Artist Uncovered: George Donald

Fusion Painting

"Your brain is processing constantly millions of impressions and the more you look the more you remember... you have a warehouse of memories in your mind. Then you work in the studio, you distill, you make things that satisfy you, that delight you, that unburden you of imagery."

The tranquillity of the Scottish Arts Club lounge belies the hustle and bustle of nearby Princes Street’s Christmas shopping frenzy. George Donald looks at odds in these sedate surroundings for he is bursting with energy and ideas.

To interview George Donald is to go on a whirlwind journey around the world to the places he has visited and lived in. Born in Southern India of a Scottish colonial family, he was immersed from a very young age in the two countries’ contrasting cultures. 

Dance  etching with collage 86x98cm

AiH collection

These early experiences and subsequent numerous travels have sharpened his “antennae” for visual stimuli while the study of worldwide diaspora has developed his aptitude for making unexpected connections between countries and even eras. He has over the years stored up a whole “warehouse” of images, all waiting for a signal to resurface when he least expects it and wherever he may be, here in Edinburgh or in a Kyoto garden, in China, India or Australia. 

Kyoto Garden  mixed media 78x97cm

AiH collection

Consequently his prints and paintings are delightful juxtapositions of images and patterns that deliberately clash with one another so as to pique our curiosity. Printmaking informed his painting rather than the other way round and particularly chine collé, a process where tissue paper is pressed into the print, lends itself perfectly to this layering. But not content with simply following the established method, he has developed his own technique by hand-colouring and tearing the paper and using it to add emphasis here and there to stimulate the eye. 

Evening Song  screenprint A/P 71x85cm

AiH collection

This innovative approach is characteristic of his inclination to challenge the status quo such as his decision in mid career to go and study for a four years part-time Master degree course in Education and Philosophy at Edinburgh University. This was in the late 1970s at a time of radical changes to the education system in the UK. Rather than just “grumble about it”, George went and learnt about governmental policy making. Years later he would use this theoretical expertise to push for the creation of a part-time degree at Edinburgh College of Art. And many of us are very grateful that he did.

Balinese Woman  oil 41x46cm

AiH Collection

In his portraits, the subject often sustains our gaze intently.  When I query this with him, George evokes the paintings of the wives of Spanish conquistadores he saw in the Dominican Republic where, painted rather awkwardly in faded court fineries, the young brides look at the viewer as though stunned by the realisation of their doomed fate so far from home. Their eyes haunt him still.           

Renaissance Piece mixed media on board  60x54cm

courtesy of the artist

For this master of anatomy, the human body, the way people stand, facial expressions, someone’s shaven head, all are a constant source of fascination and inspiration. The Renaissance with its elegant costumes and music is also very much part of his work and his life as I learn that he has been a practiced chorister since childhood. Later he joined the Edinburgh University Singers, leading a double life, a scruffy art student by day and a smartly dressed performer at evening performances.

It may come as a surprise to learn that George Donald admires minimalist artists who convey so much with so little and that he wishes his work was “less complicated”. His trip to Japan was especially intended to study its calm and ordered sense of composition. 

Silver River mixed media 80x97cm

2013 RSA Summer Show

courtesy of the artist

The paintings he exhibited in the 2013 Royal Scottish Academy Summer Show reflect this recent “de-cluttered” approach. Without the usual patterned borders and patchwork effect the elements appear to be floating on the canvas, but this does not diminish the impact at all as the fusion of cultures through metaphors is as powerful as ever.


Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh.

With thanks to George Donald.

Art in Healthcare Artist Uncovered film http://youtu.be/6ZMkckAuzt8
George Donald RSA RSW  http://www.georgedonald.com/
Edinburgh University Singers http://singerseu.wordpress.com/
Royal Scottish Academy http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/
Scottish Arts Club http://www.scottishartsclub.co.uk/


And special thanks to Balfour Beatty Investments and Arts & Business Scotland for their financial support, which has enabled Art in Healthcare to produce 18 Artist Uncovered blog posts and accompanying video productions.

Artist Uncovered: Kate Downie

Two large canvasses face each other in Kate Downie’s studio, their typically energetic and expressive marks awaiting her finishing touch before their exhibition this summer at the Royal Scottish Academy. One is a reconstructed view of Beijing where she did a residency in 2011, eagerly immersing herself in the street life of the city, and the other is a sweeping and empty landscape. Despite or rather because of the absence of human forms, the juxtaposition of the dark monolithic cityscape with the depopulated countryside is characteristic of Downie’s sensibility for the human condition.

Kate Downie in her studio

She recalls vividly deciding to be an artist at the age of five, she was better at drawing than reading, and credits her later outsider’s aesthetics to being uprooted, aged seven, by her British born parents from her native North Carolina to the North East coast of Scotland.

Another clear childhood memory is her first sighting of the Forth Rail Bridge from the train down to Edinburgh. The iconic structure is a particular favourite of hers. She once set up studio on Inchgarvie island, right under the bridge, in a structure made out of scaffolding poles . She has sailed under it and today she is thrilled at the thought of abseiling off it during the sponsored event organised by Art in Healthcare in May! Kate Downie’s enjoyment of life is evident and so is her inquiring mind as she sketches on her newly acquired iPad while we talk. Drawing is second nature to her.

The Concrete Hour, wall drawing, mixed media,

Where, Where Artspace, Beijing

Image courtesy of the artist

This residency on the island led to a wall installation in the Round Room of the Talbot Rice Gallery. Performances and wall drawings occupy a special place in her practice. She adds almost with a pinch of regret that in different circumstances she would have been a graffiti artist. While in Beijing, she drew a cityscape, ‘The Concrete Hour’, on the walls of the gallery dominated by flyovers where she was based and punctuated her charcoal drawing with marks made with bicycle tyres and shoes. She is looking forward to doing a performative drawing this summer in the Kelly Gallery in Glasgow which, incidentally, is only a ten minutes walk from the city’s own Chinatown, itself situated under the M8 motorway as it slices through Glasgow.

Kate Downie has more than a penchant for the liminal and the transgressive. Coastlines, crossroads, flyovers, bridges, the gaps in between, all are transient spaces that she actively seeks out and celebrates with Romantic sensitivity.

Leidseplein (Night Travels), monoprint, 63 x 74cm

Art in Healthcare Collection

Her drawings and paintings are not simply triggered by visual stimuli here and there, they come from deep within. They are conceptual portraits. Each has its own place among the others and can take anything between a few weeks and several months to gestate. Her compositions emphasize the space around objects or ‘negative space’, a term she regards as a misnomer because these optical reversals bring about new awareness for our surroundings.

She mentions Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ where that artist created an inside-out domestic space by casting the whole interior of a house. Like Downie’s works, Whiteread’s sculptures are about the memory of the people who inhabited the space but unlike Whiteread, Downie invites, urges us the viewers to step in and complete her drawings and paintings.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a visual artist and freelance writer based in Edinburgh.

See http://youtu.be/AdUojSKW4fo for short video of Kate's Downie interview!

Credits

Thank you to Kate Downie for her time and input and for her warm welcome.

Links

To find out about Kate Downie's abseil fundraising event for Art in Healthcare, go to http://www.justgiving.com/katedownie1

Kate Downie’s website and online gallery http://www.katedownie.com/gallery.php 

The Royal Scottish Academy http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/ where her exhibition ‘Walk through a resonant landscape’ will run from August to October 2013

The Royal Glasgow Institute Kelly Gallery http://www.royalglasgowinstitute.org/ where she will install and perform this summer.

Where Where Art Space, Beijing http://www.wherewhereproject.com/index.html   

The Forth Rail Bridge http://www.forthbridges.org.uk/railbridgemain.htm 

The Talbot Rice Gallery http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/museums-galleries/talbot-rice 

Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2012/07/house-rachel-whiteread-art-victorian-home-193-grove-road-london/ 

A busy year ahead

For the first blog this year, I asked Trevor Jones, Art in Healthcare director, what new projects we could look forward to in 2013.

Forthcoming exhibition

The first exciting event is an exhibition entitled 'Art from Art' in February of 120 artworks created in response to the AiH collection during artist-led workshops in various settings in and around Edinburgh. The November blog ‘Art in Healthcare Reaches Out’ showcased one of these workshops organised by Leo du Feu at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. 'Art from Art' will open on Friday 8 February in the Whitespace Gallery in Edinburgh, for full details see AiH page on Facebook or contact  outreachmanager@artinhealthcare.org.uk

 Rainbow Owl by Joy, aged 11

Image courtesy of Leo du Feu

Art management

One of AiH services is to manage existing art collections on behalf of health organisations, such as for instance the vast NHS Lothian collection. AiH has now been appointed Art Coordinator for NHS Fife’s Glenwood Health Centre currently being refurbished and due to reopen later this year.

Glenwood Health Centre is situated in Glenrothes, a town that has been associated with art since its planning in the post-World War II years when it appointed its first town artist, David Harding, in 1968. This was a bold and progressive appointment and Harding worked with the architects from the design stage. 

David Harding, Henge, 1970, Glenrothes public art

Image courtesy of David Harding

Harding worked closely with the people of Glenrothes and his sculptural works along with those of the artists who followed him provide us today with great art walks all around the town. For more details, see the link to the Historic Scotland publication below. It is heartening to see this tradition being carried forward today and that art is part of the planning of the Health Centre rather than as an afterthought.

Acquisition from emerging artist

Trevor also tells me that, thanks to funding from the Hope Scott Trust, AiH will be able to purchase artworks from this year’s New Contemporaries exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. This exhibition, held in March, shows the works of some sixty artists, all recent graduates from the five art colleges in Scotland.

Heather Pugh, Going, Going, Gone, mixed media, 37 x 42 x 8.5 cm

Art in Healthcare Collection

Acquisition of artworks from emerging artists’ is an excellent way of keeping collections fresh. Last year, AiH purchased ten collage paintings by Heather Pugh who studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. She is featured in last May’s ‘Uncovered Artist’ blog which explains her practice and inspiration from everyday objects. Her colourful and intriguing collages are now brightening up the mood of patients, staff and visitors who walk along the corridors of the Royal Victoria Building at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.

Expanding the online database

AiH are planning this year to photograph, label and make accessible to viewing online all the artworks from their own collection and from the NHS Lothian collection. Together these collections represent a remarkable resource of approximately 3,500 works spanning some 400 years, thousands of artists and a breathtaking variety of genres, styles and media.

This is going to be a busy year for Art in Healthcare. You can follow all their news and projects on Facebook.

Thank you for visiting this blog and may 2013 be all you wish it to be!

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

Credits

Thank you to Trevor Jones for his information
and to David Harding for providing the image of Henge, one of his Glenrothes artworks. 

Links

The Whitespace Gallery  http://www.whitespace11.com/

'David Harding Glenrothes Town Artist' http://www.davidharding.net/?page_id=37 
Historic Scotland 'Glenrothes Town Art' http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/glenrothestownart. 
The Royal Scottish Academy http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/menu_page.asp
Gray's School of Art http://www.rgu.ac.uk/about/faculties-schools-and-departments/faculty-of-design-and-technology/gray-s-school-of-art/gray-s-school-of-art