Art at Drum Castle, Aberdeenshire

Whilst Aberdeen Art Gallery is closed for a major rebuild and refurbishment, samples of its extensive collection can be seen in various local venues. We love the gallery and usually have it on our list for a visit when we are up here in this part of Scotland so we'd were delighted to find one of the small exhibitions so close at hand in the National Trust for Scotland's Drum Castle just east of Banchory.

We spent a very pleasant day there yesterday renewing our acquaintance with Drum and viewing the exhibition. Although small, the latter was beautifully curated and offered an excellent range of works, many of which I had not seen before. It ranged from installations and abstract works to formal portraiture and traditional landscapes.

Photography was not encouraged and anyway would have been difficult as most works were behind glass so I have only the one piece to show, a large oil on canvas by Callum Innes.

       

I viewed this beautiful minimalist canvas with great pleasure. Despite being a Turner Prize nominee in 1995 and a former Jerwood Painting Prize winner, Callum Innes' work was new to me and I was fascinated by the technique he had used for this work. It was described in the accompanying citation as being created in a process of 'unpainting'. This began with 'a minimalist canvas painted in one colour [from which] paint is removed with washes of turpentine'. I found the result most satisfying and I stood for a long time absorbing its stillness.

Other works that have especially stayed in the mind include a large oil painting from the Catterline series by Joan Eardley, an atmospheric still life by John Peploe and a lovely delicate Turner watercolour.

There was much to enjoy and I very much hope that this policy here at Drum of sharing work from the Gallery's collection will continue when the main gallery reopens in Aberdeen next year.