When the Glasgow artist Sir Muirhead Bone was designated Britain's first Official War Artist in 1916, he became the first incumbent of a post that would resonate strongly down the years, both with the public and those involved in the wars portrayed.
The interpretation of war through the eyes of the artist has a curiously mediating effect, whether propaganda or document, and it is one which the second-year students of Stromness Academy have been studying in preparation for Ravaged Landscapes, an exhibition of their own work.
The students have approached the First World War through the medium of landscape, taking as a starting the point the idea of the land that surrounds them now and the landscape they might have known a century ago.
"It was challenging for our young people to imagine what impact the war had on the land at that time and so we used archival photographs from the War Museum and other sites to help give some sense of realism to their research," says Art Department Principal, Brenda Johnstone.
Elsewhere at The Pier, youth continues to pervade with students from a little further along the educational line exhibiting their best works in Stargazing, a group show of Orcadian graduates recently returned from the UK's various art colleges. The 13 artists offer work in disciplines ranging from jewellery and painting to animation and sculpture. The gallery has been mounting a show of graduates since it was founded in 1979, giving freshly fledged artists an early chance to get their work seen and - perhaps more importantly for post-degree finances - sold.
Sarah Urwin Jones
Ravaged Landscapes/Stargazing, The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney, until March 21 and April 16, respectively
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