CRITIC’S CHOICE

Fidra Fine Art owner, Alan Rae, has gone with his gut instinct in staging this exhibition of work by Six Dundee Artists who all attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee (DJCAD) between 1942 and 1982.

The idea to bring the work of William Cadenhead, Neil Dallas Brown, John Johnstone, Joe McIntyre, Joseph Urie and Michael McVeigh together evolved from lengthy conversations Rae had with Urie and Johnstone, who have been friends for over 40 years after meeting at DJCAD as student and teacher.

Rae, who is an art lover with a keen eye for the overlooked artists in our midst, detected a deep sense or friendship and mutual respect between students and tutors, born out of a rigorous approach to the fundamental skills of drawing and painting at DJCAD at that time.

As well as showing the work of Urie and Johnstone, he decided to approach McVeigh and McIntryre, and the families of Bill Cadenhead, who died in 2005, and

Neil Dallas Brown, who died in 2003.

Fidra is not a large gallery but what struck me was the way in which the work of all six artists occupies its own space so well.

From Urie’s figures fighting their way out of dense thickly-applied colour to Dallas-Brown’s smooth seventiesstyle tripiness, boy can these artists all paint. There’s something deeper too. The solid, rigorous grounding in drawing and painting which allows each artist’s imagination to soar free.

One last thing; national collections should be jumping on these works – particularly the work of Cadenhead, Dallas Brown, and Urie.

Six Dundee Artists, Fidra Fine Art, 7-8, Stanley Road, Gullane, EH31 2AD, 01620 249389, www.fidrafineart.co.uk Until tomorrow (Feb 23). Open TuesdaySaturday, 11am to 5pm & Sunday, 12pm to 4pm. Closed Monday