Maggie and I drove to the north-east of Scotland - Dingwall, via Inverness - to pay a visit to Louise and Andrew. The weather was absolutely glorious! The fields of barley are now golden; the rolling farmland made a pleasant change from our west coast more mountainous and damp part of the world.
Louise took us to this wonderful art gallery only a few miles along the road from her home. The website is here. There is a map on the Find Us page.
Until about 4 years ago it was still used as a church but, like so many churches, the numbers were falling and it was sold. To my mind it has been very sensitively changed for purposes of its current function. That is a Bechstein grand piano and the little card on the beautifully polished lid says that the piano is cared for - I can see that it is and therefore I'll bet it is regularly tuned - and that it is there to be played should anyone wish to. Full marks on two counts!
I really like what the lady whose gallery it is, has done with the place. Everything about the place 'worked' - the building, the interior fittings, the way she arranged the gallery into spatial 'rooms' (it is all open space).
So many buildings or rooms are, to my mind, 'dead', i.e. they say nothing to you when you look at them nor do they speak to you when you enter the building or perhaps a room inside. (Actually, there is one thing worse than a building not speaking to me is one where I simply cannot engage with it, for example, one where you cannot find the door!!!)This place was different. Look at those pots on the doorstep. They say it all! It just got better and better! Her selection of paintings, glassware, ceramics, to mention just a few, was most impressive!
This is the window above the main (front) entrance. It intrigued me. I am not a great fan of stained glass but I liked this window. I like the geometry. There's a thought: maybe it isn't stained glass!
1 comment:
This is certainly a great way to keep this beautiful building open. I checked the web site you linked to and I liked the second painting, the painting of Christine O’Keeffe because of the beautiful blue colours. I hope this gallery will be successful. Where I live, they have built 3 new churches in the last couple of years. I was thinking that it was interesting to note that in Europe churches are now art galleries, restaurants or bookstores and here they are building them at a high pace; don’t know what to make of it. I liked the leaded glass on the window you showed – I have a china cabinet with the same type of door (it was made in the UK and bought at an old antique shop in the 70s).
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