Roger Billcliffe’s gallery is always a treat to visit. As well as the large, light and airy gallery space downstairs the nineteenth century building in Glasgow’s Blytheswood Street also boasts several upper floors, accessed by a labyrinthine staircase. The walls are lined with more delectable art and there is more gallery space upstairs.
The summer exhibition is usually full of lively scenes and shades and this year’s doesn’t disappoint. One of the most striking paintings on view is Tulips on Blue, a large oil painting by James Fullarton. Fullarton’s big, wide strokes of oil and the vivid primary colours – red and yellow flowers, green and yellow stalks - create a fresh, lively painting that would bring summer into any room. Fullarton’s two smaller works here also exhibit discrete brush strokes, the tranquil street scene of Towards Cranworth Street having many areas made up of an array of individual dabs of paint, like pointillism but using small strokes instead of dots. Both the latter and Fullarton’s Study for In The Garden are like breaths of a Scottish summer captured on canvas, the glory of sunlight glinting through leaves on trees made permanent.
David Morrison’s oil on canvas The Waverley is one of the paintings here that draws the eye and won’t let go. Morrison’s idiosyncratic colour choices make the painting stand out: the sky is a glorious orange, the sea is yellow, and a powerful ship is bearing down towards the viewer. Morrison is excellent at capturing ships and boats, he conveys them the way they are, as working vessels transporting good and people, but also imbues them with an unusual grace and elegance. There is something about his work that mesmerises. I felt as if I was watching the ship’s surging approach through a pair of binoculars, savouring the spectacular colours of the sunrise or sunset, hope and anticipation in my heart. I’ve already bought a Morrison for my boyfriend and a smaller one for myself – I had to fight the urge to buy The Waverley on the spot.
Jackie Philip is also a master of colour. Her two paintings here feature her trademark beautiful bright flowers against a bold background. Dusk shows pink flowers in a vase with a mauve background, and French Truffles and Flowers pictures more pink flowers. She shares with the likes Michael Clark a talent for being able to express something as simple and everyday as flowers in a breathtaking way through her combination of an understated impressionistic style with throbbing, vibrant colours.
There are many paintings here that transfix the brief weeks of sunshine and optimism that constitute a Scottish summer. James Harrigan’s Picnic at Balmaha depicts a stunning coastline with families picnicing on the beach next to the creamy froth and blue waves of the sea, the mountains stretching beyond. Harrigan’s Jazz Band also conjures up summer; those evenings wandering the pavements looking for somewhere to sit outside and eat when one is surprised by a jazz band playing in the open air, joyful and ebullient.
David Martin’s paintings are always lovely and the ones here are no exception: Sunset Seil Island, Dark Cloud Rising and Landscape Fife are idyllic rural scenes where nature is the big star, whether she is casting a vast rain-filled cloud across an expanse of land or transforming the sky with a sunset - a dot of orange sun next to a streak of yellow.
And summer isn’t all heat-hazed days. Gary Harper shows the daytime scene of a coast with wild purple flowers growing just off the sand in Summer on the Island. Then he paints a seascape at dusk in Sunset Over Harbour , the boats dark as the sun disappears.
Then there are the still life paintings that show ornaments and plants set out on kitchen tables in warm sun-drenched kitchens. Emma Davis has three paintings in a vertical column - Temptation, Coffee Pot and Sunflower, all mixed media, all featuring white flowers in pots or vases. Hazel Nagi has two paintings of interiors: Fishy Teapot showing a table dressed with a vase of red flowers and another with a pot of pink tulips, and The Red Chair displaying an arrangement of various jugs and pots of flowers.
Upstairs, Glen Scoulier’s icily enticing oil on canvas Winter Sun suggests that winter is never far away. But for the moment, it’s time to enjoy the delights of summer.
The summer exhibition is currently on at The Roger Billcliffe Gallery, 134 Blytheswood Street, Glasgow G2 4EL, tel 0141 332 4027
