Beginning on 27 April there is a Joint Exhibition featuring art by Kittie Jones & Wynona Legg at the Scottish Ornithologists Club in Aberlady.
This exhibition presents the work of two established wildlife artists, Kittie Jones and Wynona Legg, both members of the Society of Wildlife Artists. They share an expressive approach to their work, working primarily from life and aiming to capture the emotions prompted by watching nature. The exhibition also highlights their respective responses to the constraints of the past two years: while Kittie found wilderness in the city, Wynona used online webcams to observe wild animals across the globe.
Kittie Jones is a fine artist based in Edinburgh, focusing primarily on drawing and printmaking. Most of her work is completed while drawing from life outdoors, often along the East coast of Scotland, while other sketches provide the starting point for printmaking. Kittie explains ‘’My work is concerned with the experience of time spent looking and interpreting the natural world. I am drawn to places that have an abundance of nature – sea bird colonies, fertile coastlines and remote islands. On drawing trips, I will settle in a promising spot and start to develop work from there. The energy in the work comes from the constantly changing elements of the natural world – birds moving in and out of vision and the shifting quality of weather and light. Capturing these changes is what drives me, as well as my enchantment with a world which, as a human, I will only ever occupy the edge of.’ Kittie presents work resulting from a trip to St Kilda in 2019, the exploration of her local parks during the various lockdowns, and a return to the East Lothian coast in more recent times.
Wynona Legg is both an artist and conservationist. Drawing is the core of her practice, using materials such as ink and graphite, that offer the immediacy she needs to draw from life. Her work in wildlife conservation feeds into her drawing practice, driving the inspiration for new projects and giving her an intimate understanding of her subject. The core of Wynona’s work in this exhibition was created in lockdown using webcams: ‘I discovered online wildlife webcams where, from rigged-up reserve cams, nest cams and moving trail cameras, I could watch wild animals from around the globe moving across my laptop screen and find their way, through my brush, into my tiny attic studio. As lockdown lifted, I ventured out to stretch my legs and reacquaint myself with wild coast paths, getting lost in the small things, watching and drawing orb weaver spiders repairing their wind-torn webs. The drawings are meditations on movement and rediscovered beauty, in a world that had become both smaller and larger at the same time.’
- 27 April – 5 June 2022
- Open Wed – Sun (10am-5pm)
- No booking required, Free Entry
- Scottish Ornithologists’ Club Waterston House, Aberlady EH32 0PY
About the SOC: The Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC) is a charity promoting the study, protection and enjoyment of wild birds in Scotland.
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