The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Artists will throw open doors on rainbow trek
An intriguing opportunity to peek behind the scenes at the workplaces of some of Courier Country’s foremost creatives is on offer next month.
The annual Perthshire Open Studios (POS) makes its return on September 4 following the event’s Covid cancellation last year.
Regarded as a significant tourist boost for Perthshire, Kinross-shire and other neighbouring counties, the multi-venue extravaganza runs across nine days.
ARTISTS
This year it features contributions from around 200 artists, including active demonstrations from some.
Since it made its debut in 2008, the Open Studios initiative has grown year by year in participant and visitor numbers.
An impressive tally of 143 individual workspaces will be available for art lovers.
There are also three showcase exhibitions at Perthshire galleries to give a more general overview of the range of work that’s included in the event.
GALLERIES
A first glimpse will be available at the Barn
Gallery, based within the Bield at Blackruthven, when it opens tomorrow.
Running until September 12, the Tibbermore display has been set up in Covidsecure conditions and will showcase samples of work by numerous participants, including the POS featured artist for this year, Aberfeldy-based furniture sculptor Angus Ross. The Inverness-raised craftsman draws on wood-work traditions and combines steam-bending green wood with traditional cabinetmaking and digital cutting.
PROJECTS
Among his most notable projects was a commission by the Willow Tearooms Trust to make the Charles Rennie Mackintoshdesigned tables and ladderback chairs for a section of Glasgow’s recently restored Willow Tearoom on Sauchiehall Street, while his work has also featured at V&A Dundee.
Five resident exhibiting artists will be present daily at the Barn from 10am until 5pm to welcome visitors, namely abstract naturalist Ros Macdonald, botanical watercolour painter Linda Russell, mixed media exponent Sheila Garden and jewellery makers Diana Law and Gillian Skene.
Open Studios are also working closely with Birnam Arts this year, and the Highland Perthshire venue is staging a second exhibition which opens next Friday and continues until September 26.
GREEN AND LEMON ROUTES
The Strathearn Arts venue in Crieff’s Comrie Street will host a small sample of work, including pieces by artists included on the event’s “green route”, which covers workplaces west of Perth from Almondbank along to St Fillans.
The sprawling Open Studios patch is being split into eight separate geographical areas that have been colour-coded this year to help visitors refine their itineraries.
East Perthshire figures in the “lemon route”, which takes in venues in the likes of Rattray, Meigle, Kirkmichael and Coupar Angus, where the not-forprofit Quarto Press premises are among the potential destinations.
ORANGE AND LIME ROUTES
Dunkeld and Blairgowrie form the “orange route”, which includes a stop at the base of the acclaimed Butterstone Artists collective, while the event’s “red route” covers such northerly locations as Aberfeldy and Pitlochry, with bronze sculptor and digital artist Tim Cracknell boasting one of the farthest flung studios in Invervar in Glenlyon. The North Tay “lime route” mainly explores the artistic talent to be found along the Carse of Gowrie, including Morag Gray’s funky fabrics at her Kirkside studio at Abernyte.
TURQUOISE, PLUM AND BLUE ROUTES
Kinross-shire and Bridge of Earn make up the “turquoise route”, while the “plum route” winds its way from Auchterarder to Dunblane and on to Callander, taking in the likes of ceramicist William Haldane and watercolour illustrator Sarah Howard, who work out of Gleneagles’ former schoolhouse.
Perth and district is the POS “blue route”, which includes Blackfriars Streetbased photographer Cat Burton and Perth Creative Exchange in Stormont Street, offering a look at a host of purpose-designed workplaces in the former St John’s Primary School.