Local artist and gallery owner,Nicole Porter, has managed to establish a fine reputation in just a few years. Educated at Ellon Academy and then Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, where she obtained a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art in 2008, Nicole then embarked on a series of study placements in Norway, Paris and New York. Returning to Aberdeen in 2010 and with no business experience, she decided to open her own gallery. Looking back, she says, ”It was a bold move. Creating paintings is one thing, but being able to run a successful business is another thing altogether”. Well, she did make a success of it and her Gallery is now very well established and flourishing. Over the years she has won many awards for her work and exhibited in galleries in both the UK and abroad. Her speciality is portraiture but she also paints inspirational city landscapes. She now juggles, her painting and gallery management with bringing up a family of three small children.
Some of our members at the Thursday Outdoor Gathering
The outdoor meetings have proved a success socially, but not, as yet, artistically. We will meet again this coming Thursday (July 23rd) and possibly subsequent weeks whilst the good weather lasts and until indoor sessions resume.
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.
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.
tokkuri and guinomilarge jug
Ruthanne is known internationally as a ceramic artist, bridging the world of art and ceramics. See: www.ruthannetudball.co.uk
