EMILY POWELL – JUNE 2024
Emily Powell is a contemporary artist living in Devon, with a studio on the edge of Dartmoor. Often working on a large scale, colour, joy and freedom pour out of her paintings, from evocative landscapes of Devon and Scotland to surreal still lifes, powerful abstracts, grand florals, ethereal flying wildlife and the journey of domestic life with her husband and young daughter. Expressive, unapologetically positive and full of emotion, Emily’s paintings resonate with collectors worldwide and have generated her a 35k+ Instagram following.
Growing up in Liverpool, Emily studied at Norwich School of Art for her formal training, with a sabbatical at the Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rouen (2008-2011). She has exhibited with the Royal Society of Art, collaborated with MoMA, the National Galleries of Scotland and The British Museum, and was part of the 2020 BBC Documentary for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Show. Emily has also been a guest lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
In 2022 Emily published her first book, Start Painting Now, and in the same year she was invited to paint the front entrance at Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children. In the summer of 2022 a solo show in St Ives, The Year Of The Tiger, led her to be hailed as ‘one of the most important emerging artists in the UK today’. Early 2024 saw a successful solo exhibition at London’s Portland Gallery and there have been many mixed and solo shows in between.
Emily has exhibited with Morningside Gallery since 2019, within mixed exhibitions. Her joyful works featured regularly in the gallery windows throughout the months/years of lockdowns, connecting people and generating responses we have rarely seen before or since. Notes of appreciation appeared through our letter box from passers by, NHS staff, regular clients and children. That strangely distanced time has thankfully now passed but the importance of warmth and human connection remains. We hope that you will feel some of Emily’s uplifting and positive energy through her paintings.
THE LAND BELOW THE WAVES EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
PETER MUNRO – JUNE 2024
Peter Munro was born and brought up in the Highlands. He studied at Burslem School of Art, followed by Chelsea School of Art where he gained an honours degree in fine art-drawing and painting. Working as a full time artist since 1987, Peter has exhibited throughout the UK, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, along with numerous locations in the US, including the prestigious annual‘Birds in Art’ show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, for which his work has been frequently selected.
In recent years, Peter has been directly commissioned by both private and corporate clients, including Louis Vuitton, Veuve Cliquot, Holland and Holland, and the Swarovski Family. The London based fine art publisher Rosenstiel’s has provided a steady run of commissions to paint golfing scenes from a great many courses in Scotland, England, Ireland and the US. Peter’s painting ‘The Opening Drive’ was purchased by the Royal and Ancient to be displayed in their World Golf Museum in St Andrews. It was also on show alongside the Claret Jug at the following Open.
This latest collection of paintings is the result of a train of thought and ideas which have been evolving over many years, and bring together a number of Peter’s interests. They are as much about the contrasting nature and juxtaposition of the elements within the painting; the soft texture of the plumage against the metal structures, the organic forms contrasting with the fabricated objects, and the movement of the birds around the static props. The character of the individual birds also play a part, helping to suggest the hint of a narrative, which adds to the overall dynamic. These are works that feel contemporary in execution and palette but which invoke older painting traditions and techniques.
We are delighted to introduce this much awaited collection of his paintings in June 2024.
Jack Morrocco ‘In Good Company’
Written by gallery director Eileadh Swan, and beautifully illustrated throughout, In Good Company follows the artistic threads that run through the life and work of Jack Morrocco, one of Scotland’s most collectable artists. Exploring each of Jack’s main genres, the book celebrates his artistic journey so far, and offers the perfect accompaniment to his paintings for collectors and enthusiasts alike.
Jack’s evocative depictions of light and shade in Mediterranean locales along with his vibrant still lifes have earned him a reputation as one of the most accomplished contemporary Scottish artists working today. No matter the subject, Jack’s innate mastery of light, shadow and form is never anything short of astounding.
20th Birthday Exhibition
WE ARE TWENTY!
And to celebrate we open our mixed artist exhibition on Saturday the 22nd of April at 10am, with new paintings from Nael Hanna, Rose Raine, Simon Laurie RSW RGI, Stuart Buchanan, Gordon Wilson, Jennifer Mackenzie, James Harrigan and fantastic ceramics from Eoghan Bridge and Tony Laverick. You can see a taster of the images here before they are all hung and posted online next week but please contact us for further information and images in the meantime!
Nael Hanna, Spring Melody, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Rose Raine, Permeating Light, North Berwick, Oil on Canvas, 120 x 120 cm
Simon Laurie RSW RGI, Red Pear and Bottle, Acrylic on Board, 50 x 50 cm
Gordon Wilson, Cool Cobalts and Warm Hearth, Oil on Board, 51 x 51cm
Jennifer Mackenzie, Red Delicious, Oil on Canvas, 51 x 51 cm
Stuart Buchanan, Outward Bound, Oil on Hessian, 47 x 52cm
James Harrigan, Fishing Nets Pittenweem, Oil on Board, 81 x 70 cm
We hope that you will celebrate our twentieth birthday exhibition this month, and raise a toast to the next twenty years! Do please join us in the gallery on:
Saturday the 22nd of April, from 2 – 4pm
GORDON MITCHELL RSA RSW RGI
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK
The familiar becomes strange and the strange familiar, in an exhibition of Gordon Mitchell’s paintings. Gordon’s unparalleled draughtsmanship and imaginative liaisons make for a visually rich and thought provoking debut exhibition here at Morningside Gallery. Take a Closer Look opens Saturday 1st April and runs until April 16th, with a Private View and Meet the Artist event on Friday 31st March. The digital catalogue can be viewed below.
Gordon Mitchell was born in 1952 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art, embarking upon a career in teaching until becoming a full-time painter in 1989. He is an elected Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour (1997), the Royal Glasgow Institute (1998) and the Royal Scottish Academy (2005).
Always thought provoking, Gordon’s work draws upon traditional iconography, news stories and visual puns, to create unexpected juxtapositions and perceptive visual commentaries. Conventional boundaries between the world of the real and the world of the imagination are transcended, and we are invited to question how we see, hear and feel the world around us.
Gordon has always had a distaste for the “taken for granted”, and he enjoys looking beyond logic and everyday reasoning. He creates images which are arresting, in part down to the illusion of reality. When the obvious technical process is removed, something puzzling, witty, often irreverent, but always memorable, becomes apparent.
Please contact us for further details about the Private View
GORDON MITCHELL RSA RSW RGI
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK
The familiar becomes strange and the strange familiar, in an exhibition of Gordon Mitchell’s paintings. Gordon’s unparalleled draughtsmanship and imaginative liaisons make for a visually rich and thought provoking debut exhibition here at Morningside Gallery. Take a Closer Look opens Saturday 1st April and runs until April 16th, with a Private View and Meet the Artist event on Friday 31st March.
Gordon Mitchell was born in 1952 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art, embarking upon a career in teaching until becoming a full-time painter in 1989. He is an elected Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour (1997), the Royal Glasgow Institute (1998) and the Royal Scottish Academy (2005).
Always thought provoking, Gordon’s work draws upon traditional iconography, news stories and visual puns, to create unexpected juxtapositions and perceptive visual commentaries. Conventional boundaries between the world of the real and the world of the imagination are transcended, and we are invited to question how we see, hear and feel the world around us.
Gordon has always had a distaste for the “taken for granted”, and he enjoys looking beyond logic and everyday reasoning. He creates images which are arresting, in part down to the illusion of reality. When the obvious technical process is removed, something puzzling, witty, often irreverent, but always memorable, becomes apparent.
Please contact us for further details about the Private View and for a preview of the images when they become available.
CONTACT US
Spring Exhibition
Our Mixed Spring Exhibition features many of our regular exhibiting artists, alongside returning artists Morag Muir PAI RSW, and Ann Wegmuller RSW RWS. You’ll find springs finest flowers from Marion Drummond PAI, George Birrell’s jewel like harbour scenes and Andrew Thompson’s exquisite paintings of Qing Pottery.
Andrew studied painting at Glasgow School of Art and graduated in 1997. He now lives and works on the Black Isle in the Highlands of Scotland. His work can be found in many private collections, including the collection of HRH The Duchess of Rothesay. Andrew paints a wide range of still life subjects and this latest collection of paintings features his flower and fruit studies, along with a number of exquisitely painted Chinese ceramics and silverware.
We are delighted to be exhibiting Morag Muir’s paintings once again! Morag was born in Glasgow and studied Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee from 1978-1982. She completed a year of postgraduate study in 1983, winning the John Milne Purvis Prize and the Major Travelling Scholarship, which financed further study in Italy. Morag works from her studio in Newport-on-Tay in Fife, Scotland which has beautiful views across the Firth of Tay. Her paintings mainly reflect the studio environment, and her still-life work incorporates narratives that develop when characters and objects begin to populate the canvas. Windows, flowers, textiles, toys and ethnic bric-a-brac share ambiguous spaces.
Ann Wegmuller RSW RWS is known for her bold use of colour and evocative, semi abstract compositions. In many ways colour is the real subject of Ann’s paintings and the paintings themselves start from her feeling for a place. It is like music: different sounds are like different colours, and each colour has its own beauty and strength but can be enhanced or toned down by another colour.
6th – 31st March