Exhibitions 2023
David Bursill 1948-2020 - An Artist's Life on Skye - A Retrospective Exhibition of some of David's oil paintings and ceramics. 5/5/23-30/6/23
David was a ceramicist, painter, photographer, lapidary, and geologist who lived on Sleat for over thirty years. In 1995 David was one of six artists who opened the Sleat Craft Cooperative in Ardvasar; subsequently he opened The Pier Craft Shop which he ran for six years with the help of his sisters. Finally moving into the former Skye Batiks shop in Armadale where he, his sister and four part time staff (and keen crafters) worked for fifteen years.
We are very excited to be able to show and offer for sale some of David's vibrant landscapes and fantasy realism paintings, as well as some of his pottery whose glazes are inspired by his life long interest in nature and geology.
The Exhibition is running for the months of May and June in Studios 1 & 2. Opening times are Monday - Friday 2-4pm or by appointment, please message via email
At the studios, we have two lovely free exhibition spaces which are available for local artists who would like to exhibit their work.
Commission based.
Email us for more information.
PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS WE HAVE HAD INCLUDE:
Local Women Artist Exhibition (22/2/23)
How and Why?
I first saw a rather lovely exhibition of 4 local artists from Sleat on the Isle of Skye: Emma Siedle-Collins, Siusaidh NicNeill, Marrion Grant and Sheila Hamilton back in December 2022 at the An Crubh Community Hub, I had a delightful conversation with Emma, one of the artists, which resulted in me inviting the group to go ‘on tour’ to Skye Bridge Studios with their work. As fortune would have it, not long after that conversation, the wonderful Jo Royle ( Communications & Prevention Worker for Ross-shire, Skye & Lochalsh Women's Aid) approached us with an idea to hold an event for International Women’s Day on March 8th and immediately I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to celebrate more of our very creative local female artists. With the blessing of the original Sleat ladies, we put out a call and here you see the results. We welcome to the studios such amazing artists: Irene Blair, Julia Christie, Susan Dawson, Sarah Longley, Ilona Morison and Ellis O’Connor, who have all kindly lent their pieces to adorn the walls of Studio 2.
In addition to the international Women’s Day event and exhibition, we will be posting on our website and socials, a series of interviews celebrating the wonderful women in our local area who have been nominated by their peers in recognition of their talents as leaders, role models and all round fabulous humans! These will be posted on our blog page on the SBS website: www.skyebridgestudios123.com in the coming weeks.
We hope that this exhibition will be the start of a regular yearly event as well as more pop-up exhibitions of local artists. If you are interested in exhibiting at the Skye Bridge Studios please email us at contact@ skyebridgestudios123.com. We would love to hear from you.
Robert Andrews’ exhibition of recycled robot art ‘ROBOMOFOS’ (1/8/2022)
Originally from London, Robert Andrews has lived in the Orkney Islands for the past twenty years. He has worked previously as a teacher and then a graphic designer but, after being made redundant during the pandemic, he took up sculpture and invented ROBOMOFOS — robots made of found objects.
Robert collects unwanted metal objects from his local dumps and scrap yards, picks up pieces of brick-a-brack from markets and charity shops and gives them new life by assembling them into anthropomorphic figures reminiscent of the robots of mid-century science fiction. he has had several successful exhibitions in Orkney but this one is his first off the islands.
At the outset, Robert has very little concept of what a finished sculpture will look like — the overall form being dictated by the shape of the objects available and how he can manage to fit them together. When deciding how to combine the objects he endeavours to achieve a well-proportioned, self-confident and expressive-looking character with details that give the illusion of functionality. Robert judges the success of any particular piece by the extent to which the personality of the newly formed “robot” achieves a stronger identity than the former function of its component parts.
Robert cites his influences as African tribal art, science fiction films and comics, and the instagram pages of other contemporary artist currently engaged in making art from recycled scrap and, of course, the industrial designers who first created the objects he uses.
Each piece is unique and identified only by a serial number, but most of Robert’s customers give their robomofo a name once they get it home.
@robomofos on Instagram and Facebook
Scrapsmouse’s Exhibition of Figurative Mixed Media Drawings (1/5/2022)
“I am a mixed media artist based in Brighton and ‘scrapsmouse’ is my nickname. I belated discovered that I am ambidextrous, and now tend to draw two handed. I am interested in the conversations that seem to develop between my more rigid right hand, and the freer lines that my left seems to be able to produce. I like to explore how layers of collage and different media can add an element of dynamism in my work.
I try to recycle everyday scraps and materials to help explore a slightly alternative perspective on life drawing. My focus is on abstracted representations of physical forms.
These studies were done over the past few years at local life drawing sessions.”
@scrapsmouse on Instagram and Facebook, email:
Simon Riddell’s ‘Mental Collodion’ (1/3/2022)
“This exhibition comprises a selection of portraits taken from the ‘Mental Collodion’ project -an initiative to raise awareness and inspire positivity surrounding the thoughts, emotions, and states of mind regarding mental health.”
@mentalcollodion on Instagram
Lynn Fraser and Sara Taylor’s photography exhibition ‘Isle 2 Isle’ (9/8/2021)
‘Isle 2 Isle’ is the result of an ongoing collaboration between two creative friends. Lynn Fraser and Sara Taylor. They live on the Black Isle and the Isle of Skye respectively and travel from isle to isle for chat, wine, and photographic adventures. Each month they choose a different theme and curate the results on Instagram.
They are particularly drawn to nature and their environment, and the climate crisis is of great concern to both of them. With this in mind, they have been looking more closely at flora., fauna, physical features, and topography, documenting the beauty that catches their eye as they go about their daily lives living in the highlands.
@isle.2isle on Instagram
