Kirkcudbright Galleries are delighted to present an exhibition by: James Lumsden
17th May – 13th July 2025
Mitchell Galleries, Top Floor Kirkcudbright Galleries.
The Mitchell Gallery opening times in Summer Hours are:
Monday – Saturday: 10am – 4:30pm and Sundays: 11:30 – 4:30pm
Artworks for sale in this exhibition
“For the past 8 years I have been working between Edinburgh and Point on the Isle of Lewis, travelling across the Minch on a regular basis to work between studios. Continuing to develop my work in the studio in Edinburgh, I have used the smaller studio in Lewis to develop a separate yet related series of paintings. These paintings, although rooted in the same considerations of light, depth and mark as my recent work – and although essentially abstract – allude to landscape and a sense of place which has developed from living on the island.
My primary concern as a painter is the creation of a sense of light, colour, depth and feeling. Using a historical glazing process, yet utilising acrylic paint and mediums, I build multiple thin layers of translucent colour; layer upon layer, glaze upon mark upon glaze – concealing, revealing, action, reaction, until a sense of light and depth is achieved within the process. Each layer is dragged, pulled or manipulated with various implements – the process being repeated layer upon layer until the painting begins to emerge. Arrived at by both chance and deliberation, the final painting reveals varying chromatic strata, which can be seen through the translucence and depth of the work.
Each painting is imbued with an internal light. Not a depiction of light but the search for a sense of light emanating from within the painting. I want to see something brought to life, struggled for, with a sense of having its own history, and reflective of the time spent on its creation.
My aim is to create something positive and affirming which is filled with both light and darkness, contrasts, hesitations and contradictions – open paintings which allow the viewer’s imagination to search, wander or react at will.”