EDINBURGH.- Interior Landscapes, curated by Robin Webster RSA, is an exhibition of domestic objects and furniture designed by Royal Scottish Academicians and invited architects and artists. The exhibition considers the direct relationship between ideas, materials and manufacture, whether through handmade craft or state-of-the-art machining.

Curator, Robin Webster RSA, says: 'The idea for this exhibition was originally motivated by wanting to highlight some of the work done by architects which goes beyond the design of a building and includes the detailed conception of more intimate and sometimes transitory objects that relate to and may be an integral part of the whole design. The idea of a “gesamtkunstwerk” (literally "total work of art") covers the entire designed environment in an integrated concept, from the building, including the furnishings, down to the ironmongery and teaspoons.

'Many famous architects, like Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen, Sir Robert Lorimer and Charles Rennie Mackintosh have famously done this, although today it is much less common. Possibly this is because there is such a wide range of well-designed furnishings that are readily available, along with the desire of clients to choose their own items,and perhaps also because of an increasing specialisation of designers and craftsmen.

'The components of this exhibition range from practical chairs and tables to more abstract items designed by architects and artists that might form attractive or more ambiguous ingredients of an interior. Some pieces are made up of recycled materials, as developing the circular economy to help moderate climate change is something that needs to be addressed. The exhibition is intended to be different from the seductive stage sets of a shop window or an IKEA showroom, and to provoke questions about what may be new practical possibilities.'




Exhibitors: Sam Ainsley RSA | Mary Arnold-Forster RSA | Philip Clissett | Doug Cocker RSA | Victoria Crowe RSA | Paul Furneaux RSA | Oisín Gallagher | Nicholas Harrington | Jessica Harrison RSA | Graeme Hutton RSA | Jim Lambie RSA (Elect) | The Marchmont Workshop | Adrian McCurdy | Moxon Architects | Richard Murphy RSA | Gavin Mutch | Glen Onwin RSA | Barbara Rae RSA | Keith Rand RSA | Ben Scrimgeour | Stallan-Brand | Robert Steedman RSA | Sutherland Hussey Harris | Arthur Watson PPRSA | Emma Jo Webster | Robin Webster RSA

Francis Convery
Hindsight

An exhibition of new paintings by Francis Convery RSA is on view in the Academicians’ Gallery this summer. Titled Hindsight, the exhibition explores Convery’s painterly process of constant revision towards resolution.

Whilst Convery trained as an observational painter, he often works without any visual references, drawing on the changeability of the rural Angus landscape where he lives and works. Convery’s paintings evoke the ever-changing face of the north-eastern landscape, with figures often caught in moments of transience: crossing a bridge or resting under the forest canopy.

Convery paints intuitively, interweaving the shapes, textures and colours of the landscape with a gestural expressionism that relates back to the fluid lines of the Edinburgh School, namely Robin Philipson PPRSA and William Gillies RSA, but also to the bold vibrancy of John Bellany HRSA and Alan Davie HRSA. In the large-scale painting Black Isle Convery conjures a strong sense of place with abstracted shapes which gently hint at the soft curves of the coastline.

The paintings in this exhibition are a product of the upheavals of the last 18 months. Whilst Convery’s daily routine at his rural studio has continued relatively unaffected, the series titled Working from Home reveals the recent societal shifts permeating his subject matter. Another series reflects on the floods on the River Dee in October 2020 which Convery describes as ‘shocking in their suddenness, adding to a local experience that was increasingly like a Biblical epic: the plague… now the flood’. Drawn to this altered ‘water world,’ Convery sought objective observation in this newly unfamiliar landscape. Throughout the exhibition, a sense of change and fluidity in daily life is present, with Convery’s process of revision towards resolution in painting feeding into this notion.

Francis Convery RSA says: ‘Though my paintings feature elements of realism: recognisable drawing shapes, environments, colour, tone, form, compositional geometry and relative scale; they are clearly paintings, which reference a nuanced and subjective reality, while exploring a painting process. They are arrived at after lengthy revision, where some form of “hindsight” begins to emerge for me and I recognise how it should be resolved.’