Ayrshire Artists in Castle Douglas

from Zoe Blamire

This is a review of the current show at McGill Duncan Gallery in CD - by Jan Patience published in this Saturday's Glasgow Herald

Far, far from the madding crowds of our capital city, degree shows and groovy city art shows, one small gallery in Castle Douglas is celebrating the work of eight Ayrshire artists.

The McGill Douglas Gallery has assembled a fine mix of artists here in Glen Scouller, James Cosgrove, Sandy Murphy, Michael Durning, Clare Harrigan, Euan McGregor, James Orr and David Palmer.

There are some artists who are quietly brilliant and yet the wider public don’t know about their work. A goodly few are represented here. Sandy Murphy’s still lifes and landscapes are beautiful and understated, like little nuggets of poetry within four sides of a canvas. Glen Scouller too has a definite following, but why his work is not flying onto walls all over the land is a mystery. He paints light, space and colour like no other Scottish artist I know. His sense of composition is as clear as a bell. You can almost feel your senses reordering themselves when you look at his work.

Fishers Wife a la Mode - James Cosgrove

James Cosgrove too is a well kent figure around the Glasgow art scene through a long teaching career at Glasgow School of Art. He ‘retired’ in 1999 but is still as busy as ever painting at his Ayrshire home and working as a director of House for an Art Lover in Glasgow. There is always a sense of anticipation in Cosgrove’s work, which has a strong narrative running through it. In this exhibition, he has a few gems such as Fisher’s Wife a la Mode and Red Sky at Night (both incredibly well-priced acrylic, ink and collage on board paintings).

Gallery owner Jill Blamire says: “McGill Duncan Gallery formed most of our connections with Ayrshire artists through exhibiting the work of Sandy Murphy RSW RGI. His paintings are hugely popular in our gallery and we wanted to introduce the work of some of his friends and contemporaries to our customers. Ayrshire shares a rich artistic history with Galloway and this show proves that we have some of the best artists in the country working very close to home."

McGill Duncan Gallery Blog here: http://mcgillduncangallery.blogspot.com/