July 7-August 26, 2017 Private view: Friday July 7, 6-8pm
Resipole Studios and Fine Art Gallery is launching its annual summer show on Friday July 7, which presents work by four contemporary artists, Jonathan Shearer, John Slavin, Ben Averis and Liz Green.
Lochaber, by multi-award winning artist, Jonathon Shearer, is a series of landscape paintings on show in the main gallery. This is Shearer’s first solo exhibition at Resipole, which showcases a collection of paintings produced in and inspired by the local Lochaber area. Using a mixture of abstraction and representation, Shearer paints primarily en plein air, immersing himself in the remote outdoors.
He says: ‘For me it is not a backdrop, or somewhere to take a quick snap and move on, it is a journey into a wilderness that is as much about mindscape as landscape.’ Since gaining a degree in painting and drawing at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Jonathon Shearer has exhibited extensively across Europe. His work is featured in a number of large collections, including the Royal Scottish Academy and British Midland Airways. Meanwhile, The Skye
Suites, a solo exhibition by landscape painter, John Slavin is on display in the Red Gallery. Similar to Shearer, Slavin produces much of his work submersed in the outdoors. He is heavily influenced by the early 20th-century Canadian movement, the Group of Seven, both in their style and their shared belief in painting outdoors
He said: ‘It’s so, so important that you absorb what’s around you. You’ve got to be in the place and it has to be on foot.’
The Skye Suites is a series of work from 12 years of drawing and painting en plein-air on the Isle of Skye.
Slavin studied at Edinburgh School of Art under the celebrated painters Sir Robin Philipson and Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, and regularly exhibits in the UK and France.
Lastly, Oak Woods is a joint exhibition of work by Ben Averis and Liz Green, showing in the White Gallery.
Oak Woods carries on the theme of the great outdoors and presents a series of drawings and paintings that depict the ancient Scottish woodland.
Both Averis and Green work professionally as botanists, which is an intrinsic part of their artistic practice. Averis grad- uated from Bath Academy of Art and has continued practicing as an artist, alongside his career in botany.
Oak Woods presents a series of drawings depicting the mossy woods of Morvern, produced during his recent residency with the Scottish Wildlife Trust in the Rahoy Hills.
Liz Green showcases a collection of her stylised, abstract paintings that continue to explore the local oak forests and their ecosystems.
Green says: ‘My woodland paintings aim to distill the essential components of pattern, colour, texture and mood that are distinctive of differing woodland types and particular places in the Highlands.’