‘In the First Place’ | 48 x 36 inches (122 x 91 cm); Acrylic, Mixed Media & Collage on Box Panel | £5200

‘Riven Night’ | 10.5 x 12.5 inches (27 x 32 cm) | Acrylic & Collage on Panel | £1400

‘Red Sails’ | 24 x 16 inches (61 x 41 cm) | Acrylic Mixed Media on Panel | £2950

‘While it Lasted’ | 12 x 24 inches (30 x 61 cm) | Acrylic & Collage on Panel | £2250

‘Pooling Tide’ | 12.5 x 10.5 inches (32 x 27 cm); Acrylic & Collage on Panel | £1400

‘Gulls Cry Past’ | 8.25 x 10.75 inches (21 x 27 cm) | Acrylic, Mixed Media & Collage on Panel | £1295

‘Down the Other Air’ | 18 x 30 inches (46 x 51 cm) | Acrylic on Box Panel | £2800

‘How Wonderful the Summer Was’  |  36 x 48 inches (91 x 122 cm) |  Acrylic & Collage on Box Panel |  £4800

‘The Light of the Wind’  |  8 .75” x 12.25” ; 22 x 31 (cm) |  Acrylic & Collage on Card |  £1100

ANCIENT SONGS

NEW WORK at Kilmorack Gallery

14th March – 12th April 2025

‘A Clatter o’ Birds’  |  36 x 48 inches (91 x 122 cm) |  Acrylic on Box Panel |  £4800

‘Ancient Songs’ gallery interior

‘Ancient Songs’ with Lotte Glob ceramics

‘The Sliding Sea | 25 x 15 inches (64 x 38 cm) | Acrylic on Panel |  £2500

‘A Piece of the Wind’  |  24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm) | Acrylic & Collage on Panel |  £2950

‘Pooling Tide | 12 x 12 inches (30 x 30 cm) | Acrylic on Panel |  £1250

Christopher Wood: Ancient Songs, Kilmorack Gallery ★★★★☆

In an 18th century church at Kilmorack just outside Beauly in Inverness-shire, Tony Davidson has now clocked up 27 years of running a contemporary art gallery, and in that time he has built up an enviable stable of mainly Scottish artists.

Currently, the main show at Kilmorack is by Christopher Wood, but there is always a mixture of work in the building including, at the moment, some wonderful animals by Helen Denerley and a group of impressively atmospheric watercolours by Shetland-based Peter Davis.

While Davis captures ocean, cliffs and weather with a kind of expressive minimalism, Wood has become, in his later work, a true abstractionist. Questions like “what does it look like?” and “what does it mean?” bounce back unanswered. Yet, seeing a group of his paintings together, one starts to see their structure, the way the colours balance one another, and how thick brush strokes are tempered by finer work.

There is a tension – the good kind – between expressiveness and control, a specificity which comes from persevering at the easel until the thing feels right.

The titles are often poetic: Drop of Dusk, A Corner of the Wind, How Wonderful the Summer Was. And poetry is one way to understand them: like poems, they do not give up their meaning easily, but rather resonate in some mysterious way with the lived experience of the viewer.

Other titles here reference sound: The Noise Grew Softer, A Clatter o’ Birds, Their Voices Fading Away, and there is part of this which is akin to music. After all, the title of the show is Ancient Songs. It strikes a chord, one might say, of a painting one likes. It chimes. It resonates. It’s less about analysis and more about experience. But it’s still all about skill.

Out of Nowhere  |  24 x 29.75 inches (61 x 76 cm) |  Acrylic & Collage on Panel  |  £2950

‘Light Breaks’  |  24 x 12 inches (61 x 30 cm) | Acrylic Mixed Media on Panel  |  £2400

Regardless of the Rain  |  15 x 13.5 inches (38 x 34 cm) |  Acrylic and collage on panel |  £2200

Inside Out |  12 x 24 inches (30 x 61 cm) |  Acrylic, Mixed Media & Collage on Panel | £1950