Viewing Room
Welcome to the Castle Gallery Viewing Rooms where you will find highlights from our exhibitions - past and present - focussing on key works, inspirational ideas and telling the stories behind the show. Best viewed on a desktop browser.
IAN MCWHINNIE
2nd - 24th September
'People and Places'
'People and Places'
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Edge of the Forest, oil on board, 24x 28cm
Ian McWhinnie’s first solo exhibition at the Castle Gallery was way back in 2005 and it is a delight to welcome him back for the latest in a succession of hugely successful solo shows of paintings and ceramics. Ian has itchy feet and likes to travel, using his sojourns as inspiration for his work. In this exhibition we see him inspired by places he has explored from the warm climes of the Mediterranean to the colder, but equally inspiring, Moray Coast of Scotland and the streets of his native Glasgow.
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Portrait, Andalusia, oil on board, 28 x 29cm
Ian explores off the beaten track and on the edges of towns and villages where unexpected quiet moments can be inspirational as can be seen in the paintings ‘Edge of Town’ and ‘Back Streets, Serignan’. The heat, mystery and intrigue of far away places in France and Spain form a distinct group of paintings within this show.
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Edge of Town, oil on board, 28 x 24cm - Back Streets, Serignan, oil on board, 37 x 25cm - St. Martin de Re, oil on board, 22 x 18.5cm
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North East Trail, oil on board, 33 x 38cm
Ian has only relatively recently discovered the wonders of the Moray Coast and it is interesting to contrast the slightly dour settings and colours inspired by the Scottish landscape compared to that of hotter climates. Whilst walking along a disused railway line in Moray he spotted a tunnel which suggested to him a clever compositional device of a ‘picture within a picture’ and this became the painting ‘North East Trail’. Its atmosphere is as disconcerting as that of Grant Wood’s painting ‘American Gothic’, 1930. Ian’s paintings are in oil on gesso board. He starts with a detailed tonal pencil drawing, followed by a thin monochrome painting over which the oil paint is subsequently applied. The paintings are finished by applying thin coloured glazes.
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Winter Forest, oil on board, 28 x 24cm
Ian’s compositions combine layered backdrops of architecture or the natural environment in front of which he places his characters to set up scenarios reminiscent of a theatre stage. The viewer is drawn into these paintings and a sense of mystery is palpable.
He says: “My subject matter is from an accumulation of images from memories, drawings and photographs gathered from travels and observations. I use these images to compose paintings which have a sense of mystery. The figures in the paintings have an anonymity and over the years have become almost like dramatic characters in a performance.” |
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Street Music, oil on board, 37 x 27cm
Ian is Glasgow born and bred and music, especially street music, is never far away. In his painting ‘Street Music’ the architecture of the tenement buildings is clearly visible as the guitarist saunters past. It is remarkable the way in which he adapts the carefully structured compositions of his paintings for use ‘in the round’ on his three-dimensional ceramics. See, for example, the pot decorated with the face of a women and Glasgow tenements (below) which references back to the painting ‘Street Music’.
He says: “Working between the two mediums has been productive with one complementing and contrasting with the other: the imagery for the ceramics is much more stylised in order to enhance the form of each piece.” |
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Tall Jar No. 9, hand-painted earthenware, 18 x 11cm
The new collection of hand-painted, white earthenware pots for this exhibition demonstrates Ian’s enthusiastic return to his pottery studio as he deftly moves between paint and pots, one medium inspiring the other. The ceramics are either thrown on the wheel or hand built using a white earthenware clay fired to 1120 degrees centigrade, then painted using metal oxides and underglaze colours and finally glazed with a low solubility transparent glaze fired at 1060 degrees centigrade.
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Flared Bowl No. 3, 11 x 20.5cm - Tall Form No. 10, 18 x 9.5cm - Cut Plate No. 13, 24.5 x 23.5 x 5.5cm
After studying Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art (1970-74) Ian McWhinnie taught ceramics in schools before taking early retirement in 2002 to concentrate on his own artistic development. Initially he drew figurative designs on hand thrown vessels before turning his painterly skills to oil on board. His distinctive and slightly unnerving paintings have met with great critical acclaim since his first solo exhibition at the Castle Gallery in 2005.