Phil McLoughlin and Joyce Gunn Cairns

In May we are pairing two very different artists - Phil McLoughlin and Joyce Gunn Cairns. They are exhibiting for the very first time together in their exhibition 'Real Imaginings'.

Phil McLoughlin - Write and Record

Joyce Gunn Cairns - Triumvirate

Each of us is attracted to different work for different reasons. I personally like to be stopped in my tracks. This happens rarely and when it does my heart beats a little faster as I feel something new and unique. I think is takes an artist of incredible talent to have this effect on the viewer.

Phil McLoughlin - Veneration

I was first introduced to Joyce Gunn Cairns, the fabulous Edinburgh artist, not long after I opened the gallery in 2005 and I was delighted to come across Phil McLoughlin's work more recently being exhibited in the RGI. Both artists have had this impact on me.

As different as the work looks in style, there is a depth and tension there, speaking (or rather not speaking) volumes.

Joyce Gunn Cairns - Her Summer Oufit

The exhibition opens on Sunday 7th May.

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

 

 

 

 

 

Sales!

The response to the current Joyce Gunn Cairns exhibition has been wonderful. In just over a week we are up to 17 sales!

I always like to have a celebration of those works that have been carefully chosen by customers to take home.  Here are just a few of them:
  



Mists of Time



Owlish





Yellow Puss

Dolly's Wee Mouse



Raven














Love's Ambivalences

Startled Hare

For much more on this exhibition, please click on the link:

http://www.smithygallery.com/


The exhibition continues until 12 October.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

Joyce Gunn Cairns Solo Exhibition

 

We are delighted that all the works for the Joyce Gunn Cairns solo exhibition have now arrived at the gallery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a stunning collection of large and small oil paintings, drawings, sketches and screen prints.

 

 

 

 

I think it is always a great pleasure to see the stages of work that lead up to a finished oil painting.  We will be exhibiting a large collection of intricate sketches and studies.

 

Joyce is an artist who works tirelessly and passionately on her chosen subjects.  Her creative figurative works explore many issues and her wildlife studies depict her fascination for the animal world.

 

 

She also works closely with writers, artists and musicians who, like me, have the great pleasure of visiting her in her Edinburgh studio.  This is an Aladdin's Cave of creative energy.

 

 

 

 

 

Joyce is what I would term a true artist.  She is in her studio seven days a week.  She is her work.  And the passion that goes into it is reflected in the passionate response from the viewer.

Smithy Gallery is greatly honoured to be hosting her latest solo exhibition.

 

 

The exhibition previews on Sunday 7th September, 2-5pm.  Champagne and chocolates will be served and the artist will be present. 


Thanks for reading!


Natalie
 

The Fabulous Joyce Gunn Cairns MBE

We are showing three of the most amazing artists right now, so where to start when choosing who to write about first?

Out of Alasdair Gray, Joyce Gunn Cairns and Steven Camley, I have known the wonderful Joyce the longest and she has been a great inspiration to me as an artist and a friend, so I'll begin with her!





Toby and His Burd

I have been a huge fan of her work for years and really can't get enough of it.  Each piece that she creates is entirely unique.  Unmistakably hers, but a creation with a life and back story all of it's own.

Red Puss

She creates works with the lightest of touches, but with powerful undertones, often with literary origins, or steeped in personal experience.

 

Mutual Regard

Ultimately they are things of beauty whether her subject matter is the innocence of the robin to the complexity of love, to the realities of old age.  No subject is uninspiring to her, and therefore to the viewer.




The Robin Ower A' Birds is Blest



The works in this collection are fascinating as they cover such a spectrum of subject matter and it's fascinating to watch different people reacting and relating to the different paintings.  For more of Joyce's works, please check our Facebook page:


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.578568855531871.1073741859.171388499583244&type=3


This exhibition with Alasdair Gray and Steven Camley continues until 22 December.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie





The Preview

The Alasdair Gray, Joyce Gunn Cairns and Steven Camley exhibition previewed on Sunday and it was one our best exhibition openings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With three such fabulous artists, all incredibly characterful as well, I was expecting a great preview and I wasn't disappointed.

 

 

 

Alasdair Gray

 

 

 

The crowds came out to see the great works by Alasdair Gray, the beautiful paintings by Edinburgh-based Joyce Gunn Cairns, and the cartoons by multi award-winning Herald cartoonist Steven Camley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to see that people had come from far and wide, and amongst the great atmosphere, the sales for all three just kept on coming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This exhibition was originally requested by Alasdair Gray and I must thank him for wanting to exhibit with two such brilliant and fascinating artists such as Steven Camley and Joyce Gunn Cairns. 

 

 

 

Joyce Gunn Cairns with Steven Camley and his wife, Meg

 

These three artists are so entirely different and as Alasdair said, this what will make it work, and it does.  The exhibition looks beautiful, and all the works reveal so much more on closer inspection.

 

Fin the Whippet enjoying this beautiful Tom Allan sculpture

All three artist work with such meaning and layering within their work, but all from very different perspectives.

 

 

 

Me and Joyce at the end of a great day

A huge thank you to Joyce Gunn Cairns, Steven Camley, Alasdair Gray and their families and friends for making this such a fun and fabulous day.

This exhibition runs all the way up to Christmas.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

All Change

Our attentions are now turning to the exciting exhibition that is coming next.

 

 

 

 

 

Artist and writer Alasdair Gray has chosen two of his favourite artists to exhibit with this winter.

Happily they are two of our favourites:  artist Joyce Gunn Cairns and Herald cartoonist Steven Camley, whose work couldn't be more contrasting, but this is going to make for a vibrant and exciting exhibition. 

Both of these artists are greatly admired at Smithy Gallery, and alongside the inimitable Alasdair Gray, we have an incomparable trio.

This three-person exhibition opens Sunday 24 November and continues until 22 December.

 

 

 

But we still have a weekend to go of our fabulous Liz Knox exhibition.  This has been a beautiful and bold experience and people have loved the colour and confidence of this exhibition, warming us all up just as winter approaches.

 

Thank you so much to Liz Knox for creating such a gorgeous collection of works that have been greatly admired, several of which are off to very happy homes.

 

 

 

This exhibition continues until Sunday and can be viewed on our website:  http://www.smithygallery.co.uk/currentExhibitions.htm

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Natalie

Coming Soon . . . .

 

 

And now for something completely different . . . . .

 

 



Joyce Gunn Cairns

Joyce Gunn Cairns

 

 

 

 

 

We are more than a little excited that very soon we will be exhibiting three artists who are at the very top of their prospective fields.

 

 

 

 



Steven Camley

 

 

 

 

Each brings something entirely different, but they are linked by their utterly unique take on the world and their bold unabashed depiction of it from the very personal right up to the way world events affect us all.

 

 

 

ALASDAIR GRAY 

One of Scotland's leading writers and artists

JOYCE GUNN CAIRNS 

An artistic tour-de-force, awarded an MBE for services to the arts

STEVEN CAMLEY 

The multi award-winning Herald satirical cartoonist 

 

 

 

Steven Camley

 

 

 

 

These three are giants of their fields and that is because each is uniquely talented and incredibly hard-working.  True artists if you will. They are not lucky or commercial, they each have the two qualities that make most of us stand in awe.  Most of us can muster the latter, but not the former.

 

 

 

         

 

 

Alasdair Gray

Alasdair Gray

 

 

 

This exhibition will be one of it's kind in it's strength and variety.  It previews on 24th November and runs until 22 December.


Thanks for reading!


Natalie

Highlights of 2012

2012 has been a very special year for me, and there have been many special and memorable moments in the gallery.  I have two more blog posts of 2012, so I thought I might relive a few of them.

Nothing could have prepared me for the success and excitement around the Alasdair Gray and Joyce Gunn Cairns MBE exhibition which opened in April.

Alasdair and Joyce in Alasdair's Studio

Something can start as a germ of an idea, and then with a lot of enthusiasm and a little luck, it can turn into something fabulous, and it did. It was Alasdair Gray who was a fan of Joyce Gunn Cairns and he had wanted to share an exhibition with her.  She suggested it to me and it went from there.

Meeting with Joyce in her Studio

These two artists are, as people, the most interesting I have ever met.  Alasdair Gray is a huge talent, generous, entirely unique, and dare I say a national treasure. Joyce Gunn Cairns is engaging, incredibly talented, creative, and once you get to know her, you just want to know her more and more. She of course should be a national treasure too!

The artists at the opening

It was one of those incredibly positive experiences, from working with the two artists and their beautiful and intricate works of art, to the interest from the world of journalism and literature.  These two visual artists are rare because their works are so steeped in literature.

One of my favourite invitation covers

Quotations on the Invitation

The exhibition itself was received with enthusiasm and great interest, and it was one of those where every moment was a joy, from conception to, well even just now thinking about it. 

A busy opening

I don't think I've ever read so much during the course of an exhibition.   I read the many poems that have influenced Joyce's work, and of course the works by Alasdair Gray.

I was very happy to receive a signed copy of Alasdair's latest work, his autobiography.

At the end of a busy opening with my signed copy 

Thank you Alasdair Gray and Joyce Gunn Cairns, and to every one who helped to make this exhibition one of the gallery's most memorable.

Thanks for reading!


Natalie