Below – the second in my new series following the painting process. This painting is from a news series started this year which takes inspiration from the remains of a Carmelite friary in the mysterious forest of Luffness.
(This series is also on Instagram, for which the series was first itended, hence the upright video format! You can find me on instagram by searching for Rose Strang)
This is the first in a new series of 3-minute videos following the creation of a new painting. Hope you enjoy it!
The painting above The Path. Water mixable oil on 14 by 14 inch wood, depicts a meaningful walk (with Richard Demarco and Terry Ann Newman) towards the 12th century Friary ruins at Luffness recently.
More on that in this post – Dappled things
Some painting details …
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Above – North End Iona 3. Rose Strang 2024. One of a series of straightforwardly happy seascapes depicting my favourite place!
These three paintings were created because I was commissioned to paint a large seascape, so I thought I’d paint three, just for the fun of it. The commissioner chose ‘North End Iona 1’ and so I offered the others to the two very excellent galleries I’ve been working with for many years – the Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol and the Resipole Gallery, Ardnamurchan, Scotland.
North End Iona 3 has sold (thank to the Lime Tree Gallery) and North End Iona 2 will be available from the Resipole soon, as part of their upcoming celebratory 20th anniversary exhibition which launches on the 30th June
I wish I was able to attend it, but I’ll be celebrating my own anniversary (wedding!) with Adam on the Isle of Iona at the end of June – an opportunity for more painting practice. It’s just about impossible for any artist to resist those colours, so I know we’ll return with many sketches and photos.
On that subject, the photos below show us in Ardnamurchan in 2022. What a year that was – just one day after taking part in Landscape artist of the year in Blackpool, we drove up to the Resipole Gallery in northwest Scotland to enjoy the exhibition opening of a joint exhibition of my work alongside painter Jim Wright and ceramicist Helen Michie. Jim played the guitar and we all had a sing-song.
Between that experience and my day in Blackpool with Landscape artist of the year, guess which experience wins hands down (sorry laoty!) I highly recommend taking a trip to the Resipole to enjoy their 20th anniversary exhibition!
The wonderfully atmospheric stills below are a little taster from an upcoming documentary (by video-maker Manuel Pennuto) about a series and project I’m working on this year.
Taking inspiration from the landscape and history of Aberlady on the east coast of Scotland, the series explores the 7th century pilgrims’ route from Iona to Lindisfarne, and the remains of a 12th century effigy discovered in the ruins of a Carmelite friary.
I was very moved and honoured to have Prof’ Richard Demarco (Director of the Demarco Gallery) and Terry Ann Newman (Deputy Director) join me on a recent visit to the Carmelite friary in Aberlady.
Sometimes described as an arts impressario and ‘champion of the avant garde’, Richard Demarco prefers to be thought of as an artist and teacher. He’s known in the art world of Scotland (and wider Europe) for his creative response to post-war Europe, and for his belief that creative dialogue between war-torn countries can heal the collective traumatised psyche. His approach remains as relevant today as ever, and I cannot imagine anyone better suited to accompany us on our visit to the friary this weekend.
Richard is now 93, so it was no easy task for him to navigate the 300 yards or more of rough forest floor of the friary grounds. Yet, it is difficult to describe the joy of our day as we walked the path together in the company of family, friends and fellow creative people (very much in the spirit of the road to Meikle Seggie)
Read on if you’d like to know more about our adventure, Richard Demarco and the Road to Meikle Seggie...
Twenty three years ago, when I worked as assistant archivist/curator for the Demarco European Art Foundation, I asked Richard Demarco how someone might define the Road to Meikle Seggie. ‘You can’t define it!’, he exclaimed.
This is true, but in the first instance at least The Road to Meikle Seggie describes a road sign that Richard and friends discovered as part of his Edinburgh Arts Journeys many years ago. Pointing up a track, the sign read: Meikle Seggie and after following this sign for some time it gradually became apparent that Meikle Seggie (probably the name of a farm) probably didn’t exist!
On this journey though, Richard and his friends (a gathering of artists and creative thinkers) experienced a heightened awareness of everything that they encountered. In the act of observing, we can be aware and as sensitive to our surroundings as a new-born child, or we can be closed to the wonder and meaning of all we encounter. The former is a challenge, the latter perhaps the result in part of mind-numbing bureacracy, the echo chamber of media and news, or any number of difficulties we face in life.
When Richard Demarco began Edinburgh Arts journeys in the 1970’s he described it as similar to “opening a door beyond which lay the reality of my dreams of a world beyond the confines of the 20th century”. For Richard, this world promised:
“.. a landscape I would wish to define with pen and ink and watercolour. Each bend and corner would be like another door opening up gradually more and more aspects of the landscape I had known in my childhood when every door and every road was an invitation to a mysterious space, forever desireable and forever new. It was the sacred threshold through which I had to pass which would reveal the space in which I would seek freedom from all linear concepts of time”. (1).
So it was fitting that on our trip to the Carmeite friary and effigy this weekend, we were accompanied by my niece Emma Mases Strang, her partner Manuel Pennuto and their adorable seven-week old baby (to whom I’m a great aunt!); Atlas. As Richard remarked – “that little boy has within him now all you need to understand the wonder of life”.
Also joining us were Robert and Pamela de Mey, respectively a psychiatrist/arts curator and a doctor. Both friends of the Demarco Trust and art collectors with a deep interest in all that inspires creativity (Robert de Mey’s recent book about Scottish artist Rae – Ronald Rae: An Inner Life – can be found Here)
Robert’s follow up email summed up our experience perfectly. I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing it here:
What a wonderful and spiritual journey we had yesterday, and thanks are due to everyone for making it happen. The ensnarement of our endlessly complicated system for living (symbolised by the blocked A1); replaced by peace, a shared discourse, generous love, and the pilgrims’ path to the tomb. The effigy of David de Lindsay seemed both peaceful and vulnerable, in its posture and rotated form, and through being slowly absorbed by the physical elements. We look forward to more ‘journeys of enlightenment.
Thanks to all who made it such a special day, especially my husband Adam Brewster. It has added immeasurably to my creative response to Aberlady. Thanks also to Hilary Wilkies for allowing us access through her garden to visit the friary, it’s much appreciated!
Lastly, a couple of painting sketches of the day inspired by Richard’s exclamation to Terry as we navigated the woods – “Dappled things!” …
Rose Strang Artworks 