Coming To Orkney…..Orkney In Kilmorack......Hoy’s Dark & Lofty Isle……
by Bernie Bell - 08:24 on 18 September 2024
Coming To Orkney…..
Eighteen years ago today, we arrived in Orkney to stay.
Here’s what I wrote about getting ready to move….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/08/17/bernie-bell-the-viewers/
I’m reading ‘Wildwood’ by Roger Deakin, in which he writes of starting a list…
“:things that have changed around here. Things there are more of. Things there are less of. Two columns. Things there are more of. Women speed-walking alone along the common. Dog-walkers. Dogs, on or off leads. The electric whine of strimmers at weekends, even Sundays. Four-wheel drives. Orange security lights drowning out the stars.
Things there are less of. Stars. Walking for its own sake. Lapwings on the common. Skylarks on the common. Snipe drumming in springtime. Cuckoo flowers. Old boys or girls on bicycles. Allotments. Goats. Geese in the yard. Farm sales. Hedges. Signal boxes. Glowworms along the railway.”
I thought – ‘That’s an idea - a list of things that have changed here in the last 18 years.’ Then I thought – ‘No, that’s pointless – take it as it is, now.’
I don’t often disagree with Mr Deakin, but in this case – what would be the point of doing that?
We'll look ahead, not back.
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From Kilmorack Gallery….
“We have many interesting works arriving at Kilmorack over the next few weeks. Just in, is an exhibition of eight Hoy and Harris inspired works from Jane MacNeill. MacNeill captures the vast, dark intimacy of Orkney like no other artist. Also, just through the door are twelve new paintings from Peter White.
A visitor to the gallery in October will find even more than this. Helen Denerley's first human figures for many years arrive soon – a standing man and a sitting girl - along with a life-size dairy cow, dogs and other new works. October will also see new bodies of work from Colin Brown, Janette Kerr, Anthony Scullion, Ann Oram, Allan MacDonald and more. We will post more soon, or please contact the gallery to get the earliest notification.
Tony
Just Arrived
Jane MacNeill
21st August - 14th September
The looming presence of Orkney's Hoy has been part of people's consciousness since Neolithic times, as it has been part of Jane MacNeill's for as long as she can remember. In these eight paintings, MacNeill explores the island, its stone and sky, and the deep silent water which surrounds it.
Peter White
24th - 21st September
Peter White's subject is often a lone object - a book, bowl or flower. Somehow White makes us feel that these objects have felt the presence of life, that they have born witness to something special. White is one of the few painters in the UK that can transport us so far with so little. We have seven new works.
Extended Exhibitions
James Newton Adams
Alan Macdonald
Lizzie Rose
Peter Davis
Maggie New
Ann Wegmuller
3d tour (we'll up date next week)
Kilmorack Gallery, by Beauly, Inverness-shire IV4 7AL
+44 (0) 1463 783 230
Always open by appointment. Full opening times online.
Exhibitions & Arrivals
Gallery Artists
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Hoy’s Dark & Lofty Isle…
Jane MacNeill’s paintings of Hoy bring to mind a tale I told someone when my eyesight was playing tricks on me….
“We were at Warbeth, and it was one of those days when the light makes the sea a steely/silvery colour. Hoy was dark - still green - but quite dark.
One of the effects of my weird sight was that if I looked at the horizon it went into a little mound which would then travel, slowly, to the left.
Standing on the beach at Warbeth looking across to Hoy - the sea, being steely/silvery and rippley at the time, rose up into a little mound which then travelled slowly across to the left, across the front of Hoy.
NOT what the sea should be doing, and NOT what my sight should be showing me, that the sea should be doing! But still, very interesting, and beautiful.
If I could paint I would like to be able to paint it, tho' it wouldn't be moving, so wouldn't be the same. Can you see it? Can you imagine, that image? I was telling someone about it and she was encouraging me to paint it, but I know I can't do that. She then got onto the idea of water, when it's calm in the depths while moving on the surface.
I really had some interesting images and the world was making some interesting shapes and patterns, depending a lot on the light. That's all eased off quite a lot now - thank goodness - it may be interesting, and even beautiful and pleasing, but it's definitely not RIGHT! “
‘Hoy’s Dark and Lofty Isle’ is a tune which seemed to me to fit with what I saw that day. Here it is, presented by the Big Orkney Song Project…
https://www.reverbnation.com/bigorkneysongproject/song/1653742-hoys-dark-and-lofty-isle
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