Barbara Rae CBE RA is a most distinguished Scottish painter and printmaker, whose acclaimed narrative landscapes are conveyed through her vivacious use of colour, composition and line. With a passion for travel, Rae always selects places that provide first-hand insight into cultural heritage, from Celtic archaeology to old vineyards in Spain, exploring the world in search of inspiration.
In the summer of 2024, Times and Places, an archival retrospective [see Artmag’s post] was staged at The Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr and now at Inverness Museum & Art gallery, until 18th January 2025. The catalogue essay by Professor Duncan Macmillan describes how Rae has perceived the notion of ‘Place’ throughout her career and continues to record the memory of the landscape.
The Winter Showcase at the Dundas Street Gallery features enticing small prints and paintings by Barbara Rae on her journeys to the Lammermuir hills and Andalucia and from Pole to Pole. All purchases will benefit The Provost James Rae Trust, established to administer the Barbara Rae archive, named in tribute to the artist’s father. The Trust raises funds to help mid-career artists for specific projects and also invitations to attend the Ballinglen Residency, Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland.
This collection illustrates with such clarity a journey of travel, exploration and discovery through a unique style of abstract expressionist art. Akin to the eminent 18th and 19th century Scots David Roberts and Arthur Melville, who observed local life in Spain, Egypt, Holy Land and Morocco, Barbara Rae is an intrepid traveller artist: ‘I hate being called a landscape painter. There has to be a story. Topography is not the attraction; people and the history of the location is the motivation. Research is the key. My inspiration is socio-political, I record the passage of time. I refine and refine. To do that, I visit a place for weeks, sketching and taking notes, and only later begin creating paintings or prints in my studio from the sketches.’
In 2015 Barbara began a series of journeys of discovery into the Arctic, following in the wake of her namesake, the pioneer explorer Dr John Rae. The Northwest Passage was a magnificent, awe-inspiring exhibition at the RSA, immersing the viewer in icy seas amid traces of human presence and the passing of time. As well as vibrant scenes Arctic Dusk and Arctic Evening, with a burst of northern light, there’s a magnificent ‘portrait,’ a woodcut of Lone Bear Cresswell 3, prowling in the cool blue glistening ice.
Observing and understanding the life and nature of the landscape are the starting-point before an intense creative process in the studio; paint, colour and collage enhance the contours of terrain, light, shade and texture to imbue a lyrical sense of place. A realistic, visual scene is transformed into a moody scenic expression.
This is illustrated beautifully in a screenprint, Carrowteige (County Mayo), a precisely-designed patchwork of orange, turquoise, pink and black stripes and blocks, perhaps depicting a geometric panorama of fields, lake, hills and sky framed by the bold horizon.
Through a vivid palette and free-flowing composition, the artist has a masterly calligraphic language, fluid, imaginative with collage-like effects and washes for extra depth and dimension. This exhibition offers the rare chance to purchase unique editioned prints and a large selection of unframed pieces with a diverse range of printing techniques, monotypes, etchings, collograph and carborundum.
Amongst the enticing selection of unframed works for example, is Sea Ice Bellot Strait, (etching and relief), an evocative pattern in orange, pink and grey to depict the whirling dance of ice floes in the remote waters in Nunavut, Canada.
Rae’s working methods show the development and distillation of observation, ideas and memories into colours and shapes as she explains, ‘There is so much unexpected colour in glaciers, icebergs and icecaps – strong manganese blues and water a deep indigo. Often I layer 30 to 60 different colours to achieve the print image for surface and texture. I welcome dissonance, that is, unpredictable results.’
The unique beauty of these visual travelogues is based on iconographic artistry to identify and interpret the importance of the place, tracing its lingering sense of history, from the frozen Polar regions to Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Provence, Tuscany and Mexico and beyond. Wherever, each scenic view is bathed in bold, luminous colour with experimental style, vivid imagination and captivating energy in these jazzy, dramatic compositions.
The exhibition is attractively displayed, transforming the Gallery into a homely ‘drawing room’ with sofa and chairs – relax and study the artwork and collection of Barbara Rae catalogues and books.
With thanks to Vivien Devlin for this review.
