Galleries - August - 2012

8. GALLERIES AUGUST 12 of Lord Elgin (who lives close by) to explore the ways in which the influx of ancient Greek art in- fluenced 18th and 19th C. Britain’s cultural life, not least, of course, the Games themselves. There are some wonderful Fifth Century scu- lptures and vases here of horses relating to chariot races, as well as a cast of the original throne on which victorious athletes were crowned and a group of 18th and 19th C. drawings showing how deeply influenced the age was by these ancient ideals of status, her- oism and valour, raising, by im- plication, the question of just how these might continue to inspire such ideals in our own time. Heading south into deepest Aberdeenshire, the Cairngorms in fact, find your way to the very aptly named Lost Gallery in Glen Nochty in the upper Don valley, where artist Peter Goodfellow and his wife Jean have, for some years now, shown their own work and that of the Scottish contemporary artists that most excite them. It’s a lovely place, and a lovely space, in which to look at some genuinely stimulating work, not least Peter’s own – this year he is particularly pleased as his self-portrait, with collaged photographs of his par- ents inside the overcoat in the pic- ture, has drawn attention from the judges of NPG’s BP Portrait Award. Moving eastwards towards Abe- deen, make for Kintore, further down the Don valley, where for- mer doctor Jeannie Robinson has, over the last two or three years, turned her twin passions for art and the Scottish landscape into a full-blown occupation. Her Airt Gallery claims, tentatively, to be the only commercial gallery in Scotland dedicated to showing Scottish landscape painters. This August’s featured artist is the abstract-influenced Peter Brown though all the dozen or so others on her books are regularly shown, among whom my eye was caught by the gifted young Skye-based printmaker Marion Macphee – her vivid etchings of whales and mar- ine life above all. From here it’s only 20 minutes drive into Aber- deen itself where, if you time your trip for 18/19 August, you may visit the increasingly successful Aber- deen Art Fair. Situated in the han- dsome old Aberdeen Music Hall, 35-40 stands give a very good idea of the current vibrancy of Scottish artistic talent as well as including galleries from London, Stavanger and Monaco, no less. Drop south down the coast to another venerable Scottish city, Perth, where Perth Museum and Art Gallery is mounting a fasci- nating exhibition of historical pho- tographs relating to the city’s ex- cellent permanent collections, as well as currently co-operating with the Gallery at Linlithgow Burgh Halls this summer/autumn in a striking show, touring courtesy of the Art Fund, of Robert Mapple- thorpe photographs from the ex- cellent Artists’ Rooms scheme. Finally now to the West Coast, to the remote and stunningly loc- ated Crinan Hotel , at the Atlantic end of the Crinan canal facing out over the Sound of Jura, where well-known painter (and owner) Frances Macdonald and her no less talented son, Ross Ryan, are both showing their very different takes on the landscape (his include Galapagos themes). This really is an art-gallery with a hotel attached as this summer they are not only also showing a retro- spective of the late, great Glas- wegian sculptor George Wyllie, but participating, courtesy of a temporary space on the hotel’s roof, in the current Argyll Open Studios scheme. But that’s ano- ther, well-worth catching, story. NU previous page: R obert Mapplethorpe ‘Grace Jones’ © The Mapplethorpe Foundation at Perth Musem . this page: Marion Macphee ‘Humpback Whale’ at The Airt Gallery. Amphora c.540 BC at the Moray Art Centre ANTHONY WOODD GALLERY Contemporary Paintings Sarah Dawnay & Andrea Elles 10 -18 August 2012 10-6pm Sat11-4pm closed Sun w : www.intwominds.info 4 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ t : 0131 558 9544

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