Inspiration and Process

For anyone who thought scrimshaw was no longer in fashion, the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition  has arrived to set them right. Here we have a dial of whale tusks engraved with a map of Antarctica; the piece is called ‘Reliquary’ and it forms part of Bridget Steed’s contribution to the show. It’s a good touch, complementing the large photograph that looms above and shows a totem tower of whale bone set upon a bleak South Georgia shoreline.

Steed is an ‘invited artist’ at this exhibition, the basis of which is the annual display of RSA members’ work. Hidden Aspects of the Artist’s Work – Inspiration and Process has been convened by the painter Victoria Crowe and she has curated within it a collection of work from specially invited artists. Crowe’s intention has been to delve into the creative process and persuade her chosen artists to offer not only completed works but also some of their formative elements. So, we are presented with research cases filled with sketchbooks, photographs, dead bats, bottle tops, a kayak; anything, in short, that helped inform and develop each artist’s approach.

This dedication to drawing back the curtain on the artistic process is to be admired. This is an area that most non-artists have little understanding of and they may be surprised by the variation on show. Whereas some artists have the expected sketchbooks filled with well-observed drawing, others have taken a more oblique approach. Take that kayak: this is Jock McFadyen’s research offering. His painting, a large canvas of a rotting waterside building, hangs above and we are told he used the kayak to sneak into forbidden derelict areas around the future Olympic park in search of his subjects.

More traditional is Ken Currie, whose huge portrait ‘A Hunting Lodge’ leers over the central room like a latter day Carravagio; all deep shadow and luminescent figures, but more unsettling. His research shows old photos of tweedy gents and a preparatory sketch. It does little however to enlighten us as to the meaning of it all. These wasted figures in uniforms and suits, set against a cold stone background that reeks of mortality with its skull and clock and meat hook are not really elucidated by the rather limited research display. It is the painting that absorbs all the interest here.

Probably the most extensive research comes from the virtuoso printmaker Stuart Duffin. His work is based entirely upon the city of Jerusalem; the final pieces are complicated prints which use multiple techniques, including the almost insanely labour intensive mezzotint. The background material encompasses panoramas of the city and long walls of graffiti, books, etching and mezzotint tools, fragments of pottery and preparatory original prints. It is an intriguing glimpse into the visual and thematic origins of Duffin’s marvellous, complicated prints.

These curated pieces are fascinating but they shouldn’t deflect all attention from the members’ work, which forms the rest of the show. Everywhere you turn there’s another impeccable James Morrison landscape or set of lively prints by Alfons Bytautas, while John Bellany figures squint through the doorways and Glen Onwin’s nebulous green canvases climb up to the ceiling. Nevertheless, it is the invited artists who hold the attention longest.

Olwen Shone’s series of differing sea spray images are subtle, delicate, pale pictures of the variations of crashing wave patterns impress. Likewise, continuing the landscape theme, the work of Briony Anderson stands out. She teases an image out of a soft mash of paint, making landscapes upon old landscapes as she paints and repaints a surface. A beautifully presented, and gigantic, book of mounted paint studies and quotations – ‘Landscape is a way of seeing’ – forms the research.

Her approach seems to share something with that of Andrew Mackenzie, another invitee, who also favours a thoughtful, multilayered approach to the landscape and has the courage to display two half-finished paintings. This bold step, something many artists would balk at, is revealing, especially when these scuffed, sketchy pieces are compared with the completed painting hanging alongside.

Victoria Crowe has done a fine job of bringing this show together and rendered what could, in the past, be a monstrous beast of an exhibition into something coherent, streamlined and intelligent. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a bias towards the traditional end of visual art, with an emphasis on interpretations of landscape in particular. This, however, allows continuity throughout the exhibits, reflecting well upon the careful selection of this group of artists and the successful illumination of their work.

All images courtesy / copyright the artist.

RSA Annual Exhibition 2011 runs until 8th June
Royal Scottish Academy
The Mound
Edinburgh

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