Artists will be picture perfect at new exhibition

An exhibition of new paintings takes an award-winning Scottish artist back to his roots.

North by Chris Bushe is a collection of sumptuous paintings filled with texture and light, being shown at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh.

Born in 1958, Chris spent his childhood in Tornaveen, Aberdeenshire, before studying Drawing and Painting at Gray’s School of Art from 1980 to 1984.

The majority of the paintings in this exhibition centre on the parts of Aberdeenshire in which Bushe grew up.

Comprising of over 50 works in mixed media, collage and oil, Bushe’s evocative canvases depict the rugged landscape of intimate, lesser known places, full of illusive patches of agriculture, rivers, forestry and gorse lands. Also included are a number of larger paintings in oil which echo Chris’ work from his days a student in Aberdeen in the 1980s.

Since becoming a full-time artist in 1996 Bushe has exhibited regularly in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. His many awards include the Morton Fraser Milligan, Russell Flint Trust, Glasgow Arts Club Fellowship, Scottish Arts Club Awards, the RSW Council Award, the RSW McManus Galleries Purchase Prize, the RSW Fotheringham Gallery Award and the RSW Walter Scott Award.

Most recently, Chris has had considerable success at the The Discerning Eye, winning both the Founder’s £2,500 Purchase Prize in 2015 and the ING £5,000 Purchase Prize in 2016. As a result of winning this significant award, Chris mounted a one-person exhibition at ING at the end of 2017.

His works are held in public and private collections worldwide.

Full Circle by Jayne Stokes

Winner of the 2017 Open Eye Gallery Exhibition Prize at the Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition, Jayne Stokes debuts her first solo exhibition with the Open Eye, presenting a series of new paintings and assemblages that document her real and imagined journeys made throughout Scotland in the last year.

This exhibition is a culmination of Stokes’ explorations and discoveries across the Scottish landscape during the past year. Whilst discovering new places, she has also enjoyed exploring the familiar settings of her East Lothian home in more depth, documenting her travels along the way.

Out There comprises of miniature watercolour paintings and assemblages in which fictitious landscapes are pieced together from fragments, random images, found objects and old maps that were collected and accumulated in her studio during the year.

Born in Shropshire in 1973, Stokes graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1996 with a first-class degree in drawing and painting, later studying at Winchester School of Art in Barcelona, graduating with an MA in Fine Art in 1998.

She recently gained professional membership of the Society of Scottish Artists and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Watercolour Prize in 2015 and 2016. She was awarded both the Moidart Trust Landscape Prize and the Royal Scottish Academy Art in Healthcare Award in 2016.

Jayne lives and works in North Berwick. Her work is held in several private and public collections.

The exhibitions will take place at the Open Eye Gallery, 34 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh EH3 6QE.  They will be open 18 May–4 June for North, with Jayne Stokes: Out There until 2 June.