8th October to 11th November 2006
Framed work by David Boyle, Maureen Shaw, Caroline Simmill, Jessie White and Nadine Williams.

“This ain’t no Picasso kind a thing we’re doin’ here. It’s just an ad for damn beans!” Clearly David Boyle was destined for bigger and better things, as the reception of his employer to David’s initial dalliance as a supermarket illustrator in America demonstrates. Needless to say, Boyle, a Scot by birth, was soon fired, and instead began to eke out a paltry existence illustrating t-shirts for Michigan’s beach regulars, as well as indulging his creative juices into his second love-folk music.

After marrying his singing partner, Charmaine Cross, their touring brought them back to North Scotland, where Boyle fell under the charms of the area’s unique light and landscape, and vowed that one day he would return, this time armed with a palette rather than a guitar. After thirty years, this ambition was fulfilled. Boyle’s latest series of paintings are inspired by the mystical meeting that occurs between land and sea. Each composition, although seemingly a random snapshot of sand, stone or sea at the day’s waning, are in fact carefully arranged, sketched and shot before the painting is even begun, thus adding to its’ remarkable and almost photographic accuracy. Additionally, a small indication of scale, be it a strand of weed or a clump of moss, graces each portrait, an allusion to the ever-delightful pastime of beachcombing.

Similarly, Jessie White’s beautiful seascapes contrast slight human forms with the vast expanses of beach that Moray has to offer. Her choice of oil paint proves it the perfect material to portray the textured quality of the sea, and demonstrates why White was nominated for the “International Churchill Society Awards for Fine Art painting” in 2001.