‘The North Road’……From Kilmorack Gallery….
by Bernie Bell - 07:34 on 15 August 2025
‘The North Road’……
I’ve started reading ‘The North Road’ by Rob Cowen. I’m always delighted to find a good new writer – whether new in time, or new to me. Rob Cowen is both and what he writes about is very much of these times, but interwoven with past times and people and also what the future might hold.
The first chapter…’Surfacing’ is what prompted me to write this – how he describes his first experience of an archaeologist un-earthing a skeleton.
He catches that strange feeling of the connection between and combination of today’s world and the worlds of the past – both right there, in his present. You really do need to read it for yourself.
I was reminded of when a school-friend of mine was working on a dig in York in the summer between school and university. Me and another friend went to visit her and on the dig they'd just discovered the bones of a teenage boy.
This disturbed Anny – she felt too close to that person, as a person. In fact, she changed her Degree from Archaeology to Geography – much more clear-cut.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/439516/the-north-road-by-cowen-rob/9781529152432
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From Kilmorack Gallery….
“The silent power of a painting. It is a joy to come into the gallery every morning and be part of the wheel of art. Around me are unique things, one-offs that pay homage to a unity. To make them, it has taken years honing techniques and the discovery of new wonders, and they express what words can't say. There is a lot in the gallery at the moment both in current exhibitions and in our collections.
Beginning tomorrow is Allan MacDonald's exhibition Back of Beyond. These thirty-eight new paintings take us on a tour of the north - from Iceland to Assynt, and from Lewis to the old cemetery near the gallery. These works are a culmination of new ideas and techniques explored since MacDonald's trip to Canada in search of the ghost of Tom Thomson. There is a catalogue to accompany the show.
We also have ongoing exhibitions of work by Robert McAulay and Lotte Glob (details below.)
We have also just uploaded our latest 3d walkthrough, so you can take a virtual tour if you can't make it in person... but it is always better to be here.
ALLAN MACDONALD | Back of Beyond
16 August - 13 September
We are excited to share this latest body of work by Allan MacDonald with you. It's an exhibition that builds on MacDonald's journeys to Canada and Iceland. MacDonald has now circled back to his Highland homeland, with new ideas and even greater power in his paintings, and I'm sure you will enjoy each one of them and their connections to greater things.
ROBERT MCAULAY | Pilgrim - three new series of work
1 August - 31st August
Robert McAulay was up delivering these paintings, staying nearby the gallery. I asked him what he did in the evening. He sat in a cloud of smoke looking through the long grass. 'There is so much life there,' he told me, 'I can just look.' This is where much of McAulay's work comes, from looking at a nature which rebelliously grows upwards claiming what is rightfully hers. There are figures in McAulay's work - and sheds and buildings too - but these human things are the interlopers. The world belongs to the tall grass, the trees and the sky.
Robert McAulay was born in Glasgow where he remains, quietly observing and paintings. We have shown his work for over twenty-five years, and these latest works fall into three series: Blocks that appear to float like vessels; Sheds, that could be a still from a noir film; and a Pilgrim series, where figures, travellers, walk through the land. And there is McAulay’s Garden with Tridic Screens, inspired by a Fransis Bacon triptych and from sitting quietly in a cloud of smoke looking.
LOTTE GLOB | Library of the Land
Lotte Glob is one of the greatest artistic innovators currently working in Scotland. From beautiful rockpool-inspired bowls, floating stones, creatures and her sculpture croft, Glob has always beat her own, very northern path - but nothing captures the spirit of Glob's work more than her ceramic books. Fired inside its pages might be a melted and vitrified poem, gathered stones or a skeleton. It would be hard to find work with a more beautiful and heart-felt connection to the land and we are very excited to share with you six books, a preface to a larger exhibition in 2026.
3d Tour
Our Latest 3d tour on the morning of the 12th August
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=ACmZriX41u9
Kilmorack Gallery
Inverness-shire
IV4 7AL
01463 783 230
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