Dronma

“Bass Rock”

Oil on Canvas 60x60cm

Background:
Dronma studied at Laurel Bank and Glasgow School of Art. After studies at Jordanhill College of Education and a period of teaching, she was appointed Art Director of Glasgow Arts Centre. Until 2008 she was part-time lecturer at Forth Valley College and is currently painting full-time and is Vice President of the Glasgow Society of Women Artists.

Influences:
One of Dronma’s earliest memories is of sitting alongside her father learning to paint. Her bold landscapes conjure up the atmosphere of the place. In her words “I am fascinated by the vibrancy of ‘in-betweens’ - land/sea; day/night; where I can feel the energy and pull of the elements, heightening the senses.”

Exhibitions & Collections:
Her work has been exhibited all over the United Kingdom, and is in private collections world-wide. In 2008 she took part in the Primavera Art Rotterdam, and also exhibited in Vienna. Dronma’s work is also in a private collection in Delhi.

Dronma is a Tibetan Buddhist and her Tibetan thanka paintings (iconographic scroll paintings) form a permanent collection at the Scottish Retreat Centre at Balquhidder.

http://dronma.com/

Muriel Barclay

‘Thinking Laterally”

Oil on canvas 16” x 16”

Influences:
Muriel Barclay’s artistic development has evolved outside the conventional path of Art School degree and scholarship. Her highly individual style results from her personal study of art history and culture and the practical skills of drawing and painting.

Background:
Muriel graduated from Edinburgh University and, from 1989 to 2002, while teaching history and raising her three sons, studied Drawing and Painting at the Glasgow School of Art Continuing Education Department and History of Fine Art at the Open University. Encouraged by awards from the Paisley Art Institute, the Glasgow Society of Women Artists and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, she left teaching in 2001 to become a full time painter.

Exhibitions & Collections:
She has had successful solo exhibitions throughout Scotland and in the London area in which her use of appealing images, ambiguity and humour confirmed the strong market appeal of her work.

Her work is to be found in the collections of of Ernie Els, Sir Arnold Clark, Lord Harris, Sultan of Brunei, Alex McLeish, Sir Jack Harvey, H.B.O.S., Biggart Baillie and Arisaig Partner.

http://www.murielbarclay.co.uk/Muriel_Barclay_artist/Home.html

Catriona Campbell

“Ponies in the Spring”

Mixed media 18 x 13 cm

Background:
Catriona Campbell studied at Glasgow School of Art and won the Somerville Shanks Prize for Portraiture. Taught by David Donaldson, she went on to teach art in schools and special education before becoming a full-time painter.

She is a Professional member of the Scottish Society of Women Artists, now Visual Arts Scotland. Awards include the Founder’s Prize; Anne Redpath Award; and Morton Fraser Award.

Influences:
Catriona’s father was a painter who taught her to observe the world around her. She learned the importance of spaces from the work of Degas – she is fascinated by the shapes figures make and the spaces formed between them. Her aim is to create a pattern of shapes and spaces, light and dark. Almost all of her paintings are about moments in time.

Exhibitions & Collections:
Her work is held in public and private collections in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Hong Kong. Exhibitions include Colours Gallery, Edinburgh; Flying Colours Gallery, London and Atholl Gallery, Dunkeld.

http://www.richardhagen.com/monos/campbell.shtml

Axel Scheffler

“Stickman”

Watercolour 18cm x 13cm

Background:
Born in Hamburg in 1957, Axel Scheffler has achieved worldwide acclaim for his humorous illustrations for children’s books. At school, Axel won his first prize for drawing, awarded by an international chocolate company. His prize was a cuddly lilac cow! He moved to England to study illustration at the Bath Academy of Art.

After graduating Axel moved to London and began illustrating for English and German advertising companies, magazines and newspapers. Faber commissioned him to illustrate The Piemakers by Helen Cresswell and The Bottle Rabbit by Bernard McCabe.

His award-winning partnership with author Julia Donaldson began when he was recommended to illustrate the text of ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’. Their next book, The Gruffalo, won the 1999 Smarties Gold Medal Award for picture books and the 2000 Blue Peter Award for The Best Book to Read Aloud. Axel illustrates for other authors including Ian Whybrow and David Henry Wilson. He has also designed Gordon Brown’s annual Christmas Card!

http://www.imagesofdelight.com/client.asp?id=67

Philip Raskin

Beyond Jura

18cm x 13cm

Background & Influences:
Philip Raskin was born in Glasgow and attended the Glasgow School of Art in the nineteen sixties. The untimely death of his father however, forced Philip to abandon his studies and he is best known as the proprietor of The Inn on the Green restaurant in the city’s east end over which he and his wife presided for nearly twenty years. That establishment’s walls doubled as a quality art gallery and allowed Philip to keep in touch with the world of art and artists. Just after the millennium, Philip left the world of catering behind and returned to his easel and brushes.

His chosen subjects are land and seascapes but in effect they are predominantly skyscapes - he has a facility to portray movement and light in a quite magical and unique manner. This is complemented by his use of an impasto technique to capture the textures, ruggedness and multi-faceted aspects of a shoreline and its reflections. The overall result is to depict his native Scotland in an instantly recognisable handwriting, one which has resonated with the art-buying public.

Exhibitions and Collections:
Philip has quickly acquired a growing band of followers and collectors. His original paintings and limited editions are now to be found in High Street galleries and major art fairs throughout the UK and beyond.

Lesley Anne Derks

‘The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by night’

Oils and enamels 60 cm sq

Background:
Lesley Anne is an established painter who works in oils and enamels. She graduated from Glasgow School of Art, in 1999 with a BA Hons in Fine Art Drawing and Painting and became a freelance artist, exhibiting throughout the UK and abroad.

Influences:
She was influenced by the complex strange eerie glow of the petro-chemical plant at night in her home town of Grangemouth, which led to her to working in cityscapes. Travelling allows her to reflect the atmosphere of a place first hand. Her work then enables the viewer to step into the paintings, when she hopes they will see the sights, hear the sounds and smell the smells.

Exhibitions & Collections:
In 2008 she was commissioned by the Royal Navy to paint “The Clyde at Night”, now a limited edition print. More recently, an agreement with the Fine Art Publishers, Washington Green, has seen 10 of her paintings made into limited edition prints, including “City Enchantment” a study of the London skyline. Her work has appeared in many publications, including the Scotland Magazine where she was named one of the best 10 painters who paint Scotland.
Presently she paints full time at her studio in Larbert and teaches one afternoon a week for Artlink Central.

http://www.laderks.co.uk/

Stephen J Carruthers

“Cottages at Bennachie”

Oil on Canvas 12x10”

Background & Influences:
Stephen graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1983. He is a full-time painter working in Scotland and France and has developed a more traditional style in which the influence of artists such as the original Glasgow Boys of the early 20th century and the early colourists has played an important role. Like these painters he has a keen interest in capturing the essence of the landscape and its cultivation.

“Stephen’s work has gained both in statue and popularity in recent years. He has a unique subtlety of tone in his painting and a variety of colour in his palate which is used to great effect often tending to reflect the colour of the season in which he is painting. The tranquillity of composition and his willingness to vary subject matter means that there is a constant freshness in his work that gives it ongoing appeal” – recent exhibition catalogue.

He has received a number of honours from various professional groups including the Scottish Arts Club and the Royal Glasgow Institute and is a past president of Visual Arts Scotland.

Exhibitions and Collections:
He has exhibited widely in the UK, and works are held in many public and private collections here and abroad.

http://stephencarruthers.com/

Willie Rodger

Lino print

18 x 13 cm

Background:
Willie Rodger trained at Glasgow School of Art for five years in the graphic arts. He used his skills as a commercial artist and taught art in secondary schools at Lenzie and Clydebank for over thirty years, whilst establishing himself as a freelance artist.

Influences:
Willie Rodger is Scotland’s master linocut artist —an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, member of the Royal Glasgow Institute and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Stirling University, for his contribution to the Arts.
He shifts the boundaries and extends the frontiers of experimental artistic techniques, thus creating powerful images.
The artistic work he admires most is that of the German Expressionists.


Exhibitions:
He has widely exhibited internationally over the span of his long career. Nowadays, his work is prominently exhibited at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh.

 http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~media/wrodger.html

Marj Bond RSW

“Black Prince”

Mixed Media 13 x 18cm

Background:
Marj Bond studied drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art, tutored by David Donaldson, Mary Armour and Benno Schotz.

She is a Professional member of the RSW and the SSA. Awards include the Anne Redpath Award, the Mondiale D’Estampes etching award, the Thyne Scholarship.

Influences:
Marj Bond has been influenced by her travels in India, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Cuba . Her work is symbolic and often abstract. She uses light and intense colour, layering paint and hand-made paper to give texture.

Exhibitions & Collections:
She has exhibited throughout Europe including the UK, Sweden and Ireland . Private collections include Edinburgh University; the Carnegie Foundation Trust; Whyte & MacKay; and Perth Museum & Art Gallery.

http://www.frasergallery.co.uk/artists/artwork/?id=3

Ritchie Collins

‘Harbour Moon’

Mixed media on canvas 20x20cm

Background:
The artist Ritchie Collins was born on the west coast of Scotland and studied painting and illustration in Glasgow before settling in Edinburgh, where he has just opened his own gallery.

Influences:
Ritchie’s art is influenced by the Scottish coast and wild countryside. Celtic art, myths and Scottish folklore are a constant source of inspiration. Vibrant colour simple form and a creative use of texture are woven together to give the original paintings there unique magical quality.
“All the things I paint come from dreams or memories of places I’ve been. What is important to me is trying to capture the true feelings of a place in time, rather than the reality.”
Each painting tells a story and endless details to lose yourself in, something new to explore with every glance.

Exhibitions:
Ritchie Collins’ paintings appeal to all ages and he is enjoying a growing demand for his work, now exhibiting in the UK and as far a field as New Zealand. His work is now in many private collections.
Ritchie is constantly challenging his creativity and exploring new idea.

http://ritchiecollins.com/