One of rural Scotland’s most contemporary and innovative art galleries, the Watermill Gallery in Aberfeldy, will be holding a solo exhibition by the iconic environmental artist Lotte Glob, from 6 August to 13 September 2006.

Well suited to the Watermill Gallery, which has a particular interest in abstract art influenced by the elements and landscape, Lotte Glob’s work involves an intimate and continuing relationship with the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. Having exhibited nationally and internationally since 1964, Lotte Glob is renowned for her long hikes into the mountains, from which she brings back rocks and sediments to work with in her studio. Combining these materials with different clays, she creates sculptural forms in a direct response to the physical nature of the materials with which she works. Fired in a kiln at 1300 C white heat, physical alterations occur, reflecting the landscape’s volcanic origins.

Heating rocks, glass, clay and sediment to temperatures at which they melt holds very real dangers, and despite Lotte’s experiments over years of artistic investigation, the power of nature is ever-present, and ever-threatening.

Glob explains: “First I used to grind the rocks up to powder and it’s really very boring. I asked an expert what would happen if I put a big bit of rock in [the kiln]. And he said, ‘Oh you can’t do that.’ People shouldn’t say that to me ‘You can’t do that’ because then I want to find out.”

The Watermill Gallery will also be showing Glob’s works, including larger sculptural pieces, in a private house and garden setting close to Aberfeldy, for the weekend of Saturday 29th July to Tuesday 1st August, 11am-5pm, to exhibit Lotte Glob’s work ‘in context’ and in a more private setting before it transfers to the Watermill Gallery. Details of this opening will be by arrangement with the Gallery.

“The landscape is my studio”, Glob explains. “I’ve spent so much time out there, you just get absorbed in it. The more you are in the landscape the more you see and I find a lot of things echoing each other – like the shape of a rock and a shape in the sky, or a shape of a snow pattern in the roadside, so many things like that.”

This will be Glob’s first solo exhibition for 5 years.

The Watermill opened in May 2005 and is a major new gallery focusing on modern and contemporary abstract art that draws inspiration from landscapes and the elements. The Gallery, part of the Watermill complex which also houses the largest bookshop in rural Scotland, a coffee shop and music shop, has a full programme of exhibitions throughout 2006. 

LOTTE GLOB– NEW WORK

The Watermill Gallery, Aberfeldy

5th August – 13th September 2006

Private View Saturday 5th August – 7pm

Special open garden public viewing by appointment 29th July - 1st August

The Gallery is open all year from Monday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.00pm and Sunday 12.00 – 5.00pm. Tel 01887 822 896 website: www.aberfeldywatermill.com .