A wealth of local talent

THE SHETLAND Open 2014 exhibition still has the rest of the month of May to run at Bonhoga Gallery, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Local architect and artist Mike Finnie went along and had a look.

Open exhibitions are difficult to hang. With a mixture of artists, and so many different techniques it’s never easy to place works side by side and achieve a happy result.

But that’s not the point – their purpose is to showcase work by as wide a range of people as possible and give them the opportunity to show their work in a gallery setting.

Often the folk are exhibiting in public for the first time and the prizewinning artists are also given the opportunity to exhibit at the gallery in 2015.

The theme of this year’s Shetland Open is ‘Home’, interpreted by the many different artists in their highly individual ways.

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It’s a bright and cheery exhibition to wander round and a number of the works on display caught my eye. Fionn Arnett rightfully deserved the award for the best first time exhibitor with a recycled metal fish in a frame made from battered painted driftwood.

Rob Colclough is always confident in splattering bright watercolour on to paper and his ‘the first 1/10 of a second’ is no exception.

I liked Tom Sclater’s sepia photograph ‘Vikingsgardr’ where the wide format works very well and the texture of the land stands out.

Amongst the crafts on display there are a good range of technical skills. Blue resin filling the natural fissures in Gibby Pottinger’s turned burr elm bowl really brought it to life.

Two linoprints show different approaches. Mike Grundon’s ‘Westside’ is crisp and immaculately executed in black and white, while Lucy Wheeler’s bright blue print gives an immediate feel for the isolation and weather of Fair Isle.

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It’s worthwhile spending time looking and listening to Susan Timmin’s video and soundtrack for a multilayered experience of a journey. Susan is another well-deserved prize winner.

Harry and Floortje Whitham’s roofs update the headdresses in Dutch renaissance portraits.

Don’t miss the works on the staircase where Genna Graham emphasises the rock faces of a cliff using tiny lines.

The bairns’ section is hung in the downstairs gallery and is well worth a look to see the delicate prizewinning watercolour by Martha Brown and the excellent print by Hanna O’Rourke.

This exhibition should inspire other talented folk to enter the next Open Exhibition in a couple of years. So best to get started painting or making now.

Mike Finnie