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Overleaf:
Light summer rain Isle of Islay
oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches
£3800
John Lowrie Morrison OBE
‘AWAY TO THE HEBRIDES’
14th Annual London Exhibition
presented by
Corrymella Scott
at Gallery 8, 8 Duke Street St. James’s, London SW1Y 6BN
(nearest tubes: Green Park and Charing Cross: British Rail: Charing Cross)
Monday 18 - Saturday 30 May 2015Ł
Mon - Sat 10am-6pm (Saturday 30 closes 2pm) Sun 11am-4pm
The Exhibition will be opened by the
Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT, GCMG, hon FRSE, PC
The artist will donate a percentage of
the proceeds from this exhibition to Carers Trust
All paintings in the exhibition are for sale on receipt of this catalogue
View all 60 original paintings in the exhibition at
www.corrymellascottgallery.co.uk
For further information contact
orrymella Scott e: [email protected] t: 07763 789112
C
Photography by Rob McDougal
03
Born in 1948 in Maryhill, Glasgow, John is now one of Scotland’s most loved artists. Having studied art at Glasgow
School of Art from 1967-1971, he went on to undertake postgraduate studies at GSA in 1971-1972 and then a Dip Ed
in 1972-1973. For more than 25 years John pursued a successful career in art education from his base in Argyll, West
Scotland, rising to Principal Teacher of Art at Lochgilphead High School and Art Adviser to Strathclyde Region. Since his
first solo show in 1976 Jolomo has become a highly successful artist. John has become best known for his painting of the
West of Scotland, filled with colour and passion.
Giving up his teaching career to paint full time in 1997, John has successfully exhibited his work in solo and mixed exhibitions
at numerous galleries in Scotland, England, Hong Kong and the USA. His spectacular career has been captured in film,
in the DVD “I Know Where I am Going” by mitchellmcglone and the BBC TV Film, “A Man With the Golden Brush” and
in the books “The Colour of Life” and “Jolomo - Retrospective”. John frequently features in the media, most recently on
the television programmes “Blethering Scots” and “Elizabeth Queen of Scots”.
John donates a percentage of his sales to charity and makes significant donations of art work to charity each year. In
November 2012, John and his wife Maureen were invited by HRH The Princess Royal to become Vice Presidents of Carers
Trust.
In November 2008 John was presented with an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West of Scotland
and in November 2009 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Abertay Dundee University, for “A significant
contribution to Scottish culture”. In the 2011 New Year’s Honours List John received an OBE for services to art and to
charity in Scotland.
In 2005 John established The Jolomo Foundation, a charitable body aimed at promoting and encouraging the painting of
the Scottish landscape. Through The Foundation, the Jolomo Awards were launched in 2006 with the first Awards being
made in June 2007 and then again in 2009 and 2011.
The Jolomo Foundation launched the Awards for the fourth time in September 2012. The Awards prize pot will be
£35,000, the winner receiving £25,000, making them the largest privately funded Arts Award in the UK.
The Jolomo Bank of Scotland Awards 2013 were presented at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow in June
2013. For more information see www.jolomofoundation.org
A major Retrospective of John’s work was opened in June 2013 in the newly refurbished Clydebank Town Hall, Museum
& Gallery, running till September 2013. The Retrospective proved hugely popular attracting over 20,000 visitors and a full
programme of schools visits: – further information at www.jolomo.com
In 2013 John featured in Nick Crane’s Coast programme on BBC as it took in Scotland’s west coast, particularly Oban
and the surrounding area. And currently, an in depth film profile of John, including the Opening of his annual Mayfair
exhibition, is being recorded for broadcast by BBC Alba in October 2015.
04
A breath of Hebridean air
London in May: just as temperatures begin to rise, tourists arrive and city-dwellers start wishing for a breath of fresh
air, John Lowrie Morrison’s new exhibition at Gallery 8 brings a welcome sea breeze into Mayfair from the furthest
reaches of the Western Isles.
‘Away to the Hebrides’ is an invitation to visit a very different place: to walk along deserted beaches, knock on the
doors of white-washed crofts, to smell the seaweed and watch the changing colours in the big island skies. John’s
paintings of landscapes from Harris and South Uist evoke a world where modern life coexists with traditions going
back hundreds of years.
The title of the exhibition is inspired by ‘Away to the West’, a painting by 19th-century Scottish artist Sir William
McTaggart, himself a master of colour and shifting light. “I always thought it was a very evocative title, ever since I
was at school,” John says. “Living in Glasgow, it made me want to be out there in Argyll and Kintyre. It evokes that
romantic feeling which I have about the West Coast, and the Hebrides in particular.”
This collection of new work draws on several trips to the Hebrides over a period of decades, visiting the area where
his father grew up on a croft at Kyles of Scalpay at the South-east end of Harris. He captures a period of change
on the islands in which old blackhouses have been replaced by modern bungalows, but the connections to the past
- the stacks of peats and hay by the cottage doors - still remain.
“These paintings are tied in with my thoughts of the past, and my family’s past, the rhythms of what they did,” he
says. “Cutting the peat, cutting the hay, collecting the seaweed to put down and fertilise the soil. There was a season
for everything.”
His paintings balance the drama of expressionist colour with traces of ordinary life. You may need to look closely
to see them: the peat stack, the hens pecking in the dust, the ladder propped up against the wall. “I love all that,
the detritus left lying about outside a croft, the telegraph poles. Nothing to be drawn to in terms of beauty, but it’s
beautiful to me.”
His landscapes might be sublime in colour but they are rarely unspoiled. The hand of man is always here, whether
in the medieval tower of St Clement’s Church rising from the hamlet of Rodel, the straight form of a lighthouse
standing sure against a squall, or the “Golden Road” down the East side of Harris, so called because of the amount
it cost to build through this rocky, inhospitable terrain.
Yet John’s greatest fascination is light. He says it grows, year on year, and is nowhere more apparent than on the
Hebrides where it has so many moods: the slowly fading blue of the sky at sunrise, the fiery colours of sunset, the
quiet light of evening, the soft green of a summer shower. Against this drama, is played out the homely detail of
human life.
Susan Mansfield
Writer and Arts Journalist
April 2015
Evening storm on the Abbey, Isle of Iona
oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches
£8000
05
Evening summer light Isle of Gigha
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4000
06
A South Uist moonlight
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
07
08
North Uist Machair
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3000
Fresh day, The Village, Iona
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3500
Summer light Luskentyre, Isle of Harris
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4000
09
Snow storm passing Port Ellen, Islay
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
10
Summer light Isle of Berneray looking to Harris
oil on canvas 30 x 30 inches
£6000
11
Big squall over Scalpay Lighthouse
oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches
£3600
12
Evening light St. Clements Church, Rodel, Isle of Harris
oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches
£8000
13
Evening light Portnahaven, Isle of Islay
oil on canvas 30 x 30 inches
£6500
14
High summer on Isle of Berneray
oil on canvas 30 x 30 inches
£6000
15
Two beehives on the Sound of Iona
oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches
£3600
16
Abandoned crofts and haystacks South Uist
oil on canvas 30 x 30 inches
£6000
17
Quiet evening at Baile, Isle of Berneray
oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches
£3600
18
Evening gloaming on the Machair, South Uist
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4000
19
20
Beached boats South Uist
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3500
Croft and peat stack at Lochs, Isle of Lewis
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3000
Summer light Isle of Benbecula
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3000
21
Light summer rain Isle of Gigha
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
22
Croft and haystacks Isle of Berneray
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4000
23
Croft and haystacks, Howmore, South Uist
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
The North Uist Machair
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4000
24
Evening light the Bishop’s House Iona
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4000
25
Isle of Barra Airport
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
26
High summer on Iona
oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches
£3800
27
Croft and peat stack at Gerinish, South Uist
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
28
A South Uist gloaming
oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches
£3800
29
Big moon on the Golden Road Isle of Harris
oil on canvas 30 x 30 inches
£6000
30
Big storm over Scalpay Light, Isle of Harris
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3500
31
Summer light Dunyvaig Castle Isle of Islay
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3000
32
Storm passing Isle of Harris
oil on canvas 16 x 16 inches
£3000
33
Soft summer rain on East Coast, Harris
oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches
£4500
34
Night mooring Kintra, Isle of Islay
oil on canvas 12 x 12 inches
£2200
Dawn light over Isle of Iona
oil on canvas 12 x 12 inches
£2200
35
THE JOLOMO AWARDS FOR LANDSCAPE PAINTING
The Jolomo Bank of Scotland Awards were presented for the
fourth time in June 2013 following a record number of entries
to the Awards painting competition.
The 2013 winner, selected unanimously by the judging panel, was
Campbeltown born Dawnne McGeachy who won the first prize
of £25,000.
The Jolomo Awards, organised by The Jolomo Foundation, were
first launched in 2006 with the principal aim of promoting and
encouraging the painting of the Scottish landscape. The Awards,
which are presented every two years, are now very much part of
the Scottish arts scene and are Scotland’s largest arts prize with
a total prize “pot” of £35,000.
Also in 2013, for the first time, the Jolomo Schools Award was
presented. This landscape painting competition was open to all
senior phase pupils in Scotland and was won by Justine Nawrot
who, by amazing coincidence, is based in Campbeltown and
attends the local Grammar School in the town.
More information about The Jolomo Foundation and the Awards
programme can be found at www.jolomofoundation.org
e: [email protected] t: 07763 789112
www.corrymellascottgallery.co.uk