Two Sides of the Sky – Catherine Sargeant and Stella Auchinleck

Looking up is the inspiration for this collaborative exhibition of paintings, allowing you to enjoy our ever changing skies without getting a crick in your neck.

The sky above and the large bodies of water on our earth are constantly changing due to the effects of the passage of the sun, the moon and the atmosphere. Visually the sea is in a constant state of flux, its movement reflecting what the sky above is experiencing. This reflection or mirroring, has long been a fascination for living beings. People are in awe of the power and the beauty of these elements.

Both artists talk about how the meditative act of observing these movements feeds their desire to create. Representing in their own ways the effect the changing colours, changing seasons, changing weather and changing times of the day bring to us. Catherine layers up text and asemic writing in her artwork and Stella has a fluid and expressive style, together they will be exhibiting their own perspectives on this ever morphing entity.

The location of the exhibition in Perth as a central point in Scotland is strategically placed as equidistant between the two coast lines: a meeting place. Sargeant’s influence is mainly from the West coast and Auchinleck’s from the East. Both artists are based in Patriothall studios in Edinburgh. They both graduated from Edinburgh College of Art – Stella in 1983 – followed by a post-grad in Cyprus and subsequent long stint abroad. Catherine was a mature student in 2007 when she was awarded the Wasps new graduate prize. Between them they have exhibited widely throughout the UK and various European countries in solo and group shows. This new venture of a joint exhibition allows them the opportunity to juxtapose large and smaller scale paintings in new and exciting way.

Catherine Sargeant is a visual artist based in Scotland who uses text or asemic writing in her artworks. Creating works in paint, pigment, print and collage, she combines materials and techniques depending on the subject and/or the materials available. Frequently working in series with varying scale. Utilising direct observation of the changing sea and sky along with the long held fascination with text allows exciting combinations, Catherine aims to take these and create works that will simultaneously calm and question the viewer. The text in her works have a certain amount of ambiguity allowing the viewer to add to the story. She has exhibited locally and internationally, in 2023 she exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Show. Graduating as a mature student from Edinburgh College of Art during its Centenary year in 2007, Catherine became the first recipient of the Wasps’ new graduate award, giving her a studio space in Patriothall where she continues to work. She spends many weeks each year in an old fisherman’s cottage near Gairloch which allows direct observations of the changing sea-loch and the expansive sky which are the starting point for many of her artworks.

Stella Auchinleck was born in Edinburgh and spent her formative years in the East Neuk of Fife. Stella is a visual artist exploring the world around her and personalising it. She works predominantly in oils to articulate her joy of saturated colour and in watercolours to capture quickly changing moments. Stella graduated from the ECA in 1983 and promptly headed to warmer climes thanks to a scholarship. Following a post-grad year in Cyprus, she moved to Turkey where she resided for more than 10 years. It was there that a deep rooted love of the sea, the landscape and culture around her inspired her to record her world in paint. Further travels to the subcontinent and far east deepened her desire to capture moments of the environment she finds herself in. By focusing on the shifting patterns and fluctuations of light, Stella seeks to represent vibrant juxtapositions with simplified blocks of strong colour. Years later Stella is established back in Edinburgh and has returned to the coast-line of the Lothians and Fife for her inspiration. The ever changing cloud cover and discrepancies between the quality of light from either shore is a fascination and a recurring theme. Stella looks to traditional sources such as the Scottish Colourists and the American Abstract Expressionists for inspiration. She has been teaching Art and Design in Secondary schools for several years and continues to do alongside her own art practice.