INTERIORS can serve many purposes. They can simply act as a background for still life or a more lively scene, or they can be the focal point of an image. They might document a period in history, or even become an active part in a narrative.

View From The Inside: Interiors In Scottish Art at the City Art Centre looks at the subject from all angles and the results are both entertaining and informative.

The first and most obvious thing to note is the range of styles and media on display. There were oils and watercolours, certainly, but also photographs and - most unusually - a scalpel painting by Edith Simon. Using layers of finely cut card and paper in a variety of colours for Kinny Garden Posing In The Studio, a three dimensional image featuring extremely delicately-rendered objects and furniture captivates the viewer in a unique and very satisfying way.

No less unusual, though in a different and harrowing way, was Shroud And Barrier, by Neil Dallas Brown. This compelling oil painting has a barren feel of despair about it, showing, as it does, a character hidden by a shroud in a desolate, grim room, further detached from the viewer by black crash barriers. Everything about the work should isolate the figure, yet its obvious plight still invites empathy.

Tea Ladies’ Coffee Break also had a bleak, unwelcoming air about it, but this time the culprit was soulless interior design. Two figures sit, waiting for the lunchtime rush in a “calm before the storm” moment. Not even the plants in the room seem to be able to cheer up this sorry scene, wryly captured in watercolour by Harry More Gordon.

A lack of decoration need not mean unwelcome, however. Mary’s Chapel, Burnet’s Close - one of two watercolours by Mary Cameron - demonstrates that sparsity can still be attractive, depending on the purpose of the space.

Unusual surroundings can make for interesting backgrounds. Glenogle Baths, an oil by John Bellany painted while he was still in college, shows people of all shapes and sizes posing unnaturally and awkwardly by the diving board. Funny and almost historic at the same time, it holds the eye for longer than might have been expected.

John Henry Lorimer’s Flight Of The Swallows is an excellent example of combining storytelling, documentary and emotion in a single work. The setting is the Lorimer family home, Kellie Castle, around the turn of the century and it delightfully presents a moment from days long gone while evoking a quiet sense of change.

A different sort of narrative is suggested by James Pryde’s The Red Bed. Dark and unashamedly gothic, the image was based on Mary, Queen Of Scots’ bed chamber in Holyrood Palace and, because no story is offered, the possibilities become limitless.

Francis Cadell’s lively depiction of a New Town flat in The Black Hat, Cornelius Johannes Cossaar’s impressionistic Reredos, St Paul’s and many others add up to a whirlwind tour of homes, palaces, cathedrals and workplaces in a plethora of media, making a trip to the peaceful interior of the gallery’s basement more than worthwhile.

source : living.scotsman.com