An exhibition of work from the three recipients of the Katharine Barr Award for Visual Arts.
Margaret MacLellan, Peter Ferguson, and Margaret Fenton will be sharing work they made with the support of a bursary awarded in memory of Katharine Barr.
There will be a gathering to celebrate this exhibition and meet the artists on Friday 21st January at 7.30pm. For more details, see the event page.
“Landscape by itself is meaningless, but it works on our feeling in profound ways, arousing in us a sense of ourselves in relation to the outside world”
– Christopher Neve
Margaret Fenton writes
“It started with a proposal, a simple statement, an idea, a series of work, recording, documenting the Locheport road from the passing places. The why’s, the how’s, the what’s explored through 4 sketchbooks whilst sitting in the car, in ditches, on top of rocks, amongst the heather or standing leaning against a stob.
All painting is abstract, even if the elements of the painting adhere to recognisable shapes it would still be my abstract distorted representation. Sounds have shapes, wind can create rhythms across the page, birds on wires disrupt the sky, clouds change the colour easily as moods pass through. The road disappearing and curving as a thin line or a dark block interrupting the space ahead creating the sense of knowing and the sight of known marks.
Three years later and many changes I have strayed from the road into layers of paint, mark making and rich deep colours engrossed in the freedom to construct my own way
Forever grateful to have received the award and forever to continue to explore”
Peter Ferguson is a painter in oils with an interest in abstracting Uist landscape elements. The series of paintings in this exhibition focuses on striations suggested by the horizon, waves, lazybeds and peat cuttings.
Margaret MacLellan is a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and a lecturer at Lews Castle College. Painting, drawing and printmaking are her primary output. Margaret’s proposal for the award was to walk form her house and and explore the coastline accounting the changing weather fronts. She has over the intervening period made drawings paintings and etchings reflecting these experiences, fondly remembering Katherine’s friendship and conversations.
Do visit our online shop, which has all of the exhibited artworks and more from each artist listed for sale.
Taigh Chearsabhagh hosted a retrospective of Katharine Barr’s work in 2016, Cloud, Sea and Shore curated by Anne Reid. Following this, three annual bursary awards were made available to visual artists based in Uist.