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.
Shazia Mahmood
8th - 30th March 2024
Isle of Mull
Paintings inspired by a trip to the Isle of Mull
Isle of Mull
Paintings inspired by a trip to the Isle of Mull
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Balnahard from Lag na Croise, Mull, oil & mixed media on canvas, 51 x 61cm
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At the suggestion of a client, Shazia Mahmood visited the Isle of Mull in February 2023 for a painting trip. Armed with her Daler Rowney sketchbooks, Winsor and Newton watercolours, acrylic inks and her camera, Shazia set out to experience the natural beauty of this island amidst some dramatically changing weather conditions. With these breathtaking views she saw the potential for a painting around every hill corner and was hugely inspired.
Fidden, Mull, oil & mixed media on canvas, 30 x 102cm
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Shazia travelled around the island viewing some stunning coastal scenery at locations including Fidden Beach, Fionnphort, Kellan, Ardmeanach, Balnahard, Ulva and Iona. |
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Looking Out to Sea from Kellan, Mull, oil & mixed media on canvas, 77 x 102cm
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“The inspiration for me has always been about capturing that one moment in time. The dramatic beams at certain times of the day that create incredible moments of light within the landscape.”
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Shazia sketching in Mull
Shazia does use photographs as a reference but acknowledges their limitations as they fail to ‘capture the moment’. Out in the wind and cold Shazia had to work quickly with watercolours, acrylic inks and mixed media in response to her experiences. These en plein air colour studies crystalise the moments of sea spray, fast-moving clouds and awe-inspiring flashes of light and they are the spark for all subsequent paintings on canvas in the studio.
Soon after returning to the warmth of the cottage and whilst the vision was still fresh, Shazia worked on more colour studies to use as aids for the larger canvases in her studio. |
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Shazia returned home to West Sussex saturated with inspiration and with sketchbooks full of ideas. Shazia’s studio paintings on canvas start with a layer of acrylic inks followed by layers of oil paint and involve pouring, spraying and scrapping to create the overall moment, as well as paint-brush processes. Many years of experimentation have provided Shazia with the intimate knowledge of techniques and materials that allows her to create paintings with an evocative and mysterious air in a style that is truly her own.
Fionnphort, Fidden Pink Rocks, Mull, oil & mixed media on canvas, 30 x 122cm
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The Ross of Mull, oil on paper, 36 x 69cm
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Loch na Keal to Inch Kenneth, oil & mixed media on canvas, 30 x 41cm
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Ulva from Laggan Bay, Mull, oil & mixed media on canvas, 30 x 102cm
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The Ross of Mull, oil & mixed media on canvas, 31 x 41cm
Shazia Mahmood completed her M.A. at Winchester School of Art in 1997 and now lives in Sussex, although she has a particular affinity with the landscapes of North-West Scotland and the Isles.
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Sunset Over the Island of Ulva, oil & mixed media on canvas, 77 x 91cm
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Rum and Eigg from Arisaig - Spring, oil & mixed media on canvas, 77 x 102cm
Shazia's show at the Castle Gallery will include over twenty oil and mixed media paintings on canvas and works on paper featuring Mull together with half a dozen others of Skye, Knoydart, Rum and Eigg.
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