“Made in East Lothian”.
A celebration of the work of artists either based in East Lothian or whose work features elements of the East Lothian landscape.
Featuring: Julie Barnes, Claire Beattie, John Boak, Georgina Bown, George Birrell, Alan Connell, Ann Cowan, Fee Dickson Reid, Matthew Draper, Ronnie Fulton, Andy Heald, Kate Henderson, Ged Lerpiniere, Sam MacDonald, Rachel Marshall, Linda MacKinnon, Line Mortensen, Pascale Rentsch, Sue Shields, Jayne Stokes, Astrid Trügg, Elizabeth Vischer, Christopher Wood, Darren Woodhead & Julia Zeller-Jacques.
Also including work by John Bellany, John Campbell Mitchell, Patrick William Adam, James Elder Christie, Sir William Gillies & Alexander Garden Sinclair.
East Lothian with its scenic towns, countryside and coastline has a long history of attracting and inspiring artistic talent. Tate Britain’s collection of work by the great J.M.W. Turner, who was recently generating huge queues at the RSA building in Edinburgh, includes and number of sketches of the castles of East Lothian as well as Bass Rock.
East Linton drew so many reputable artists in the early part of the last century that it was said of the banks of the Tyne that, “…one had to stroll with caution for fear of tripping over easels or painting kits.” Artists working around East Linton at that time included Robert Noble, John Pettie and Arthur Melville.
The Scottish Colourists FCB Cadell & SJ Peploe were frequent visitors to the coastline as was Sir John Lavery who painted a well known series of views over the West Links at North Berwick. The Glasgow Boys, James Guthrie and EA Walton were drawn to Cockburnspath, the well known interiors artist Patrick William Adam was based in North Berwick, Sir William Gillies and John Bellany…the list goes on.
Today the county is blessed with a vibrant arts scene. Numerous courses are available throughout the county; Paint Box, based at Cockenzie House, runs a number of excellent courses as do Dunbar Arts and Dukes of West Barns. Fringe by the Sea has gained a huge reputation and a big draw for visitors to North Berwick in the Summer. Numerous galleries and smaller dedicated arts groups are dotted throughout the county.
The exhibition opens on Saturday 15 February at 11am with refreshments and a chance to meet some of the artists from 2-5pm.
Hope to see you there.