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Downie Exhibition at The Watermill
From 24 May – 22 June The Watermill in Aberfeldy will present a solo exhibition The Sea Room by Kate Downie, eminent Scottish artist, past president of the Society of Scottish Artists and recently elected member of the Royal Scottish Academy.
The exhibition work is based on a seven-week residency on the Norwegian island of Karmøy, in Autumn 2007, as part of a programme of artists’ exchanges in conjunction with Stavanger 2008 European City of Culture.
Radio Masts. One in every garden. Add discarded fishing gear and dramatic sea and landscapes and Kate Downie is in her element, in a rural but at the same time actively employed environment.
Followers of Downie’s work will recognise some of the works, for example in ink and watercolour, as coming from her hand. But other pieces represent a striving to explore new means of expression. Her recent series of Madrid monoprints have been a great success and she returns to this technique for a number of works in Sea Room, allowing her to develop a freedom and fluidity.
Downie’s previous solo exhibition at The Watermill Gallery in May 2006 had two main themes, one exploring the remote landscapes and communities of the north-west Highlands of Scotland, and the other featuring built structures in the urban landscape with bold charcoal drawings of communication masts, gasometers and the Forth Rail Bridge.
The body of work in ‘The Sea Room’ reflects Downie’s continuing exploration of these tensions, between human presence and a landscape that is swept by the full force of the elements of nature.
While the interrelationship of the whole town, harbour, land and sea is striking, there are many elements that would not normally be regarded as ‘beautiful’. There are the elements of industry and rural detritus that often feature in Downie’s work. The huge truck tyres used as fenders in the harbour. Then there is the relationship between the road tarmac and the sea surrounding it. There are no road markings so roads are just ribbons of tarmac, like dark shipping lanes and junctions large flat dark areas on the ground like open sea. In the past the sea was the road and it still is.
“When I went to Norway, rather it being an epiphany, I just let my art go - to a place where it became less restrained – me, but more so! I have got beyond ‘point-and-shoot’ painting. I wanted to get behind the scene,” the artist explained.
In ‘The Sea Room’ she strips her work and the approaches that underlie it back to the essentials of an artist exploring how to use their mark-making, be it paint, ink, pencil or another medium, to get across the essence of what confronts their senses.
To mark this exhibition the Gallery is producing a catalogue to record the work as a whole - £8 from The Watermill.
Downie will be also be giving a talk and guided tour of her work on Saturday 14 June, tickets £5 incl. wine, available from The Watermill.
A selection of works from The Sea Room will be available to view at www.aberfeldywatermill.com from early May.
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