Barbara Rae RA, internationally acclaimed painter and printmaker, studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961-1965. Her original prints reflect the extensive amount of traveling she’s done. From an ancient Scottish stone to a Spanish hillside, Rae’s prints tend to be inspired by the landscape and scenery that affect her. All display bold, bright colours to vibrant and evocative effect.
Located, unsurprisingly, on Dundas street, the Dundas Gallery’s bright airy spaces bring out the best in Rae’s work. When looked at closely, layers upon layers of acrylic paint and ink can be discerned, built up to give her prints the illusion of being a painting. With the clearly outlined ‘brushstrokes’ and amount of detail captured in her work, this is highly convincing. The amount of time and technical skill used to create these beautiful prints is evident. The light hitting the liquid silver used in pieces such as ‘Achil Evening’ elevates these works, adding an unusually sombre and eerie tone to works that are always otherwise rather vivacious.
Rae’s work is spontaneous and unplanned; she lets the art direct her rather than the other way around. This results in a rather abstract style and often means that she is driven by a desire to create aesthetically pleasing work, rather than art loaded with symbolism and hidden meaning.
The furniture in the gallery is also for sale. The blue, Spanish-styled bench and wooden coffee table perfectly complement the blazing sun and blanched landscape portrayed in Rae’s Spanish sequence of prints. The bench, on which you can sit, directly faces these desert scenes and means that you feel fully immersed in the scene and are transported to a world of blistering heat; the space is used very well.
Barbara Rae has won a number of awards including Major Scottish Arts Council Awards (1975, 1981), the Guthrie Medal, Royal Scottish Academy (1977), Royal Scottish Academy Sir William Gillies Travel Award (1983), Calouste Gulbenkian Printmaking Award (1983) and Hunting Group Prizewinner (1990) and this exhibition does nothing but support her claim to such praise. Her skill at printmaking is undeniable and her artwork is exceptionally beautiful. The use of bold, vivid colours combined with the depth of texture and detail that she captures means that Rae’s work is highly entrancing; go and stare at it. For hours.
