Published 29/01/10

Solutions: Contemporary Scottish Watercolours

Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
1 January–31 January 2010

by THE EDITOR

New Year at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) was celebrated with the opening of Solutions: Contemporary Scottish Watercolours - shown in the galleries adjacent to the National Gallery of Scotland, where the Turner watercolours from their collection are exhibited every January.

A year ago an exhibition of contemporary and historic watercolours from the collection was mounted to coincide with the popular annual Turner show. This year at the suggestion of Marian Leven, (RSA RSW), the work of six current RSA artists who work in the medium of watercolour was chosen. The only criteria, was that they had to work in watercolour or body colour, the same materials used by Turner. Her own practice employs traditional methods but she departs from tradition in the amplification of scale. Her choice of artists includes works on a large scale such as those of Eileen Lawrence and Adrian Wiszniewski.

Artists working in watercolour, as in drawing have been free to experiment on an unprecedented scale. Greater availability of watercolour mediums and brushes and large paper has enabled the liberation of a subtle and intimate medium enabling the medium to be used experimentally in contemporary art practice. David Hockney’s large-scale portraits (reviewed on this website) are a fine example of the drama that can be achieved in the amplification of a traditional medium. Solutions explores process in contemporary art practice, a interest which is shared in the current Jerwood Prize exhibition, in London: Inscriptions - through a diversity of subject matter, a range of styles and individual methods employed.

Marian Leven’s own art practice informed her choice of work for the show: “The medium employed is only a means to realising the envisaged art work and in the end the art work is the really important result. All these artists choose to use watercolour for some of their work, and perhaps each artist has a different reason for feeling it is the right medium for their works on paper. Each artist has a different appeal, for example, Alan Davie’s work has had a strong attraction since I was an art student. It appeals on many levels, the use of paint, a flow of energy, the mystical, spiritual subject matter, the design aspect and use of colour. This has not diminished even though he is now in his 90th year”.

The scale of her Eileen Lawrence watercolours shows great skill in handling the medium, which she balances with control in the fine detail. Spiritual references are made in her use of aspects of nature. Kate Whiteford is best known as a land artist, but her work is inter-related, from large-scale interventions in the landscape to small watercolours, prints and films. The subject matter is central, the marks on the land left by generations. Leven shares Whiteford’s interest in archaeology and land use. “Donald Urquhart, works on both two and three-dimensional pieces. Large outdoor works are often minimal, a contrast to the natural environment in which they are placed. He brings the same quality to these small works where busy watercolour and graphite areas of land or sea are contrasted with calm area of gouache”. Adrian Wisniewszki, uses the brush as a drawing instrument and colours in with the paint. In this his work shares the immediacy of mark making that can be found in many artists working at present, all over the world. The scale is emphatic and the purity of colour pigment with little binder or medium makes his images particularly striking.

If there is a clear theme in Solutions it is the relationship that artists working in Scotland have with the environment. Art with a strong ecological message, such as that of Eddie Summerton leads him to depict empty bird’s nests with great precision, nature with a strange unnerving twist. An intense and mysterious body of work is achieved. In his art practice, watercolour is just one medium in a range that includes into photography, sound works, prints, objects, collaborations and the organising of events and exhibitions. Leven points out: “Each artist has their own interest in materials and not all of the artists in the show follow conceptual critique. To some of them (Summerton and Wiszniewski) the concept may be of primary importance, but I think for others this is a question for the viewer and not the creator”. What is evident in this small, lively exhibition is the range of work being produced and the curiosity employed for experimentation in contemporary art practice.