Excerpt | Immerse: Helen Glassford

Helen Glassford Catalogue Preview

Immerse

22 June — 24 August 2019 A full version of this catalogue can be purchased through the gallery

Front Cover: Immerse (i) • 120 x 120 cm • oil on board (cat. 1) Inside Cover: Immerse (ii) • 120 x 120 cm • oil on board (cat. 2) Pictured: Roam • 120cm x 120 cm • oil on board (cat. 3)

Art to inspire the imagination & enrich the soul Tatha Gallery • 1 High Street • Newport-on-Tay tathagallery.com • helenglassford.co.uk

Travelling Light II 36 x 85 cm • oil on board (cat. 4)

Travelling Light I 36 x 85 cm • oil on board (cat. 5)

Introduction Tatha Gallery

Immerse is an exhibition of over 45 oil paintings by artist Helen Glassford. Helen has been working towards this solo show for over a year and in it she shares with us her vision and experiences of the more secluded parts of the Scottish landscape.

Immerse is inspired by the fascination she has with the sensory experience of landscape. Her paintings describe and convey both the physical and psychological impact of being exposed to the wild and unpredictable personalities of nature.

Helen goes in search of the empty places, deserted beaches and rocky outcrops and observes and draws readily in sketchbooks recording and noting the feel of the weather and the sense of the place. Being ever aware of the transient nature of life.

Helen’s work suggests, echoes and distils the ideas from experiencing these remote landscapes: man’s insignificance in the face of nature and the human ability to see the bigger picture. The vast nature of the wilderness and its hopeful possibilities and the micro details contain and suggest human histories and memories. Her work is a balancing act of memory and emotion, the form of the land and the cloak it wears at that moment.

The paintings in this show reflect these varying experiences, some calm and light with a hint of euphoric melancholy. Others are energy filled suggesting the argumentative power of the elements. Paint is dripped, poured and removed time and time again until the right balance of colour, texture and composition is reached to tell the genuine story of her experience.

Her move in 1995 to the East Coast of Scotland to study at Duncan of Jordanstone college of art was an easy choice as the lure of the light and the easy escape routes to the hills and beaches was too strong to ignore. Now living and working in Newport-on-Tay she is inspired daily by the changing light on the River Tay. Tay Country seeps gently through her conscious and features often in her work.

Velvet 30 x 40 cm • oil on board (cat. 6)

Calling I 65 x 60 cm • oil on board (cat. 7)

Calling II 65 x 60 cm • oil on board (cat. 8)

Tides of Indigo 30 x 30 cm • oil on board (cat. 9)

Cast Away II 12 x 27 cm • oil on board (cat. 10)

Fire Sky 18 x 27 cm • oil on board (cat. 11)

Kyle 18 x 27 cm • oil on board (cat. 13)

Deluge 22 x 37 cm • oil on board (cat. 14)

Prospector’s Sky 30 x 30 cm • oil on board (cat. 15)

Absence 30 x 30 cm • oil on board (cat. 16)

Interlude 30 x 38 cm • oil on board (cat. 17)

North Wind 30 x 38 cm • oil on board (cat. 18)

The Mysterious Hunt Helen Glassford As I turn off the A835 sign posted Achiltibuie, I feel I have crossed an invisible safety line and started a long journey down into a perilous valley, from which only the lucky few will return. Allusions to Lord of the Rings perhaps. However the lure of the distant shrouded hills and the threatening snow clouds is too strong to give in to. Yet I am warned. It is January, the longest month for many. I haven’t seen a soul so far. It is Sunday and the weather is foul. As I wind my way in and through the Assynt peninsula I imagine I won’t see anyone all day.

The absence of presence doesn’t bother me: I have many a voice in me and like to dwell in possibility. Being alone with the landscape is enough to let my imagination roam. This landscape has a personality very much of its own; it alerts me to its fury and its power as the sleet lashes on my windscreen. I pull over with quiet panic, wondering if I should have checked the forecast.

Usually I would pay no attention to forecasts (they tell you what the weather it is going to be like, but not how it feels). If they attributed adjectives and said the weather was friendly, mischievous, tireless or unwelcoming perhaps it would paint a better picture.

Onwards from my musings: I am here to soak in these wonderful characteristics. I set off again to find a place to draw. Getting to know the landscape is a mysterious hunt and will perhaps always remain elusive. Yet it is as perplexing and as intangible as any other relationship. The dark hills forbid yet entice. The thin light on the water is fragile and uplifting. Softening light at the end of the day unifies landscapes to a single texture and quilts its harder edges. It is a fascination for these transient beauties of the landscape and the weather it wears that will forever inspire me.

The drive is stilted, with stopping and starting, pulling over at the passing places to look, but there is no one to pass. As I draw, the filmy hillsides in front of me unfold and re-fold with the changing light. The shifting clouds reveal enticing textures and colours. The

glistening edge of the black road ahead becomes excitingly more mine. I carry on.

To romanticise the landscape would be an injustice, but as I get older I realise it is not about the sublime. I like to journey through and experience the invisible treasures just as I like to translate what I discover in paint. My work suggests, echoes and distils the ideas I take from experiencing things; the feeling of being small and the human ability to see the bigger picture; the vastness, the possibilities and the micro detail that contain human histories and memories. It is a balancing act of memory and emotion, the form of the land and the cloaks it wears at that moment.

Planning on coming to Assynt, I thought it appropriate to bring as my travel companion a rather large book of poetry by Norman MacCaig, as well as a smaller book by a devoted fan of his, Andrew Greig. Norman’s poetry, now that I am back here, has come alive, and the novel At the Loch of the Green Corrie is a wonderful account of the times spent enjoying the land in the footsteps of Mr

MacCaig. In the latter I came across a passage that at first I couldn’t quite grasp, but over time it has come to mean more to me by way of helping make sense of my own ideas in paint.

‘The natural world is not like something else nor a metaphor for anything, to name it is to lose it. And yet this is what we do. The figurative language restores the world to us. The rose bush is not a pirate and Quinag across the way is not a huddle of anvils but my God we smile inwardly and picture them anew’. Andrew Greig I trundle on, smiling at the angry river and the lonely hilltops, and wonder how to paint them. Perhaps like the weather I can postpone making up my mind until I am home.

January 2019

Time Lapse 92 x 152 cm • oil on board (cat. 20)

Fleeting, Slate Grey Sea 48 x 122 cm • oil on board (cat. 21)

Cast Away 48 x 122 cm • oil on board (cat. 22)

Happy Cloud 18 x 27 cm • oil on board (cat. 23)

The Tide Goes 17 x 28 cm • oil on board (cat. 24)

Last Shadow 18 x 27 cm • oil on board (cat. 25)

Slow Motion 36 x 122 cm • oil on board (cat. 26)

Echo 36 x 122 cm • oil on board (cat. 27)

Borrowed Twilight 20 x 28 cm • oil on board (cat. 28)

Absorb 36 x 84 cm • oil on board (cat. 29)

Homecoming 22 x 38 cm • oil on board (cat. 31)

Remember When 46 x 122 cm • oil on board (cat. 32)

By the Sea (Minus the Monk, after Friedrich) 30 x 40 cm • oil on board (cat. 33)

Meet You Halfway 50 x 50 cm • oil & wax on board (cat. 34)

Permeable Land 30 x 40 cm • oil on board (cat. 35)

Rain Shadow 22 x 20 cm • oil on board (cat. 38)

Lure 30 x 40 cm • oil on board (cat. 39)

Revealed 18 x 27 cm • oil on board (cat. 40)

Uninhabited 48 x 122 cm • oil on board (cat. 46)

About Helen Glassford CV & Bio Artist Helen Glassford – founder and director of Tatha – was born in Lancaster in 1976. She grew up in the foothills of the Lake District, coming to Dundee to study a Fine Art Painting degree in 1995. Her move in 1995 to the East Coast of Scotland to study at Duncan of Jordanstone college of art was an easy choice as the lure of the light and the easy escape routes to the hills and beaches was too

strong to ignore. Now living and working in Newport-on-Tay, she is inspired daily by the changing light on the River Tay. Tay Country seeps gently through her conscious and features often in her work.

She passionately balances the promotion and exposure of the many artists supported by Tatha with her own daily practice as an artist.

Awards

2018 Selected to represent Scotland: Fabriano In Acquarello exhibition

Pre 2016

2007 Runner up in the Jolomo Lloyds TSB painting awards 2001 MFA scholarship: Duncan of Jordanstone 1999 The Armour Award: Royal Glasgow Institute 1998 Cuthbert New Young Artist Award: Royal Glasgow Institute Highland Spring Purchase Prize Sir Robin Philipson Memorial Medal: Royal Scottish Academy

Selected Media Coverage

Film: Metropolis on ARTE • ARTE 2019 Art North Magazine • Ian McKay 2019 The Herald • Jan Patience, 2019 Depth of Field • The Courier • Michael Alexander 2018 When landscape is too small a word • The Herald • Jan Patience 2018 Edinburgh Art Fair Review • Adam Barclay 2016 The Scotsman • Duncan Macmillan 2016 Tayside Gallery comes full circle • Jan Patience 2015 Royal Scottish Academy Review • Giles Sutherland 2014 Beginnings • The Courier 2014 The Art of Climbing • Summit Magazine 2010 Kilmorack Gallery Review • Georgina Coburn 2009

Selected Dates

2019 Immerse • Tatha Gallery An Talla Solais: Curated Room • Ullapool

2018 Scottish Society Artists: Annual Exhibition • Edinburgh Depth of Field: Glassford, Downie & Furneaux • Tatha Gallery In Acquarello • Fabriano, Italy Lime Tree Gallery • Long Melford 2017 Elements: Glassford, Draper & McGeachy • Tatha Gallery Whitehouse Gallery: Tabor & Gunn-Cairns • Kirkudbright

Lime Tree Gallery • Bristol Lillie Gallery • Glasgow Royal Society of Watercolour • Edinburgh Pittenweem Arts Festival • Fife Frames Gallery • Perth Paisley Arts Institute • Paisley Cameron Contemporary • Brighton Castlegate House Gallery • Cockermouth Shirley Crowther Gallery • Brighton Meffan Gallery • Angus Heinzel Gallery • Aberdeen Panter & Hall • London Lennox Gallery • London Iona House Gallery • Oxford Jolomo Awards Exhibition • Edinburgh Art Fair • Dublin Hamnavoe Gallery • Aberdeen Gallery 54 • London Air Gallery • London Generator • Dundee Strathearn Gallery • Crieff McLellan Galleries • Glasgow Manhattan Graphics Centre: Touring Print Exchange • USA The Bellevue Gallery: Fringe Festival • Edinburgh La Galleria • London Visual Arts Scotland • Edinburgh Grays School of Art • Aberdeen Institute of Contemporary Art • London RSA Open Exhibitions 1998–2018 London Affordable Art Fairs 1999–2019 Kilmorack Gallery Exhibitions 2010–2013 Aberdeen Artist’s Society 1998–2003 Glasgow McLellan Galleries Exhibitions 1998–2002 Royal Glasgow Institute Exhibitions 1998–2002

Education

2002 Masters of Fine Art Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee 1995–1998 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Drawing & Painting Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art 1994–1995 Foundation in Art & Design Cumbria Institute of the Arts

Curatorial Projects 2015-2019 Norman Gilbert

Passion Vision Spirit I & II

A full version of this catalogue can be purchased through the gallery

Marian Leven & Will Maclean

Confluence Derek Guild, Chris Orr & Eddie Summerton

Lost Colonists Arthur Watson, Ronnie Forbes, Alan Robb, Joyce Cairns, Doug Cocker, Will Maclean, Marian Leven, Grant Clifford, Frances Walker & Richard Demarco

The Newport Circle James Castle, Joe Fan & Lennox Dunbar

Imagine

Tatha Gallery • 1 High Street • Newport-on-Tay www.tathagallery.com helen@tathagallery.com & lindsay@tathagallery.com • 01382 690800

Joint Curation with Arthur Watson

Frances Walker: Coastlines Ronnie Forbes, Alastair Ross & Grant Clifford

Life Cycles

No part of this catalogue may be reproduced without permission All artworks copyright Helen Glassford Published by Tatha Gallery Design by CREATE CREATE (davidcass.art/createcreate) Selected painting photography by Michael Wolchover

Richard Demarco, Dawson Murray & Ann Oram

Portable Landscapes Joyce Cairns, Alan Robb & Doug Cocker

Beginnings Kate Downie, Robbie Bushe & Ronald Plowman

Ghostlands Calum & David McClure

Generations of Colour Jai Llewelyn, Sharon Quigley & James Lumsden

Not as it Seems David Mach, Arthur Watson, Marian Leven, Doug Cocker, Derrick Guild, Calum Colvin, Kate Downie, Alan Greig, David Cass, Robert Macmillan & Ruth Nicol

Tay Projects

ISBN 978-1-9161029-1-0