Graystone Gallery in Edinburgh is mounting an exhibition looking at what lies beyond what is immediately visible and the limits of perspective, giving way to the realm of suggestion – what you can see and what you can’t. The well-curated exhibition brings together a group of contemporary artists, each interpreting the idea of horizon, both literal and metaphorical, looking beyond the familiar, pushing the limits of perception and imagination. 

Poppy Cyster reflects her ‘joie de vivre’ through her love of colour and abstract compositions full of controlled energy.  She has developed a true and instinctive language unmistakably her own’. – Richard Demarco. European Art Foundation.

One is immediately drawn to the joyful mood and translucent light across Poppy Cyster’s abstracted landscapes of open skies, shoreline, cloud, waves, sun, moon, dancing with a tangible sense of movement. A wash of soft aquamarine vividly expresses Within the Ocean Moment, just vaguely delineating sea from sky, the surface dripping with splashes of water and rain drops. 

Poppy is the daughter of an aviator, and spent her childhood looking out from the cockpit of a biplane to view a patchwork of fields; she takes aerial photographs to capture this bird’s-eye view for deconstructed compositions using thick brushstrokes for a bold sweep of tangerine, mauve and peach in Sand Tide.

A more minimalist form of horizontal blocks depicts the clear strips of land, water and sky in River Edge, with an innovative zigzag contour of a boundary line, all blended with a palette of soft pinks and blues. 

Katy Sawrey focuses on the study of structured shapes and lines to define her semi-representational and abstract landscapes: ‘To me it is the light which creates the atmosphere of any place. Those moments when sunlight turns everything pink or gives the edges of nature a ‘glow,’ I want to recreate’. – Katy Sawrey [see more about Katy’s method at bottom of page]

This atmospheric vision is imaginatively illustrated in As the Sun Rises with a geometric, triangular pattern through which we can glimpse a shadowy glen, line of hills and craggy rock, glowing in the rosy-red dawn.  

With softer, rounded shapes, Let’s Escape features the edge of the seashore leading to the broad, open perspective of rolling hills beyond, disappearing into the distance under a pale cream sky. 

‘The sea has always been a teacher for landscape artists; they come to the coast to learn the colour of the air and the secrets of the fog.’  – Claude Monet

Katy often mixes sand into the paint for a rich texture and to deepen the connection with the reality of the landscapes which inspire her artwork.  Again, such a creative composition of sharply-defined shapes to depict the natural lines where land meets sea and sky in Storm on the Horizon.

Madeleine Gardiner spent many childhood holidays in North Berwick and in the Scottish Highlands, around the lochs of the West coast.    

‘Wild spaces, memory and atmosphere are key areas in my work. Light is my primary focus, recreating the ways in which it alters depth, in continual pursuit of immersion through paint and process.’ Madeleine Gardiner

A hazy mizzle envelops the heather-carpeted moorland of the low Lammermuir Hills, bathed in a faint gleam of sunlight. The late, great Italian composer, Gian Carlo Menotti lived for many years until his death, aged 95, near the foot of the Lammermuirs, inspired by ‘the peace and damp tranquillity’ of the countryside. 

A swirling, smudged mass of rain clouds and splashing surf in Autumn Storm, with thick impasto-layered oils in a ice-cool colour palette clearly dramatises the elemental force of this wild, wet weather.

Travel north to the Outer Hebrides and a tranquil day at Luskentyre, Isle of Harris, with its long curving beach of soft golden sand. Delicate, fluid flashes of grey-blue and buttermilk across the sky are echoed in the glossy, glassy water with atmospheric luminosity. Gardiner’s painterly observations offer a physical sense of place as well as the emotional response of being there in that moment. 

‘My current practice explores how to recreate the Scottish landscape, drawn to the edge of the land through my love of outdoor swimming. The watery surfaces play, reflect and refract land, water and sky into a simplified study of line, shape and colour.’ – Connie Liebschner 

Connie Liebschner is influenced by French Impressionism as well as the Romantic artists Turner and Friedrich who sought to depict nature as a ‘divine creation, to be set against the artifice of human civilisation’. More than just sketching en plein air, Connie enjoys cold-water swimming, to immerse herself physically within the landscape.  

In Katrine Heather, the steep rocky hill with patches of purple flowers is reflected in watery streaks on the calm surface of the loch; the richly-textured, mixed media of acrylic, ink and gesso soften the rough terrain with a misty, mystical light.   

The thorny shrub, Gorse flourishes with yellow blossom across northern Scotland from Easter for at least nine months, described in an old proverb: ‘When gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season.’ Here is a most evocative perspective stretching down a long loch surrounded by gold-tinted hills shining in the bright sun. 

Observing this isolated, rugged Highland environment, Liebschner captures her personal experience of the wild beauty, solitude and stillness with surreal vision. Evoking the bitter winter chill in the air, geological line and shape, Hillside Ice is meticulously composed with cool, crisp clarity; a dark, moody, lyrical landscape. 

The Gallery supports the Own Art finance scheme, which makes purchasing artworks more affordable through payment by instalments.

With thanks to Vivien Devlin for this review.