Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts at The Lillie Art Gallery, Station Road, Milngavie until September 21
www.edlc.co.uk/arts/lillie_art_gallery/exhibitions_at_the_lillie.aspx
THE Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) has had a rocky couple of years. This august artists' collective has a history dating back to the glory days of Victorian Glasgow when wealthy patrons supported the work of a burgeoning arts scene.
Unfortunately, internal wrangling has led to the cancellation of this art collective's open annual exhibition for the last two years.
Things are looking up though. As a taster for its 153rd open annual exhibition, which will take place at The Mitchell in Glasgow in November, an exhibition by past and present elected RGIs in association with the Lillie Collection, is gracing the walls of the Lillie Art Gallery in Milngavie.
This exhibition, featuring over 60 works, is a class act. If you want to see work by some of the best painters and sculptors in Scotland over the last half century or so, then this is the place.
The Lillie has a fine collection of work tucked away in its store room and this show has offered a welcome opportunity to dust down work by the likes of James Robertson, Mary Armour, William Littllejohn, David Donaldson, George Devlin, Willie Rodger, Elizabeth Blackadder, John Byrne and Alexander Goudie.
There is also work on show (and for sale) by RGIs working away at the top of their game. Three mighty fine paintings by Helen Flockhart, James McNaught and Neil MacDonald have already been snapped up for the Lillie Collection.
Helen Flockhart's Low Whistle is a miniature which glows like a Renaissance jewel. How she paints these tiny toes on her leading man is anyone's guess. I had seen this work on Helen's Facebook page prior to visiting but seeing it in the flesh reminded me that there's no digital substitute for a beautifully rendered oil painting like this one and the many others on the walls of the Lillie.
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