You will not require sunglasses during, or a cup of tea and a lie-down after, a visit to Paperwork 4 at the Edinburgh Ski Club.
This is not an exhibition of flamboyant effects, dramatic lighting, the action-packed expression of violent passions. If you want those, go and look at the non-Caravaggios up the hill.
No, what we have here is three mature artists examining with calm, unhurried concentration the subtle interplay of form, void, tone, line, pattern, and texture … and it’s fascinating.
The 37 works on display are subtle abstract or semi-abstract studies – works which, whilst sometimes loosely based on something observed or felt in the real world, more often end up depicting a kind of contemplative mindscape in which the viewer is invited to roam.
Marion Barron writes that her work is inspired by buildings: ‘the empty spaces, the detailed fabric … and the random features and surfaces to be found there’. Her starting point for this exhibition was the aesthetic of post-war Brutalism. Below is ‘Study for "Sea Wall" 4’ (pencil, ink, oil, gouache).
Ruth Thomas’s work is influenced by what she calls 'nature's calligraphy'. Her beautiful printed, painted and stitched artist’s books evoke mother of pearl and beetle wings, rockpools, scenes found through microscopes and astronomical telescopes. Her ‘Reeds at Duddingston 1’ (ink) is more down-to-earth but no less interesting.
Trevor Davies’s ‘Cattedrale’ (graphite, ink, wax, gouache) is perhaps the most literal of the works shown here, but I liked it for its seemingly casual capture of depth, solidity, and spiritual frisson.
'The endless line of a circle, its internal space both enclosure and entrance, the possibility of objects being there and not-there, and what might be joints or doorways within a landscape all find their way into my pictures,' he writes.
Below is his mysterious ‘Twelve Circles’ (watercolour, ink, graphite, collage), a piece which wears its artistry lightly, but amply rewards further attention.—AM
Paperwork 4 continues at the Edinburgh Ski Club (2 Howe Street), 11.00am–6.00pm, until 28 August.