Above; Trace. Portnellan Island. Loch Venachar. Oil on 70x70cm canvas. Rose Strang 2023

These three works are on show as part of the exhibition; Borrowed Land, launching at The Kilmorack Gallery, Inverness-shire, from 18th November to 2nd March 2023/2024.

From the Kilmorack Gallery website:

“Kilmorack Gallery has timed this exhibition – Borrowed Land – to run when Scotland’s landscape is at its greatest threat since the clearances. Giant multi-national companies threaten to build electrical substations the size of university campuses, along with 60m high pylon lines hundreds of miles long, and soon after will come the transformation of hills into power stations with a new generation of mega-turbines”.

This exhibition (by the Kilmorack Gallery which is run by Tony Davidson, author of Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer: A journey in art, a glen and changing times.) represents a meaningful opportunity for me to get to the heart of my love of landscape as a painter.

The phrase borrowed land comes from the (so far unattributed) statement – We do not inherit the earth, we borrow it from our children.

In response to a request to write something about my work for this exhibition I offered the following –

Landscape is the most profound teacher. Through painting landscape over the years, my brushwork begins to reflect energy felt from the elements observed. Mark-making is instinctive to humans but we still barely understand why we make the marks we do. Those prehistoric drawings in the caves of Lascaux might express wonderment, or reverence towards nature as much as the desire to kill and eat animals.

The idea behind the phrase ‘Borrowed Land’ reframes a question; ‘What will you leave to posterity, to future generations?’ I’m fascinated by the traces left behind by past cultures, traces that are often barely discernible today. Some cultures left subtle marks.

Through landscape painting I can express my sense of reverence towards nature. I find that the element of water expresses layers of mystery – what is revealed or concealed, what is reflected? How quickly the ripples created by a falling leaf disappear and how quickly lasting destruction can occur. The paintings in this series are of bodies of water near archaeological sites of past cultures who left little trace.

Borrowed Land – launching at the Kilmorack Gallery on the 18th November.

Click on this link for more info about the exhibition – Borrowed Land

More on these paintings next week …