Ellon & District Art Group

The seasons are marching on and we are now into what would have been our summer break. It is strange to think that we haven’t held an indoor session since March and I think we have all missed that weekly gathering. Weather permitting, we will hold two outdoor sessions at the Riverside Car Park in Ellon on Thursday July 9th and 16th from 10.30 until 1.00. We plan to do some sketching and painting or just plain socialise. This would be a good opportunity for anyone who is interested in joining the group to come along and see what we get up to; please just turn up and introduce yourself.

An artist who lived in Ellon for many years, has done this sketch to represent what is dominating our lives at the moment. ”I was looking for an expression of what was happening and this seemed to fit the bill. The virus strangling humanity”

Deborah Phillips was born in Dundee in 1965. Always anatural artist she first exhibited work at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art at the age of 14. She attended and graduated with BA Arts (Hons) from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1987. She is now established as a successful full time professional artists.

Deborah Phillips started her art career as a designer with the National Trust for Scotland. A similar role followed as Deborah undertook work with Historic Scotland. Deborah Phillips also worked with an international art and craft company professionally demonstrating art and craft materials from 1996 to 1998.

Today much of Deborah Phillips contemporary painting is undertaken from commissions. Corporate organisations such as Standard Life, Bank of Scotland, Marks and Spencer together with well know personalities feature as collectors of her increasingly popular painting.

Talking about her art work Deborah says,” I enjoy all aspects of creating a painting, from going out into the the stunning Scottish countryside to collect reference material, priming the board on which I will paint, squeezing paint from the tubes and watching it glisten on the palette, holding the well-used brushes, mixing the squelchy colour and applying it in swathes, varnishing, framing and then seeing the finished article on a gallery wall – every stage gives me a thrill.”

As a contemporary Scottish artist Deborah Phillips makes use of strong and bold colour. Her paintings are rooted in the rich, evocative Scottish Landscape. And in recent paintings Deborah has concentrated on using Acrylics which give added vitality and movement to her paintings.

A critic once wrote “Deborah Phillips is one of those gifted artists who can paint a scene which we are all familiar, yet have never seen as she sees it.” Deborah describes her paintings as “Jaunty Scottish landscape!”. They are certainly immediately identifiable and uplifting.

Several magazine articles have featured Deborah Phillips paintings including Artists and Illustrators and International Artist Magazine. She has also been the Cover Artist for Picture Business Magazine. And images of Deborah’s contemporary paintings are now available as greetings cards from Paperlink within their L’arte range. When she is not painting Deborah Phillips is also a convener at the Dundee Art Society.

Its always good to hear the younger generations are enjoying art. Here is a self portrait done by the great-granddaughter of one of our members:-

Ruthann is an artist and potter who lives in Norfolk but was born and brought up in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in California, between the ocean and desert. She says that “the primal connections to such physical elements as the mountains, sea and desert have formed me and been essential to the inspiration for my making pots”.  Her work is epitomised by soda glazing the clay and using “slips” (a mixture water, clay and mineral colourants e.g. manganese, iron, cobalt and chrome) to produce shades of orange, black, grey and blue.  

Ruthanne makes “families” of pots, in the same colours and form (oranges, browns and dark blues).  Her inspiration comes mainly from the natural world, especially the changing landscape and the human body.  Life drawing helps her reflect on the shape and form of her pots which take on a feeling of movement and dance.  She has built a brick kiln in the garden of her Norfolk home which is fired by wood and gas.  She sometimes uses clay dug from her own land to make pots. During the firing process she sprays the pots with a mixture of soda and water to produce a unique speckled finish.

Ruthanne is known internationally as a ceramic artist, bridging the world of art and ceramics.  See:  www.ruthannetudball.co.uk

Hailing from Middlesborough, Peter Goodfellow studied art at the Central School of Art in London and initially worked as a freelance illustrator, soon establishing himself as a leader in his field. Since moving to Scotland in 1985, he has become one of the countries best known landscape painters in both oil and watercolour. Latterly, he has also painted portraits, the urban environment and subjects expressing his view of the current state of the art establishment. He now lives in Aberdeenshire, running the excellent Lost Gallery in Strathdon with his wife, Jean.

He says of these two Paintings:

The mountain is Suilven in Assynt 90 x 140 cm oil on canvas 2007.This is my favourite landscape painting,& was on show in London, Edinburgh & Copenhagen . It was bought by a Danish Copywriter so it stayed in Denmark. The Double portrait is of Tracey Emin & is called The Gaze of Narcissus. 70 x 210 cms. oil on linen . If you look closely where the ripples form & become the right hand coloured portrait you will see a pound sign £. The left hand Black & White portrait is highlighting her lack of talent [Drawing, Painting ) so by self analysing her seedy & insincere past filled with promiscuity & drug abuse then documenting it by exhibiting unmade beds etc. she has made a fortune by just looking in the mirror.

The contributor of this piece says ”This artist truly epitomises the way I feel about colour and freedom with his exuberance. I do hope, one day, I could also convey sheer joy with my artwork”

Makiwa Mutomba (born 1976 in Zimbabwe) showed an excellent ability to draw at an early age. It was not until his third year at university in 1999 where he was studying Electronics Engineering that he quit studies and started painting pictures for a living. Moving from Bulawayo to Harare, which is the commercial capital of the country, and then on to the resort town of Victoria falls, where he sold miniature paintings at the roadside to tourists (hanging paintings from tree branches). It was at this time that Makiwa developed a love for the knife as a painting tool. Makiwa is the founder and Managing Director of Makiwa Galleries, which comprises of 4 Galleries in Durban, Pretoria, Franschhoek, and Hermanus. Most of his art is sold through Makiwa Galleries to art collectors in South Africa and all over the world.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: “I believe a true work of art has a life and a soul. It is for posterity. Human as I am, I can only attempt to create it, I never quite succeed. For true art is not human, but divine. Nevertheless, it is that quest for a masterpiece that makes me who I am. That never-ending search for the perfect picture, the definitive line, the ultimate poem, and above all, the truth. For the truth is more valuable than what we think we know. I do not make political or religious statements with my art. I paint pictures to give hope, joy, and meaning to the lives of those who see them. For beauty, I believe, is abounding in all creation. Even the humble, lowly, down-trodden and dirty have a beautiful story to tell. I will strive to show beauty where there is no beauty, and to show colour where there is only black and white.”