Category Archives: 20th-century

Painting en plein mer

July 2, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

Paintings of the sea almost always show the ocean as a 2D surface. Whilst we know that there is a depth of material, of colour, of light and shadow, beneath the constantly moving water, we can neither see nor hear it. Yet there are paintings of the Scottish sea beneath the waves.

Zarh Pritchard (1866-1956), regularly bathed in the Firth of Forth from Portobello beach from the age of 10 and in his teens, he began to sketch what he had seen when swimming below the waves. Following an education in Art in Edinburgh, he learned in Tahiti how to paint below the surface. His were the first underwater paintings, proper seascapes.

His biographer, Elizabeth N. Shor writes that ‘for his underwater work Pritchard used lambskin soaked with oil and brushes thoroughly soaked in oil. Wearing a diver’s helmet, serviced by a tank from a boat on the surface, he sank to the seafloor with a coral or stone weight, selected the view that he wanted, had his canvas and materials lowered to him from the boat above, and painted for about half an hour’.

He painted, fully immersed, off Tahiti and Scotland and other shores.

His paintings give us a different view of the Scottish seas, a space

Zahr Pritchard. 1910. Bream in 25 Feet of Water Off the West Coast of Scotland. Brooklyn Museum.

20th-century, 20th-century

‘Painter of stirring genius’: call for Joan Eardley centenary show.

May 26, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

For some time, I have been energised by the hegemonic role of English art within British art history scholarship. A Gramscian-style analysis suggests that Scottish, Irish and Welsh (sub)cultures are limited in form and direction by the power and blind-spots of British cultural definitions. Hence, an artist like William McTaggart or Joan Eardley is allocated a peripheral status, and their work is not seen and largely ignored by people outside Scotland.

Eardley, Joan Kathleen Harding; (1921-1963),Self-portrait; National Galleries of Scotland;

Today, 24^th May 2020, the Guardian called for a UK exhibition of Joan Eardley’s work, quoting author Laura Cumming as saying that ‘it is both a shock and a scandal to me that in all these years she (Eardley) has had no such recognition outside Scotland. This is the equivalent of ignoring a Käthe Kollwitz, a Gwen John or a Louise Bourgeois. London needs to wake up to Eardley.’

Link to guardian article.

Eardley’s work is powerful and different. Look it up and judge for yourself.

Eardley, Joan Kathleen Harding; Breaking Wave; Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow;

Eardley, Joan Kathleen Harding; Salmon Net Posts; Tate.

20th-century, 20th-century

Scottishness

April 27, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

William Crosbie. 1944. Cessnock in Summer. Watercolour. 47.6 x 66 cm. Private owner.

Cessnock in Summer depicts an industrial landscape in the burgh of Govan. Big ships were built there, goods traded across the Atlantic. The colours are pale, bright enough but hemmed in by upright shapes and blocks of black. The human figures cluster at the bottom right, their space invaded by the sea. This is a painting with social and political meanings, related specifically to a Scottish place.

When Scotland’s society and/or politics is noticeably distinctive then it causes friction with other British people. Murray Pittock tracked this by analysing the perception of Scottishness by media in England, post-1707. His article is fascinating (link below). He concluded that negative stereotyping waxed when the Scots were noticeably different, waned when they were not. Any Scottish behaviour thought to challenge or take advantage of existing arrangements was met with an outbreak of complaint that contrasted English virtues with Scottish vices. This perhaps explains why modern British red-top newspapers and right-wing politicians are so forthright about characterising anti-Brexit Scots as parasites and subsidy junkies. At the election in December 2019, 74.9% Scots voters did not support the current UK government.

Murray Pittock (2009) To See Ourselves as Others See Us European Journal of English Studies, 13:3, 293-304.

20th-century, Artwork, Light thoughts, Place and Space, post 2000

The importance of Scottish sea(s) in sculpting consciousness

April 21, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

The sea has been conceptualised in the western psyche, through myth, literature and art, as formless, wild and dangerous, romantically sublime. Yet this featureless void doesn’t resonate with people who live near the sea, as many people in Scotland do.

Our experiences of the sea are much more nuanced. I know how the little cold waves on Ayr’s flat sandy beach feel to a 4 year-old boy. I can still match my teenage fear of balancing up high with the thump of cold murky water on my chest after I’d jumped into a harbour from the pier. There are sharp sensory memories of being on the sea in a sailing dingy: sounds heard- the slap-slap of water against the hull, the deep creaking flap of sails, a tiller that thrums; odours smelled and movements felt. There are other memories of being ejected from the boat, flying and falling into cold deep water. Such experiences shape our consciousness and influence future behaviours.

I remember how the light winds of summer and the arctic blow of a winter storm felt decades ago on the West sands at St. Andrew’s, where I stood many times and faced the tide. Those experiences resurface whenever I hear the opening soundtrack of ‘Chariots of Fire‘.

Here are seven paintings of those West sands, ostensibly of the ‘same place’ (found through Google images). The last two though communicate more to me than the first five. Interesting that none of the artists has depicted a human being, and only some have included the town.

20th-century, 20th-century, Place and Space

Lilian Strang Neilson, 1938–1998.

April 18, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

Lil Neilson was from Fife and trained at Dundee Art School. She lived for a period in Catterline, spending much time with her friend and mentor Joan Eardley.

Rough Seas, Todhead Lighthouse; Maggie’s Dundee.

The subject of this painting, Todhead Lighthouse, is a specific place south of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. The lighthouse was designed by David Stephenson. The brushwork is a swirling churning movement in blue, a contrast to her later works which with an extended lighter palette require the viewer to do more thinking.

This one, for example, has the intriguing title of ‘Woman Unknown to Herself‘. It seems to echo the sea but what else is hidden in there?

Woman Unknown to Herself; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums;

20th-century, 20th-century

The Fisher Lass, c1914

March 30, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

The Fisher Lass portrays a sublime, stormy sea in the background, a socially realistic young woman with a basket of slippery fish in the foreground. She is placed parallel to the waves, dark head receding into pale surrounding highlights, crowned by wheeling gulls. Her contour is fatigued and buffeted by the wind, as are the gulls and the flapping fabrics. The light and shadow, sombre colours and the fine even brushwork create a realistic portrait of a solid person at work in a specific, albeit romanticised, environment. The viewer feels that this person is real and may even peer at her face. Indeed, this was Jessie Hughes of Pittenweem, born in 1892 and hence around 22 years of age when she was painted. She lived in the house nearest the sea. John McGhie (1857 – 1952), the artist, trained in Scotland, England, France and Italy, and eventually settled in Fife. He favoured the ‘plein aire’ approach to capturing landscapes and people at work.

The Scottish Fisheries museum is located next to the harbour in Anstruther, Fife. It holds a varied collection of paintings of Scotland’s seas and many are on permanent display.

The website http://www.scotfishmuseum.org describes the museum’s aim as follows:

‘Situated in a wonderful collection of historic buildings on the harbour of a small and beautiful fishing port, we are a charitable trust which has become a national institution with an international reputation.

Our principal aim, in all of our efforts with regard to the displays in our extensive museum and our many educational and research activities, is to excite informed interest in the development of the Scottish commercial fishing industry among people of all ages in and beyond Scotland. The core story that we have to tell is the history of how, through a constant process of innovation, the Scottish fisheries became such an important part of the lives of so many Scots.’

19th-century, 20th-century, 21st-century, Museums and galleries

Paintings of the Scottish seas in the Scottish Maritime Museum

March 23, 2020 joboyd Leave a comment

The Scottish Maritime museum is located in Irvine, Ayrshire. It holds a varied collection of paintings of Scotland’s seas though few are on permanent display.

The website https://www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org/ describes the museum as follows:

‘Based in the West of Scotland, with sites in Irvine and Dumbarton, the Scottish Maritime Museum holds an important nationally recognised collection, encompassing a variety of historic vessels, artefacts, fascinating personal items and the largest collection of shipbuilding tools and machinery in the country. The buildings and sites which the Scottish Maritime Museum occupies are themselves part of the heritage collection.

The Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine is housed within the vast, glass-roofed Victorian Linthouse. This A listed ‘cathedral of engineering’ was formerly the Engine Shop of Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Govan before being salvaged and relocated to Irvine in 1991.

The Scottish Maritime Museum in Dumbarton is located on the site of the former, influential and innovative William Denny Shipyard and features the world’s first commercial ship testing facility, the Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank.’