The term “art critic” implies a negativity which by and large doesn’t exist in the writers who sally forth into the art world to create vivid pen portraits of the art they see and the artists they meet. Art critics tend to be art lovers. Not fighters. So it was with the late W Gordon Smith. Smith wrote about art for the likes of Visual Arts Scotland and Scotland on Sunday in an accessible and upbeat fashion from 1980 until his death in 1996. But writing was just one of the many strings Smith had to his creative bow. Author, poet, dramatist and photographer, he was also a prolific and pioneering filmmaker, who made more than 100 Scope and Spectrum arts documentaries for BBC Scotland from 1969 to 1980.
A rare oil painting dating back to the early 1970s is one of many pieces of artwork featuring in a dedicated online auction of Scottish Contemporary Art on Sunday 24th January. The painting entitled, ‘Factories in the Snow’, depicts Glasgow’s former industrial heartland and is considered to be one the highest acclaimed works by UK landscape artist, Herbert Whone. Industrial blocks and towering chimneys depict the city in transition in the winter of 1973 as the bellowing smoke lingers across the sky. Whone moved to Glasgow in 1955, producing a range of paintings highlighting the changing face of the city. His works seldom appear at auction, and experts at McTear’s expect the painting to sell for up to £8000.
Wick artist s painting like a LSD trip By David G Scott Published: 07:37, 17 January 2021
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A painting featuring in a new online show by an artist from Wick was lauded by a scientist who had worked in psychedelic therapy in the 1950s.
Professor Ian Charles Scott, who now lives in New York, has work in the show hosted by Edinburgh s prestigious Open Eye Gallery â an online-only exhibition due to Covid restrictions.
The show is called An Exhibition Celebrating the Lives of W Gordon Smith and Mrs Jay Gordonsmith and features Ian s painting, which was created in 1989 and depicts a surreal scene within a megalithic chambered tomb in Orkney known as the Dwarfie Stane.