Gallery, Arts & Crafts

 

Art and Artists

Since opening in December 2009 the new Viva art gallery has filled up with a variety of work by local artists and we continue to add new works. This  website will keep you up to date on what is happening.

 

As works are exhibited a selection will be available to view on the Gallery page. If you are interested in any of the works you see please get in touch with us.

 

This year we are joining in the Perthshire Open Studios event being held between 11 and 19 September. We will be on the Red Route. Check out their website for more information

 

 

 

Bill King

 

Bill King was taken on by a carpet manufacturer when he left school. His artistic talent was swiftly recognized and he became involved in design. As the carpet industry in the UK declined he decided to take up an offer of a job with a manufacturer in the USA.

While there he wondered if he could make a living as an artist and, with the support of his family, he gave up his job and began cold calling at mid west farms offering to do paintings. This proved a success and he soon had enough commissions to earn a satisfactory living.

Eventually he decided to retire to Scotland. He continues to paint, exhibiting in local galleries and exhibitions, and selling enough work to fund his supply of art materials. Bill is currently resident in Pitlochry.

 

Yvonne N Stewart nee Vernon D.A.Edin.

 

Yvonne was born  and brought up in Fife. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a Design and Crafts degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing  and later, after raising her family in Pitlochry,  took a teaching qualification and embarked on a career teaching in Tayside at Secondary and Primary schools and has also tutored Adult Education classes locally.

 

Yvonne cites the local countryside in Fife and Perthshire as a major influence, drawing her inspiration from the observation of natural forms. She has a particular interest in botanical composition and detail.

Some of her most striking work is mixed media. A collage of Japanese paper is built up, and watercolour, acrylic, pastel and graphite are applied to create a three dimensional effect. These pieces are born out of her interest in the carvings on Pictish stones which have led to her to speculate about the meaning and manner of their decoration.

 

Previous exhibitions:

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Dunkeld Cathedral Art Exhibition

Village Gallery Meigle

Various local Art and Craft fairs

 

 

Olga Todorovici

 

Olga was born and brought up in Romania. She graduated with a degree from the School of Popular Art.

She likes to work mainly in oils, but often adds her own signature to the work by painting on wood and adding 3D effects carved from pulverized stone. Her subjects are very varied as she is a competent portrait artist, produces fascinatingly detailed land and townscapes and beautifully observed wildlife paintings. Her work is also characterized by its bold use of colour.

She moved to the UK to pursue her studies and was enchanted by the local Perthshire scenery so reminiscent of her grandparents’s home. She loves living here although she misses her animals: german shepherd dogs and a collection of peacocks. Perhaps this explains why birds are often her subject.

 

Previous exhibitions:

The Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Dunkeld Cathedral Art Exhibition

Gallery at the Atholl Centre

 

She also undertakes private commissions.

 

Alison Leeper

 

Alison started her career working on book design and illustration, animation and TV graphics for companies including IPC and COI in London. On moving to Edinburgh, she became a partner in a design consultancy and lectured at Napier University then moved to the Isle of Arran to run a summer painting school. After returning to mainland Scotland she lectured in art and design for many years, retiring from full time lectureship in 2003.

 

Until recently, the main focus of her work has been on printmaking. She does not aim to produce editions or multiples but rather to use a particular method of printmaking as an expressive medium that she could manipulate in a different manner to paint. Increasingly she has made use of digital imagery, using the technology to explore form and structure in ways that are not feasible with other media.

 

She is a member of Dundee Print Studio at DCA and also of Fife Dunfermline Printmakers’ Workshop, an artist-run co-operative that provides workshop facilities for artist-printmakers.

 

Having taught watercolour painting as a guest lecturer aboard P&O cruise ships for many years, she has recently rediscovered the medium for herself and is enjoying working with it again. She also works collaboratively on the design of jewellery pieces with her husband.

 

She is particularly interested in the practice of artists living in rural and remote areas and the opportunities and challenges that their environments present to them professionally.

 

Selected Recent Exhibitions

 Festival Exhibition, Edinburgh

 Birnam Arts Centre, Perthshire

 Scottish Printmakers, Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, Glasgow

Print Silver, Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, Fife

6th International Trienniall of Small Graphic Forms, Vilnius, Lithuania

Remix China, Baishi Festival, Xiantan University

Artroom 59, Dunfermline

Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

In the Deep Midwinter, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Christmas Prints, DCA, Dundee

Scion House, University of Stirling

Christrmas Tingles, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Christmas Exhibition, Aberdona Gallery, Clackmannanshire

ESSA Small Works and Postcard Exhibition, Edinburgh

Harden Carter

 

Harden  recently moved to Pitlochry after many years in Dunfermline, but he originally hails from Armagh, Northern Ireland. After attending a painting course at Pitlochry Festival Theatre run by James Murdoch, Harden was inspired to take up painting seriously. He joined the art class run by Alan Ross of Dalgety Bay Art Club and has experimented with different mediums, originally finding chalk pastels most enjoyable and suited to his style but latterly working more in oils.

 

Harden’s first exhibition was at Viva, and he has subsequently had work hung in the Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Dunkeld cathedral art Exhibition.

 

Catalina Clarke nee Balbi

Catalina was born and brought up in Argentina. She took an interest in art from a very early age and is a wholly self taught artist.

 

She has worked in all mediums and works competently in pastels as well as being an accomplished watercolourist , but recently, inspired by the work of local artist John Trevorrow, she has returned to her first love: oils. Her painting technique is vigorous, and she will use anything that comes to hand to create the effects she wants: paper towels, cutlery, and especially her fingers.  She loves vibrant colours and often chooses the fiery oranges  and yellows of her native South America.

 

Marriage and family brought her to the UK and she now lives in Pitlochry.

 

Previous exhibitions:

The Pitlochry Festival Theatre

The Duchess Anne Art Exhibition

Buenos Airies

 

Robert H Goodwin

 

Robert comes from an artistic family, and after living for many years in Perthshire has now moved to Rutland with his Scottish born wife.

 

Since retiring he has been able to devote much of his time to oil painting in which he captures the atmospheric beauty and changing light in his detailed paintings of  undulating Scottish landscapes.

His highly accomplished paintings have castles, mountains, highland cattle, stags and  countryside is apparent.

 

Robert was a founder member of the Guild of Fine Artists and has exhibited throughout the British Isles.