DON’T MISS

WHILE it’s never ideal to view an exhibition online, it has become – to use a contemporary cliche – the “new normal”. Plans to host the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour’s (RSW) 140th Annual Exhibition at the newly refurbished Kirkcudbright Art Gallery were shelved last year when it became clear that Covid-19 restrictions would continue well into 2021.

This is the first time the longestablished artist-run body has hosted its annual show online and its website is now playing host to more than 70 paintings by 50 leading Scottish artists.

All the work is for sale and includes everything from landscapes to portraits, wildlife studies to abstract works, by artists as diverse as Derek Robertson, Jennifer Irvine and Aine Divine.

Many will surprise, especially when you think you know an artist’s work. John Kingsley’s Boy with a Book has a delightful pared-back Miro-esque quality while Liz Myhill’s prizewinning Borderlands makes you ache to see it up close and personal.

James Fraser’s Together (also a prizewinner) takes watercolour painting to another level of puzzlesolving altogether.

The works reflect a year spent in lockdown, with some artists painting the places immediately around them, from Skeabost on Skye to the Solway Firth, and others dreaming of far-off lands they are unable to visit, from Venice to Tokyo to Zanzibar.

Artist Ruth Thomas painted her work All That Remains (pictured) after witnessing first-hand bush fires in New South Wales in the winter of 2019.

Thomas explains: “We woke up on New Year’s Day 2020 surrounded by bushfires. Days later, driving north to Sydney to return home to Scotland, we travelled for hours through scorched landscapes, glimpsing people searching through the remains of their homes.

“It was an ominous warning of the year to follow.”

The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour 140th Annual Exhibition, https://www.rsw.org.uk/ digital-exhibition/