An explosion of colour and crafts again in Badenoch after the long Covid months
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At last the dreaded Covid clutches are beginning to ease and art is making a comeback in Badenoch and Strathspey.
Kingussie's Chapel House Arts/ Fused and Light gallery in Kingussie has just reopened after a-five month closure due to the pandemic.
Glass expert and gallery owner Anne Bridgen told the Strathy: "To help us open again at last, our invited artist is the landscape painter Clare Blois, known locally for running the Tore gallery for many years.
"She 'retired' to concentrate on the development of her own work a few years ago and this has really paid off as her work is fabulous, vibrant, colourful, taking you in your imagination to the scenes of her paintings."
Clare had a number of previous careers before pursuing her interest in the arts. She studied textiles and then painting with the Open College of the Arts, and furthered her experience over the years by attending courses and master-classes offered by various Scottish artists.
She has won several accolades including the prestigious JD Fergusson Arts Award, presented in memory of the Scottish Colourist painter. She has been an invited artist at the Discerning Eye Exhibition in London, and has exhibited widely in Scotland and beyond.
Clare lives near Beauly and has a studio at Inverness Creative Academy, a new WASPS development of a historic building in the city.
"She enjoys being part of this artist community," said Anne, "and is also involved in other Highland artist groups and collaborations."
Clare explained: “ I am a landscape painter and in the tradition of many Scottish artists I am inspired by the physical qualities of oil paint and the possibilities it provides in terms of colour, movement and texture.
"I am completely in awe of the astonishing forces of nature here in the Highlands and I like to get out amongst them, working 'en plein air' as much as I can, coming home with plentiful small oil or watercolour sketches which are often the starting point for larger works in the studio.
"My finished works are not only about the locations that inspired them but about what I felt when I was there on that day. I am also fascinated by the perpetual motion of the seasons and the forces of nature which can so reliably devastate or rejuvenate a landscape in a short timescale.
"My paintings need to stand apart from any source or connotations as a satisfying visual combination of canvas, composition and paint. I do not like to provide written explanation of my works – I hold that visual art is just that and should speak for itself, giving a different message to
every viewer."
Chapel Arts, on the High Street at the northern end of the Badenoch capital (in what used to be the local planning office for Highland Council), is also showing a number of other paintings by gallery artists including Miriam Smith, Gill Knight, Bob Kinnaird, David Fallows and others. Photographer Lynn Robinson has started a new body of work focussing on close ups of flora, showing it in all its detail.
Meanwhile gallery owner Anne has been making the most of lockdown to try out a range of new glass fusing techniques which took some time to develop, as they involve working with the glass while it is hot, allowing it to flow.
She has made a whole series “a smack” of jellyfish in different colours using this flow technique. She has also been attending a number of online masterclasses and gallery-goers can see some of that new work too.
"Tartans in glass are the next project!" said Anne.
As before the pandemic struck, the gallery features a range of crafts including jewellery, ceramics, tweed, cards, wood and more.
Katie Jackson also has new lockdown work including felted vases and wrapped stones.
The gallery is open 1-5 pm on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and 10-1 on Saturdays, other times on request.
The current exhibition runs until July 10.
Anne is also running glass fusing classes on demand, she told the Strathy: "We have implemented a number of measures to ensure the visitors' safety while in the gallery, with suitable ventilation, spacing of visitors, etc."
