The Road to the Isles

1 December 2022 - 23 December 2022

Frances Macdonald’s vision of the west coast of Scotland has become imbedded into how we see that landscape in our own mind’s eye. From her home in Crinan she will travel to her favourite places: to Iona, Staffa and Erraid, to Ronachan and Kintyre.

The turn of the weather on a day, the assault of violent storm, an equinoctial tide surging up the corridors of rock at the North End of Iona. The turn of the seasons, the harsh beauty of bare winter, the assertion of life and profusion in a brief summer, these are her subjects.

When Macdonald begins to work in earnest towards an exhibition of new work she will travel to Iona for inspiration. It has drawn artists back to work from nature, and in all her moods provides for Macdonald both the familiarity and stimulus she needs to begin another journey.

Like Peploe and Cadell, Frances Macdonald greatly appreciates the juxtaposition of dark, angular rock and white sand. Her use of the palette knife creates a dynamism and animation in each painting. Hers is bravura painting, her means perfectly suited to capture the essence of the broken skies and raging seas in full force, with rocks transformed into cubistic patterns. In her third exhibition at The Scottish Gallery during February 2013, Frances Macdonald looked at new subject matter: sketching the flora and fauna of the Galápagos, where she visited in November, and the South of France, where she often visits. In April 2013 Frances was awarded the Charles Rennie Mackintosh residency at Collioure and visited France in May 2013.

We look forward to hosting Frances’s next solo exhibition in March 2025.

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