Jennifer Irvine – Solo Show
We are looking forward to our first ever Jennifer Irvine Solo show, which opens on the 24th of September. Glasgow School of Art graduate, elected member of the Royal Glasgow Institute (RGI) and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW), Jennifer Irvine’s paintings are instantly recognisable and evocative. We’ve been exhibiting Jennifer’s work for a number of years and this much awaited solo show of 25 paintings will take viewers on a journey through all of Jennifer’s favourite painting places and a few new ones.
Each of Jennifer’s paintings are an invitation; to slow down and relax in a beautiful flower filled Provencal garden or take a meader up one of the winding streets of an Algarve village. Jennifer begins each painting with loose under-drawing, using brushes and palette knives to block in elements of the composition. She then builds up layers of colour and tone to achieve a sense of place and realism, highlighting the nuances of light and shade, and the way that the sunlight interacts with its surroundings. It is not only the light that Jennifer conveys so well, but also the sense of temperature – the gently warming dappled morning sunshine or the soporific build up of afternoon heat.
A recent first visit to the Hebridean island of Tiree, with its special special quality of light, inspired Jennifer to pick up her brushes and the resulting paintings will be featured in this exhibition. Even on a day of leaden skies there is an amazing pale, transparent, translucent turquoise light that is completely captivating and again just as much of a challenge to capture.
In the main group of Provencal paintings Jennifer creates a real feeling of the heat of the sun soaking into the buildings, with its shimmering light and luminous shadows. As with the Provencal paintings, there is a similar feeling of heat with the Portuguese work but here Jennifer concentrates more on the intense colour afforded by the bountiful bougainvillaea and mimosa and the beautiful shadows that they create in the heat of the day. There is a clarity of light in the Algarve that is simply irresistible for an artist.
JENNIFER IRVINE SOLO SHOW
24th September – 9th October
Meet the Artist: Saturday 24th September 1 – 3pm – All Welcome