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



The Affordables

It's the last week of our Affordable Art Show.  It has been a busy exhibition as always but there are some beautiful paintings that haven't been snapped up yet. 


Here are some of our favourites. . . . .

The Chain by Jane Gardiner

Sunset by Sandy Murphy RSW RGI PAI



On A Mission For Messages by Gordon Wilson

 

 

 

 

Hens by Joyce Gunn Cairns MBE



 

 



Fortune Teller by Sian MacQueen RSW

 

 

 

Container and Scaffold by Cate Inglis

 

 



There is fantastic variety in this exhibition. This is one of its attractions as well as all the works featured being under £500. 

 

The exhibition ends on Saturday 21st February.

 

For more paintings from this exhibition, please check our website:

 

http://www.smithygallery.com/

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Natalie

Coming Next . . . .

We are starting to turn our attention to our next exhibition and we are delighted to be having our second solo exhibition with Carol Dewart.

The Cat and the Canary

 

 

 

Carol graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1981 and has won several awards for her distinctive paintings.

 

 



It's a Wonderful Life

 

 

 

Her striking mixed media paintings feature the natural world, be it felines, birds or foliage.  But mainly they are about light and pattern.

 

 

 



While You Were Sleeping

 

 

 

Texture, pattern and light are the key elements in her paintings.  She says by changing any of these factors a painting can be constantly changing, evolving with little variation in the actual subject matter.

 

 

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The Birds

 

 

 

Each work creates an individual world of it's own, as the cinematic titles illustrate.

 

 

A Night on the Tiles

 

This striking exhibition opens on 1 March and it's not just for cat-lovers!


Thanks for reading!


Natalie