Charles simpsonChanging light

Charles simpsonChanging light

28 november – 23 DeCember 2015

This is Charles Simpson’s first exhibition with The Scottish Gallery

and in some senses it is long overdue. But then again an explanation

can be found in his modesty and reticence, perhaps holding him

back from pursuing a career as a painter. Stripped back to essentials

a painter needs three things; ability, something to say, and belief.

Without the third quality, that art is important and that what you do

is valuable, an artist will wilt in front of the bare canvas or be fatally

tentative. Simpson has immense ability; he has found his subject, in

the landscape of his adopted Borders and the ever-changing light on

the West Coast of Scotland. His work now has a confidence near to

joy; he no longer has to look left or right or behind. The work sits

happily in a landscape tradition which goes back in Scottish painting

by way of Duncan Shanks to SJ Peploe and late-period William

McTaggart. In British terms he has Edward Seago and Constable for

antecedence but can stand up for himself. Simpson’s ability to harness

natural phenomena and without blunting the edges train them to his

composition, always as satisfactorily balanced as a Cezanne still life,

marks him out as a painter, and we wish him a long and productive

middle and late period!

GUY PEPLOE

THE SCOTTISH GaLLErY

foreworD

The Artist on Iona, 2013

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I took up painting again in my thirties, probably as a creative

activity alternative to my day job as a graphic designer in Edinburgh.

I hadn’t done any practical painting since my time at Glasgow School

of art in the early 1970s where I had chosen to specialise in drawing

and painting but switched to graphic design after a year. In the

intervening years I had always taken a keen interest in Scottish art by

going to exhibitions such as the rSa and rSW, while my lunch hours

were often spent going round the commercial galleries of Edinburgh,

including The Scottish Gallery.

In my spare time I had started doing small watercolours and

gouaches and even managed to sell some of them for modest prices.

In 1990 I left full-time employment and the following year moved from

Edinburgh to a small rural cottage in Clovenfords near Galashiels.

I was earning my living from freelance graphic work, mainly in book

design, but that year I also had my first ‘serious’ solo exhibition at

angus Macaulay’s gallery in Stenton. Gradually the balance between

my graphic and art work transposed and I became a full-time painter

in 1999.

I remember at art school becoming very self conscious about

painting and even drawing, as I sought to develop an artistic style or

identity, confused by the fusion of subject and technique. Interestingly

when I later started painting again, there was no such conflict as

I painted simply what interested me, namely the Scottish landscape,

purely for myself and instinctively in a realistic manner. I still paint

the same way today.

My paintings are subject driven. Subject matter is in turn

determined by combinations of light, mood, structure and composition

dynamics, as well as colour and tone. Sometimes a subject can be

chosen purely because of an arresting image, such as an isolated tree,

a group of sheep against the sea, or a wooden gate. Other times it can

be an almost abstract compositional concept. The chosen material will

then determine scale and proportion of the final painting. a location’s

topography is important to me and I wish to be faithful to the subject

and to what I have seen at a particular point in time. But I am also

trying to create a painting in its own right and the application of the

paint itself becomes just as important as the subject matter. I try to

make paintings without romanticism, stylisation or artifice, whereby

the depiction of the subject matter is more important than my own

expression but where perhaps my own character may come through

as an undercurrent.

I very much enjoy working over several months towards an

exhibition, evolving and shaping a group of paintings of differing

scale and proportion from a good variety of subjects. Subject matter

is gathered from around my home and travels to the west coast

and islands, and is often determined by the fickle Scottish weather

conditions and particularly the ever changing light. a resulting

coherent exhibition hopefully evolves from this accumulated material.

It is a delight for me to be presenting this exhibition at The Scottish

Gallery, particularly after so many years since those lunchtime visits.

CHarLES SIMPSOn

introDuCtion

Sunset over Eigg from Bunacaimbe, 2014

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1 Crail Shore oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cms

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2 Iona north End oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cms

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3 Summer Sky, Iona oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cms

10

4 Boats Passing oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

11

5 Iona Summer (The Finger) oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cms

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13

6 a Calm Sea oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

14

7 Beach and Islands, Iona oil on canvas, 30 x 60 cms

15

8 Dark Sea, Iona oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cms

16

9 Cow’s rock, Iona oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cms

17

10 Crossing the Sound oil on canvas, 90 x 110 cms

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11 Beach rocks oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

20

12 Wave, Eigg and rum oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

21

13 Figures on the Dunes oil on canvas, 40 x 80 cms

22

23

14 Two Sheep, Ionaoil on canvas, 40 x 40 cms

24

15 Machair, north End Iona oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cms

25

16 an Island Scene oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

26

17 Dozing Sheep, Iona oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cms

27

18 Light on the Sea, Eigg and rum oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cms

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29

19 The abbey, Iona oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

30

20 West Coast Tree oil on canvas, 40 x 80 cms

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21 Gate to the Shoreoil on ply, 44 x 50 cms

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22 north Shore, Iona oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cms

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23 Iona, Looking to Staffa oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cms

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24 Clouds over Crailoil on canvas, 30 x 60 cms

35

25 Low Tide, Traigh oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cms

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26 Low Tide oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

27 Fingal’s Stone, Looking to Iona oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cms

37

28 Camusdarach Shore oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cms

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39

29 Dog Walkers, West Coast oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cms

40

41

30 Evening Clouds, Eigg and rum oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cms

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43

31 Small Boat in the Firth oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cms

32 Eigg and Cloud oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cms

44

33 Isle of May Studyoil on canvas 20 x 20 cms

34 Misty Crossing, Iona oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cms

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35 Dark Sea, rum oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cms

46

36 Changing Light oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cms

47

37 Winter Hill oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cms

48

38 Cleared of Snow oil on canvas, 30 x 60 cms

49

39 Track down the Hill oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cms

50

40 Winter Valley oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cms

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41 Dyke, Snow Covered Fields oil on canvas, 50 x 100 cms

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42 Farmhouse oil on canvas, 40 x 80 cms

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57

43 andrew’s Cattle oil on canvas, 30 x 60 cms

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44 Loch nan Uamh oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cms

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45 February Beach, Dunbar oil on canvas, 20 x 50 cms

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46 Bass rock, Belhaven oil on canvas, 20 x 50 cms

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47 Starlings and Buttercups, Iona oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cms

48 Stubble Field: rooks and Crows oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cms

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49 West Coast Gateoil on canvas, 40 x 60 cms

50 Isle of May oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cms

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Born 19521964-70 Educated at alloa academy1970-75 Studied at Glasgow School of art

Graduated with Ba(Hons)1975-90 Worked as a graphic designer in Edinburgh1991 Moved to the Scottish Borders to work full-time

as an artist and freelance designer1999 Began to paint full-time

SOLO ExHIBITIOnS1991 Macaulay Gallery, Stenton1992 Macaulay Gallery, Stenton1996 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh1998 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh1998 ainscough Contemporary art, London1999 Tolquhon Gallery, Ellon, aberdeenshire2000 Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh2000 ainscough Contemporary art, London2001 Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh2002 artLondon (with ainscough Contemporary art)2002 Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh

2003 Panter & Hall, London2004 Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh2004 Panter & Hall, London2005 Olympia antiques Fair, Panter & Hall, London2005 Bourne Fine art, Edinburgh2006 Panter & Hall, London2007 Bourne Fine art, Edinburgh2008 Panter & Hall, London2009 Bourne Fine art, Edinburgh2010 Bourne Fine art, The Gallery in Cork Street, London2011 John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh2011 Bourne Fine art, Edinburgh2012 Panter & Hall, London2012 Bourne Fine art, Edinburgh2013 Walker Gallery, Harrogate2013 John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh2013 Flying Colours Gallery, London2014 Bourne Fine art, Edinburgh2014 Panter & Hall, London2015 Flying Colours Gallery, London2015 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

Charles simpson

Winter at Inglecraig, Scottish Borders, 2010

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16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Telephone 0131 558 1200Email mail@scottish-gallery.co.ukwww.scottish-gallery.co.uk

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition CHarLES SIMPSOn: CHanGInG LIGHT28 november – 23 December 2015

Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/charlessimpson

ISBn: 978-1-910267-27-1

Designed by kennethgray.co.ukPhotography by John McKenziePrinted by Barr Colour Printers

all rights reserved. no part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

Front cover: Evening Clouds, Eigg and rum (cat. 30) (detail)

Inside front cover: Isle of May (cat. 50) (detail)

right: Track down the Hill (cat. 39) (detail)

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