In conjunction with the Edinburgh Art Festival Open Eye Gallery presents a large-scale exhibition of recent paintings by painter and printmaker Barbara Rae CBE RA. Focussing on the seasonal environment of the Lammermuirs this exhibition is an exploration of the contrasting, yet integral, aspects of the landscape.
Barbara Rae chooses to visit key places that provide her with first-hand insight into an area’s specific social history. Travelling the world in search of inspiration, landscapes are conveyed through her vivacious use of colour, composition and line.
Under the restrictions of the pandemic and unable to travel to the Arctic as she has done in recent years, Rae instinctively turned closer to home and set her focus on the Lammermuirs, an under-appreciated yet spectacular area of high moorland traversed by the boundary between East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.
In doing so she found a world which was full of colour, the paintings vividly depicting the wild integrity of the hillside contrasted against the traces of human presence which has marked the landscape over a millennia.
Open Eye Gallery 34 Abercromby Place EH3 6QE 29 July – 27 August 2022
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