Tag Archives: WASPS

Studio Visit: David Forster and Michael Craik

28 July 2011 at 6pm

A visit to the studio spaces of David Forster and Michael Craik to discuss their current practice in contemporary painting.

David Forster’s landscapes refer to the traditions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Though the scenes depicted are topographically correct, Forster subtly alters the light and colour to create a fictionalised reality that conveys the authority of photorealist document. Whilst exploring the romantic narrative of landscape, Forster’s work presents the industrialised wilderness of farmland, the well-trodden solitude of the British uplands, and the tame sublime of the country park.

Michael Craik is fascinated by modernist architecture and creates abstract oil paintings which have been described as a ‘contemporary minimalism for an urban audience’. His most recent works focus on the geometry of squares or hexagons and are painted on aluminium panels to create works which evoke perspective and create a play of light which recalls the buildings from which the patterns have been drawn.

Patriothall Studios is parts of WASPS which has grown to become one of Scotlands largest arts organisations, providing studio space to over 750 artists each year at 17 locations throughout Scotland.

WASPS Albion Road Studio Visit

22 July 2010 at 6pm

This month, we will be visiting WASPS studios on Albion Road to join artists Kevin McPhee, Katherine Aarrestad, Louise Fraser and Sharon Quigley in discussion about their practice and recent work.

Kevin McPhee works intuitively and uses a combination of lo-fi materials, found objects and paint to create installations that are evocative of a self-generated mythology. Sculptures manifest through the performance of making and are evocative of a shared belief.

Katherine Aarrestad focuses upon the translation of meaning through different points in time. She uses visual subject matter that is drawn from the past and creates a viewing experience which is very much of the present. Obscure visions of reality are created by juxtaposing images with titles which open up an alternative narrative for the viewer to read.

Louise Fraser creates work in response to the visual surroundings she lives in and looks for ways to translate the idea of architecture, nature, the process of change and the story within. Her work is an attempt to bring us closer to our ever-changing, often overlooked closest surroundings and the idea that we are honed and moulded by our environment.

Sharon Quigley explores the body, with its multitude of functions and its relationship with the material properties of paint, to explore subjects of physicality, intimacy and sensation. Working directly onto paper or oil primed boards to create intricately patterned surfaces, she fuses together a myriad of micro graphic and cellular structures to cultural references from Japanese Kimono designs, arabesques and nineteenth-century engravings, in an attempt to explore and reflect the correlation that exists between them all.

Over the last 30 years, WASPS has grown to become one of Scotland’s largest arts organisations, providing affordable studio space to over 750 artists each year at 17 locations throughout Scotland. Albion Road Studios is known as ‘Citizens Studios’ and has 22 studios over two floors for up to 30 artists at any one time.

Studio Visit: Donald Urquhart

30 April 2006 at 6pm

WASPS Studios at Patriothall in Stockbridge open their doors again to Spin: Edinburgh, following on from an enlightening visit in September 2005.

Donald Urquhart is one of Edinburgh’s treasures within Scottish contemporary art. Whilst he is principally a painter, exhibiting internationally, his practice also involves working with architectural space and permanent outdoor installations. Recent projects include the collaboration, An Turas on Tiree, which was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for Architecture and The Sanctuary at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary, which won the Best Building for Public Use Prize at the Scottish Design Awards last year. Donald has completed numerous residencies including one at Grizedale Sculpture Forest and another at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

This Spin night will be a journey, from polished granite on the east bank of the Tay in Perth, to volcanic landscapes as far away as Iceland, as we will explore Donald’s perceptions of environments and how they enthuse our way of seeing.

WASPS Studio Visit

30 September 2005 at 6pm

With the Festival now a distant memory, we kick off the Spin Autumn season with a special visit to WASPS Artists Studios. This former bakery in Stockbridge houses 60 individual artists studios over three floors and features both up-and-coming and established artists. The work produced here ranges from painting, ceramics, jewellery, sculpture, photography, digital media and installation art.

Prior to the annual WASPS Open Studios Weekend (8 & 9 October), Spin has been given special access to some of the artists studios, making this an exciting opportunity for us to find out what goes on behind closed studios doors. We will also be able to explore the creative process first-hand by talking to the artists in their studio spaces.

We will be visiting Michael Craik who creates photo-real, abstract, architectural-inspired paintings; Di Hope who had a recent show at the Open Eye Gallery and creates abstract, collage paintings, Lorna Fraser, a ceramicist, is currently working on sculptural works inspired by exotic plants, Stella Auchinleck, is a figurative painter, whose work, both in terms of content and colour, is informed by her experience of living in Turkey, Shelagh Atkinson who is a printmaker and a painter, uses photography and lithography, and Gerry McGowan is a figurative painter who often works on small canvases or board. He has an eye for capturing figures going about their business where shapes of architecture and angles of light play as much part as the figures.

As well as housing the artists studios, the building also has a successful exhibition space on the ground floor, which features work by new, emerging and established artists. Over the years, Patriothall Gallery has supported hundreds of artists at varying stages in their careers and worked with the local community on many initiatives.