibition alongside digital painter Kevin Low.




Sweet Medicine

 

 

 

Cathy Campbell studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, (BA Fine Art)

from 1982 to 1986.




Glisten

 

 

 

She is a colourist in the true sense of the word.  The process most often begins with a window or natural light.  Her ideas come from light falling on the many objects that she has accumulated. 




Early Days



Some of her works take on a luminescent, gentle impressionist quality, although others have a more naïve, bold feel.

 

 



Russian Doll





 

She says, "I don't think it's a question of making a portrait of the objects or of telling a story. It's about shapes, colour, darkness and light and their relationship to each other.  I have become less concerned with tone while engaging far more with colour and shape. This

new approach involves far less heavy reworking. The paintings are lighter in touch and in tone and I sense that this changing concern has breathed new life into my work. There is a new immediacy and freedom in my work which I feel reflects pleasure in the process.”






Where You Go

  

She creates her beautiful paintings from her studio in Blanefield, near Glasgow.

 

The exhibition continues until 18 October.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie

 

Kevin Low - Digital Painter

Kevin Low was born in Forfar, Scotland. He grew up around the isolated cottages and hamlets of the unusual triangle marked out by the small sandstone towns of Brechin, Montrose and Forfar. This is something he says, ‘that’s left a not unwelcome scar on my psyche.’

 

 

 

The Thief

 

 

 

He studied photography at Edinburgh’s Napier University, before spending several years working as a theatre photographer, producing images for many companies including Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, Tramway and the Traverse Theatre.

 

 

 

 

Nature's Game

 

 

 

Kevin primarily uses the relatively new digital medium to ‘paint’ his narrative creations. It adapts traditional painting media and applies the pigment to traditional papers or canvas by means of computer software.

As a technique, it refers to a computer graphics software program that uses a virtual canvas and virtual painting box of brushes, colours and other supplies. The virtual box contains many instruments that do not exist outside the computer, and which give a digital artwork a different look and feel from an artwork that is made the traditional way. Kevin characteristically creates his work in editions of 7 or 10 and no more.


 



The Infantry Captain

 



The medium though is secondary to the layered worlds of character-laden detail and imagery. At first glance, everything seems picturesque. There are flowers, butterflies, birds that populate the blue skies. But look closer and all is not what it seems. These paintings are full of intense imagery often autobiographical in nature. Each painting is filled with a compelling narrative. This is storytelling at its most intriguing and mischievous.

 

 

 



Psyche

 

 

 

Kevin’s work is gaining in recognition. He was the first artist to show digital work at The Glasgow Art Club. He won The Glasgow Art Club Prize at the SSA open show at the Gallery in Edinburgh in 2014 and The Art Exposure Prize at the RGI  in 2012.

 

 

 

BoomBoomBoomBoom

 

We are delighted to be exhibiting Kevin's work alongside the oil painter Cathy Campbell.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

Coming Next

We are in the middle of our TEN exhibition.  This exhibition, which continues until 9 August, is the beginning of the celebrations for our tenth year.  Our anniversary is in November, and we can't believe it's almost ten years already!

 

 

 

We are also excited about what's coming next.  Three very special artists are coming together for the first time.  Cate Inglis, Joyce Gunn Cairns and Henry Fraser are three very different painters, each as defined as the next.

 

 

Cate Inglis creates intricate and very beautiful urban scenes:

 

 

  

 

Joyce Gunn Cairns creates sensitive yet strong, evocative paintings featuring mainly figures and wildlife:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry Fraser is known for his emotive figurative paintings, imbued with dark humour:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This exciting three person exhibition opens on 16 August.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Natalie

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging The Exhibition

 

We are busy hanging our new exhibition 'To See the Summer Sky', a solo exhibition of paintings by Jenny Matthews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny is one of Scotland's foremost watercolour artists and we are adorning the gallery walls with twenty nine of her beautiful paintings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging a new exhibition is always such a pleasure as the gallery takes on a new life. 

 

Jenny is known mainly for her flower paintings, her love of the subject began on Scottish Highland holidays as a child. Since then it has been her passion to seek out flowers and plants wherever she goes.

 

 

 

 

This exhibition is already taking on the feel of this - the wonder at natural beauty and in particular the fleeting nature of flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

We have a quite a way to go before the preview on Sunday, but we are getting there.  It's going to be a stunning exhibition.  It previews this Sunday, 2-5pm with champagne and flowers!

 

All the paintings can be viewed now on http://www.smithygallery.com/jenny%20matthews.htm

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie

Sandy Murphy RSW RGI PAI

Sandy Murphy is currently exhibiting in our two person exhibition with the esteemed David M Martin RSW RGI.

 



Blue Anemones

 

 

Sandy's presence always makes the gallery feel special - the paintings themselves, and also peoples' reactions to them. The colour, tone, texture and beauty of his paintings are rarely unappreciated. From the art-lover who knows that there is something very special about these paintings, to the artist who wishes he or she could paint like him.






The paintings speak for themselves, but people always want to know more about the artist behind them. Sandy Murphy was born in Irvine in 1956.  He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1975 to 1980.  Having taught art in Ayrshire schools, he turned his full attention to painting in 1985 and has never looked back

 

 

 

 

Church, Drymen,Winter



 

He has become one the country’s best painters and his work is loved and  respected by his contemporaries and art-lovers alike.  This is reflected by his many accolades and awards.  He has been the National Prize Winner of the Laing Competition several times. He has won the Sir Gillies Award (RSW), the Glasgow Art Club Fellowship award (RGI), amongst many others.  He was elected Royal Society of Watercolourists (RSW) in 1996, the Royal Glasgow Institute (RGI) in 2000 and also the Paisley Art Institute (PAI) in 2010.

 

 

This is such an impressive awards list, but for me, it's the respect from other successful artists that is so telling.  Most painters, if not all, think highly of him.  He is regarded as in a class of his own, and I completely agree with this.  

 

 

 

Spots and Stripes



I think he is so highly regarded by his contemporaries because of his talent, but also because of his motivation, his passion. For Sandy it's about the process itself.  He creates colour, texture, dark and light, working on the painting as it hangs in his studio, with not necessarily a finished result in mind. He has recently been working a lot with collage.





Coupling his talent with this place of freedom and purity is what leads to works that evoke mood, warmth, stillness, calm.  As never-ending as our spectrum of emotions.





Japanese Table

Sandy's honest expression through various media, whether it happens to be a still life or landscape leads to beauty. And this is what makes him such a special artist.  And I don't believe anyone has just one Sandy Murphy painting - if you like him, you love him!

As always they are selling fast.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

Sandy Murphy RSW RGI PAI & David M Martin RSW RGI



All the paintings have arrived at the gallery for our upcoming two-person exhibition with Sandy Murphy RSW RGI PAI and David M Martin RSW RGI.

 

 

 

 

 

We are delighted to be hosting an exhibition of works by these two fine Scottish painters, opening on Sunday 19th April.

 

 

 

 

 

Sandy and David have long been admirers of one another and this promises to be a fabulous collaboration and a striking exhibition.

 

 

Hanging the exhibition will take a couple of days and when working with paintings of such quality, it is a great pleasure to see them coming together in harmony.

For much more on this exhibition, please visit the website:

http://www.smithygallery.com/


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

The Last Week

This is the last week of our Carol Dewart exhibition.  This stunning exhibition has had record visitors and a third of the paintings have already sold. 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol is a master of technique and each painting is a cacophony of style resulting in a highly detailed scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The paintings featured here are some of the beautiful works that are yet to sell. Most of the paintings are ordinary scenes around the artist's house and garden made extraordinary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is humour, light and colour in every painting resulting in an uplifting body of work.

 

 

 

 

 



This exhibition has brought sun, light and smiles into the gallery and every day it has been a delight to discuss the paintings with all the artists and art-lovers who have visited.  

 

 

 

 

This beautiful exhibition ends on Sunday 29 March.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

'It Happened Last Summer'

The opening of the Carol Dewart exhibition , 'It Happened Last Summer', went with a bang on Sunday!

Carol had been working on this collection of new paintings for a long time and the exhibition looked beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

All the paintings are intricately patterned scenes from what the artist sees around her every day.  She makes the ordinary extraordinary. Each painting is also cleverly titled after a classic film which seems to add even more drama and individuality.

 

 

Carol's work is incredibly unique and it was no surprise that there was a such a fabulous turnout.

 

 

 

 

And with this fabulous response came fabulous sales.  A quarter of the paintings have been sold already, but thankfully each one is as special as the next, and every person seems to have a different preference.

 

Here are just some of the beautiful works that sold at the preview on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done Carol!

 

 

 

 

 

The exhibition continues until 29 March.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie