Linlithgow Burgh Halls is the setting for a display of new paintings on the theme of enclosed space by Olivia Irvine. Whether interior or exterior, enclosed spaces are settings for improvised fictions, like theatre sets or dream arenas. The action happens in an ambiguous or shifting place. Many of Olivia Irvine’s paintings include figures, often alluding to family members or ancestors. Props, such as tables and chairs, shrubs, mirrors and windows form part of the environment, jostling with the figures or indicating their absence.

Irvine works in a spontaneous, abstract manner, eking-out the shapes as she goes along, experimenting with colour palettes for emotional intensity, mar-making, scraping, rolling and blotting. The paintings do not follow any particular story line and are open-ended, although sometimes, towards the end of the process, they uncover some aspects of her life which take her by surprise.