‘So often we find ourselves drawn to nature, to the coast, the sea, its rhythm and its power, a retreat from the bustle of the human world. The sea remains a constant escape for me.’ – Sarah Carrington

In this majestic collection, Coastal Light, Sarah Carrington uses acrylic, ink, emulsion, oil and chalk to portray the changing mood and weather along the seashore. 

From 1912, the Edinburgh artist Francis Cadell regularly travelled to Iona to paint, and a few years later, wrote to his friend, Samuel Peploe, ‘When the War is over I shall go to the Hebrides. There is something marvellous about those western seas. Oh, Iona. We must go together.’ And so, from 1919, Cadell and Peploe visited each summer until 1933.

 ‘I have been drawn to Iona since a child, with its clear waters, clarity of light, history and heritage. It is an island I keep coming back to for inspiration, and I never tire painting it’. – Sarah Carrington

The timeless tranquillity of the island has remained virtually unchanged over the past century and now Carrington follows in the brushstrokes of the Scottish Colourists. The vibrant palette of aqua, azure and cerulean blues in Warm Day Iona evokes the bright sun reflected on the grains of sand, grey rocks and gentle waves.

With a more impressionistic vision, Evening Light, Iona is bathed in such a delicate glow across the streaked, striated strips of sky, smudge of cloud, ribbons of rocks, sparkling sand and glassy water. 

‘Using household emulsion, inks and acrylics I describe the shape of the clouds and the land, mark-making, using pen, pencil and chalk for waves and sea foam. Finally, real gold leaf to highlight where the sunlight touches the land and sea’. – Sarah Carrington 

A mesmerising triptych, Iona Clouds dominates one wall in the Gallery: such a cinematic perspective to dramatise the blustery sweep of dark rain clouds, flow and fluidity between sea and sky, evoking a tangible sense of peace and serenity along this deserted coastline.

A boat trip away is the Isle of Staffa, famous for Fingal’s Cave, formed of hexagonal basalt columns, where the lyrical sound of waves inspired Felix Mendelssohn to compose his Hebrides Overture, to echo the surreal experience. 

Moving to Northern Ireland fourteen years ago introduced Sarah to the Causeway coastline, where the basalt stone is similar to Staffa, crafted from the same volcanic lava flow – or as the Vikings believed, the work of giants. 

The ancient legends of these Celtic geological rocks neatly links Sarah’s love of the Hebrides and her new home in Ireland. She regularly takes her sketchbook for a direct and raw response to the ever-changing light of the sea, observing the dramatic Causeway coast through a carpet of wild flowers. 

In contrast to the cool Northern air, travel south to the Algarve, Portugal, where a cave below sandstone cliffs and the translucent sea dazzles in the hot sunshine with intense luminosity. 

Also at the Open Eye, a Memorial Exhibition commemorates the work of Andrew Restall (1931 – 2024), who graduated from ECA in 1954, specialising in painting, printmaking and collage, and over a prestigious 20-year career designed stamps for the Post Office, including the Forth Road Bridge, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon centenary, and other notable events. 

‘From studying in the 1940s to living in the Scottish Borders, my sustaining link has been landscape. Alongside teaching, I worked from 1964 for the Post Office designing stamps. This took me into a different world, building on an interest in typography and printing process. Yet the guiding principles of observation, research, analysis and resolution were the same’. – Andrew Restall 

The task of illustrating specific images for the Post Office, restricted to the dimensions of a postage stamp, would have been a valuable masterclass of perfecting pictorial designs. Latterly, he explored visual ideas for abstracted studies of the landscape around his home in West Linton. This is an inspiring retrospective to showcase the artistic craftsmanship, discipline and design of Restall’s paintings, collagraphs and etchings. 

Pentland Rise is such a finely-crafted composition of geometric blocks, forming a jagged jigsaw pattern of fields, woodland, fences, stream and pond, with the Pentland Hills, it seems, dusted in winter snow. 

The word collagraph is derived from the Greek ‘colla’, meaning glue, and ‘graph,’ to draw, and is a collage of textured materials glued onto a printing plate, often thin wood or cardboard. The plate is inked often by hand, and then printed onto paper as a form of relief printing with additional marks and collage.

This minimalist decorative design neatly depicts the rectangular shape and straight furrowed lines of Ploughed Field, inventively embossed with a further series of ridges across the white paper. 

In After a Storm, Easter Howgate the simplicity in the image of fallen trees and lacy, spider’s-web pattern clearly evokes the dramatic destruction of a strong gale on the countryside. One can appreciate the time-consuming, complex process of inking, scraping, engraving, colouring and printing to create this tailored, textured collagraph and etching. 

Like a mesmerising optical illusion with a 3D effect, Above and Below a Bank demonstrates how Restall was able to experiment with line, form and colour to create a mosaic of squares and stripes as if floating against a background of shimmering shadows. 

The Douro River, Portugal flows through a fertile valley, famous for wine, and lined with five locks and dams. In Douro Lock, the giant concrete structure is jazzily juxtaposed against the surrounding green and terracotta hillside; through insightful observation and a symbolic vocabulary, the reality of the landscape is succinctly translated into a spectrum of shape and space with aesthetic vision.  

With thanks to Vivien Devlin for this review.