EXCELLENT IONAS

A  fine auction of modern Scottish painting is coming up on June 9 2016 at Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh. There are several works from the Wood collection. That is the eminent surgeon Walter Quarry Wood who was President of the RCS in Edinburgh.Some of the works from the sale are shown below. This is a treat for those who love Iona paintings by Cadell and Peploe. The standard here and with the great majority of works in this auction is rather high.You can see that here below.

Sandbank and the Sound of Mull: FCB Cadell (Wood Coll)

Roina in the Sound of Mull:FCB Cadell.(Wood Coll)

Ben More from Clachanach: FCB Cadell

Iona Abbey: S J Peploe (Wood Coll)

LISMORE AND BENDERLOCH BY ADAM BRUCE THOMSON

Two paintings-the first a watercolour and the second an oil, by the eminent Scottish artist Adam Bruce Thomson, have just been sold by Lyon&Turnbull in Edinburgh. They represent places I know and like and for me they raise questions about artistic   licence. To me they are pleasant  works but they raise the kind of thoughts that chime with Constable's views about painting and what he calls manner. I think that manner is dominant here.I think it is the easiest and most seductive state for artists to pursue. You might call it poetic licence-and I would agree that there is no doubting the charm of Thomson's work.

Castle Coeffin, Lismore: Adam Bruce Thomson

Castle Coeffin,2015.

Caastle Coeffin,by Adam Bruce Thomson 

Castle Coeffin on Lismore is presented by Thomson in his watercolour as an apparently mighty stronghold perched on a towering cliff in what looks like an extremely strong defensive position. A cottage appears below and gives a considerable effect to the scale of gigantism There is a croft nearby but the scale here is extraordinary.If you visit Castle Coeffin the main ruin appears as if sitting on a humpy piece of grassland; you must descend a steep and rough path to get there. There is a croft near the castle but not quite in this position.

From the Mull ferry, for example, you can just see it as a stump, like a broken tooth in the distance. Close at hand it is still not vastly impressive and I doubt if it can have changed much in the decades since Thomson's visit.In the painting it appears as a much more upright and substantial run than it is now. The hills across Loch Linnhe seem to be put in for some kind of rhythm.The colour in the painting is perhaps its best point, it is very harmonious.

The pen drawing once again exaggerates proportions. The cliffs in the distance are rather perfunctory.It is interesting to see the land around the castle has hay stooks.

Thomson's view of the Dun at Benderloch is an equally striking image with richer colour.There are cliffs as you come up from Connel to the village so I am presuming a viewpoint to the west of them It is good in showing the dramatic light and shade effects which you get on a day of rain and sun. There is a rainbow to be seen over the crags and the sky in the east has a lowering appearance which suggests that more rain is coming.The glimpse of sea in the distance and light picks out some rocks above the water. You might be looking towards Loch Etive.

CADELL'S VIEW OF EILEAN ANNHRAID, IONA

Another post as a follow up to Philip MacLeod Coupe's identification of painting sites for Cadell and Peploe on Iona, (see passim). This comparison is not in Coupe.

The watercolour was once with the Bourne Fine Arts. The view shows the small island of Eilean Annraidh the foreground and in the distance the cliffs of Gribun on the right and the small islands in Loch na Keal.The difference between the landscape in the photo and the landscape in the painting (apart from the weather)is that the machair has extended-rather than as sometimes happens diminished since Cadell's time.Cadell's viewpoint seems to have been somewhere approximately on Ard Annraidh.

RAYMOND MASON; AN EARLY SELF-PORTRAIT

Raymond Mason: The Life Model; a self-portrait.

I have always liked Raymond Mason's drawings  whether of human groups or Paris architecture. But this drawing I did not know. I do not remember it in any of the monographs on  Mason.It was sold by  those  excellent print dealers Abbott and Holder based near the British Museum.If you would like to read some further thoughts about Mason -with specific reference to his autobiographical writings please refer to my blogpost here.
Many artists have drawn naked self-portraits, one thinks of Edward Munch and no doubt others could be added.It is perhaps a northern European phenomenon-associated with narcissism and introspection.The legs are out of proportion to the torso-but that is probably just the consequence of working from a mirror

THE BASSANO BRIDGE BY CHARLES HODGE MACKIE

The Bassano Bridge:woodblock print by Charles Hodge Mackie

A copy of this large woodblock print by Charles Hodge Mackie is to be sold by Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh on 18/05/2016. Mackie died in 1920 and one can see this print as an example from the movement to use the Japanese woodblock tradition in a European context. This print measures approx 20" square. I have not attempted to work out how many blocks were used but it may be fewer than one suspects-given that careful inking of different areas can sometimes allow the use of relatively few blocks.It is something of a creative experiment. I suspect that he isn't really interested in the concept of an edition and that each print is an individual creation.Because of the labour involved in this kind of work the number of examples produced will be small.

Mackie seems to be an interesting artist, Personally I can only recall seeing one of his works.It was another copy of the Bassano Bridge. But the fact that he  met modern French artists in the 1880s and that he was a friend of Hornel the Kircudbright artist should make us alert to the possibility that we are dealing with an artist to be investigated. In fact a book on Mackie has been announced and will be published later this year, and in four years (2020) there will be an exhibition of his work in Edinburgh.

The Bluebell Wood: woodblock print by Charles Hodge Mackie

The Bluebell Wood: woodblock print by Charles Hodge Mackie

Venetian Terrace; woodblock print by Charles Hodge Mackie.

Forthcoming book-late 2016,by Pat Clark