Still Life | Film Blog

Still Life | The Beauty of the Ordinary is a tribute to the monumental Les Choses exhibition at The Louvre (2022). Still life remains a vital and enduring genre in Scottish art, and rather than offering a broad survey, we present a curated selection of contemporary and vintage works. This collection highlights the genre’s diversity and lasting strength, including painters, ceramicists and sculptors. Explore our film blog below to learn more about the artists and their work. Enjoy!

SJ Peploe is regarded as a master of the still life genre, and his influence continues to resonate today. To bring this tradition into the present, Guy Peploe has invited Ewan McClure to create a series of still life paintings using several of his grandfather’s objects. We begin our exhibition with McClure’s The Act of Painting, a contemporary nod to the Scottish still life tradition. In this video, curated by Ewan McClure we see his delight in unpacking these precious still life objects, and the paintings they then inspire. Visit the exhibition here.

Follow artist John Brown as he walks through his beautiful Edinburgh garden, the inspiration behind many of his recent works. Visit the exhibition here.

The film below was a collaborative project between The Modern House and Toast, celebrating independent makers and designers. The film offers insight into the phenomenal creative space of stone sculptor Oliver Cook. Visit the exhibition here.

In this film, explore the lush, nature-inspired work and studio of ceramicist Hitomi Hosono. In her London studio, the artist combines Japanese heritage and British influences to create masterfully intricate works. Director/Editor : Miguel Luis. Concept/Producer: Sarah Lu. Cinematographer/Colorist: Max Presky. Additional stock footage: Jens Klingebiel Photo illustrator. Visit the exhibition here.

Angie Lewin has quietly emerged as an artist whose work has a broad and enduring appeal, engaged with nature, culture and conservation. Constantly observing the flora and fauna, walking in the woods, by fast rivers, hill lochs or beach and machair, she gathers all this natural information, representing an infinite and intimate investigation of plant forms, colour variations and patterns. Visit the exhibition here.

Follow artist Leon Morrocco as he discusses his work for his 2022 London exhibition Paintings from the Alpes-Maritimes with John Martin Gallery. Visit our exhibition here.

First aired in 1997, Actor and writer Michael Palin travels to the French Riviera in search of the Mediterranean view on his wall captured by his favourite artist- Scottish painter Anne Redpath. His journey takes him from a London bank to Edinburgh -via a millionaire’s chateau in Cap Ferrat and a Carthusian monastery. Visit the exhibition here.

Emily Sutton was born in North Yorkshire and studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Rhode Island School of Design. Since graduating in 2008, Emily’s art works, sculptures and designs have been much sought-after. The film below offers an insider’s look at painter and illustrator Emily Sutton’s studio and home in York! Visit the exhibition here.

The Scottish Gallery has worked with Cornish painter Geoff Uglow since 2012.  His oil painting has the physical presence of sculpture, but his subject is often ephemeral: the movement of a wave, the bloom of the growing rose, the dusty heat of an Italian roadway. While the work will always stand for itself, his poetic commentary in this catalogue gives us a unique way into his processes: intellectual rigour and instinct; studio and exterior; influence and inspiration; scale and medium; familiarity and the urge for new. This video was released for his major exhibition The Ploughman in 2022. Visit the exhibition here.