Edinburgh can seem a little flat after the hustle and bustle of the International Festival and Fringe in August so for its September exhibition The Leith Gallery has “Kept the Best for After the Fest!” and invited selected artists to exhibit a couple of pieces each. This has given the gallery an eclectic mix of landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and figurative work .
Amongst those artists, just to pick a few stars, are Jonathan Hood with his almost abstract landscapes, The Promise of Spring and Autumn Shift; Jacqueline Marr with her studies of falling girls, Study 11 for Descent and Study for Descent 11; Ricky Wiatrek with his super real/ surreal figurative pieces, The Refuge and The Echo; Annette Edgar with her incredibly vibrant land or seascapes, Pink Sails and Parkland, which was inspired by Central Park, New York; Charlotte Brayley with her whimsical animal portraits, Wait for Me and Autumn Hope. Don’t miss the Blue Tits n the stag’s antlers; Joyce Borland with her evocative landscapes of Scotland, Heathertime near Ballater and Finzean near Banchory; Gail Pope with her romantic woodlands, Bluebell Walk and Dappled Light on Woodland Path; Hazel Bowman, who is inspired by the dancers in Scottish Ballet brings her sketches of ballet dancers; Colin Prestage, noted for his remarkable precision brings With These Words and Time for Tea and Colin Dunbar, whose portraits hang in the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, and whose small figurative pieces have far more to say than their size would suggest brings us Willow and I’m Your Man. Just look at the power in I’m Your Man, an oil painting measuring 36 cm x 26 cm.
The exhibition also incorporates a solo show of glass by Emma Butler-Cole Aiken. Emma is a well respected glass artist who is known for her major installations of stain glass in churches and institutions.