ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
HAVE PAINT WILL TRAVEL
Wendy McMurdo has travelled to Italy, spent six months in Dumlries, is about to embark on a year of study in New York and has even spent a gruelling week on a North Sea supply vessel. But travel is not the motivation iorthese trips away lrom home. The opportunity to lund her work through grants and scholarships lures the young artist lrom her Glasgow base. '
It grants alone gave indication or an artist's promise, McMurdo would be counted as a success. Out at art college barely eighteen months, she has hopscotched neatly lrom one to the next. During her Dumlries stay, where she was the lirst artist in residence at the Gracelield Art Centre, she was given the added bonus of a one-woman exhibition, showing now at the Printmakers’ Workshop, Edinburgh.
Upstairs, McNurdo’s Galloway tills two rooms. She looks to the past for her impressions or that region. A murdered baby, a heart in an ivory casket and a hand on a grey mare's tall are the lragments of legends she incorporates in her prints and drawings.
In some, like ‘Dulce Cor’ or the series oi ‘Jeannie Deans' Baby' she concentrates too much on telling the story. The elements become muddled and her drawing deadened. A heavy
hand is al at wo in ‘Stealing Sheep’
spoiling the picture postcard humour ot the scene.
When her hand is tree to draw without the painterly concerns at colour, texture and tone, McMurdo comes into her own. Her natural medium is line. The matching prints ‘Caerlaverock’ and ‘A Day In The Lite DI. . solid pattern in blue and black, show her confidence as a printmaker. ‘Devll Nlan' and ‘Devll
..‘ 2
Woman’ go one step further and preserve the tresnness ot a drawing in pdnt
Downstairs, drawings made during McMurdo’s tour-month study trip to Florence reveal the artist at her youthlul best. Herioy oi place and work Is apparent in every scene. The heavy air at south-west Scotland is immediately torgotten. (Alice Bain)
0 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN lnverleith House.
Over the winter period (until April) lnverleith House will be open only over weekends. The three summer exhibitions John Hope 18th century gardener and enlightened figure. Margaret Stone‘s- exqusite watercolours and Heather Angel’s colour photographs. will be continued during this time.
0 ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND (‘hambers Street. 225 7534. Mon—Sat 1()am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm. There are many interesting talks. lectures and films currently being held at the museum. (See ()pen section). Contact the information desk for details.
Britain’s Heritage Until Sun 1 March. Photographs of the wealth and diversity of the British countryside and wildlife found on reserves of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Mountains and toadstools. flycatchers and butterflies are shown
against a backdrop of the work carried out by the RSPB ensuring their preservation.
O ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Queen Street. 556 8921. Mon—Sat 1()am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm.
Scotland's antiquities share premises with the Portrait Gallery.
0 THE SCOTTISH ARTISTS SHOP
8 Howard Street. 556 6337. Mon—Sat 10am—4pm. Sun 2—4pm. . Painters Old and New Until end Feb. 0 SCOTTISH CRAFT CENTRE 140 Canongate. 556 8136. Mon—Sat 1()am—5.3()pm.
A permanent showcase for the crafts ofScotland.
0 THE SCOTTISH GALLERY 94 George Street. 225 5955. Mon—Fri 9am—5.3()pm. Sat 9.30am—lpm. William Daniell 1769—1837: Voyage Round Great Britain 1813—23 Aquatints Until Wed 4 Feb. William Daniell was to have made his famous ‘Voyage Round Great Britain‘ in a
rowing boat. In the event however. it was not so much a voyage. more a walking tour with boat excursions. Its purpose. to sketch and describe the entire coastline of Britain. was successful and the description runs to eight volumes. It was the work often summers from 1813—23. undertaken by Daniell with his friend Richard Ayton who wrote the text. This exhibition is a representative sdection of41 0f the 308 plates. Nicola Henley Textiles. and Simone Lyon Ceramic Sculpture. Until Wed 4 Feb.
Robert Henderson Blyth1919—1972 Until Sat 14 Feb. Retrospective exhibition. Oils, watereolours. drawings and war works.
0 THE SCOTTISH MINING MUSEUM Lady Victoria Colliery. Newtongrange. Midlothian. 663 7519. Tue—Fri mam—4.30pm. Sat/Sun Noon—5pm.
Prestongrange (between Prestonpans and Musselburgh) Tue—Fri
MERCURY GALLERY
2/3 NORTH BANK STREET THE MOUND
E D I N B U R G H IN THE MOGUL STYLE
Daily 10—530
January 29— Telephone: 031 225 3200
selected examples of antique furniture, jewellery and costume
March 7 1987 Saturday 10—1
1()am—4pm. Sat/Sun Noon—5pm. Visitor Centre. Historic Cornish Beam Engine and displays showing coal-mining through the ages.
0 STILLS GALLERY 105 High Street. 557 l 140. Tue—Sat. noon—6pm. Remnants of the Authentic: Contemporary Photography from Germany Until Sat 21 Feb. Wide
I range of technique and experiment I shown in the work of fourteen
. contemporary German
photographers.
; O TALBOT RICE ART CENTRE Old
1 College. University of Edinburgh. i 6671011 ext4308. Mon—Sat.
l
10am—5pm.
Five Artists Retrospective Until Sat 31 ' Jan. Alasdair Gray as artist rather than writer shows his work along y with John Connolly, Carole
Gibbons. Alasdair Taylor and the late Alan Fletcher. Also at the 369 Gallery. Edinburgh. See panel.
0 THEATRE WORKSHOP 34 Hamilton Place. 225 7942. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm.
3?: People, Places, Politics 1975—1986 Throughout Feb. A selection of images in colour and black and white by Edinburgh photographer Robin MacPherson. The faces and landscapes of Scotland and Nicaragua.
0 TDRRANCE GALLERY 291) Dundas Street. 556 6366. Mon—Fri 11am—6pm. Sat 1().3()am—«Ipm. William Ferguson: SummerSeas and Autumn Fields Until Sat 24 Jan.
0 369 GALLERY 2(19 Cowgate, 225 3013. Mon—Sat noon—5.30pm.
Five Artists Retrospective Until Sat 31 Jan. See Talbot Rice Arts Centre. Edinburgh. See panel.
0 WARE ON EARTH 15 Howe Street. 558 1276. Mon—Sat 1()am—6.3()pm and Suns by appointment.
Fiona Sutherland Until Sun 8 Feb. Sculptures and drawings.
W
A new section for special exhibitions held outside Glasgow and Edinburgh which are of particular interest. Galleries should contact Alice Bain it they are holding an important exhibition, at least two weeks before it opens. There will only be room tor one or two exhibitions in this section each issue.
0 Crawford Centre tor the Arts 93 North Street. St Andrews. Fife (0334 76161 ext 591.
Identity/Desire Representing the Body Until Sun 8 Feb. A Scottish Arts Council exhibition. Concepts of identity and gender explored in art. The body in question.
In Between the Lines: Willie Rodger, a retrospective Until Sun 8 Feb. This major retrospective organised by the Collins Gallery in Glasgow. looks at 30 years of Rodgers' work which includes wood-cuts. lino-cuts. designs for playing cards and records and stained glass.
0 MACLAURIN ART GALLERY Rozelle Estate. Monument Road, Alloway. Ayr. 0292 43708/45447. Mon—Sat
1 lam—5pm.
The Unpainted Landscape Until Sat 7 Feb. A major touring exhibition commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council. The work of 15 artists was selected by Graeme Murray of Edinburgh and Simon Cutts of the Coracle Press. London. Richard Long. Thomas Joshua Cooper. Andy Goldsworthy. David Nash and others took the Scottish landscape as the central feature ofthe work exhibited and depart from the traditional language of landscape art. The exhibition will be shown in Edinburgh at the Gallery of Modern Art in April when it will be reviewed by The List.
0 CRAWFORD GALLERY Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. Perth Road, Dundee. Mon—Fri 1()am—4pm. Benson and Hedges Photographers and Illustrators Gold Awards Tue 3—'I‘hurs- 12 Feb. This is the fourth year of the awards. The theme for 1987 was 'Style'. interpreted in 1()()exhibits.
22 The List 23 .Ian — 5 Feb