Stuart Buchanan Contemporary SCOTTISH ARTIST
Landscape & Figurative Paintings from Outside & Inside the Watchie Studio in Catterline - the Kincardineshire coast Aberdeenshire - the North East of Scotland
It is no surprise to hear that Stuart Buchanan is not the only artist to be inspired by the views from his studio The Watchie. This small fisherman's cottage was previously home to *Joan Eardley R.S.A. 1921-1963 - One of Scotland’s most important artist of the 20th Century*. Like Stuart Buchanan she studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Hospitalfield House. Both artists discovered there is great creative energy in this remote corner of Scotland.
‘Catterline is an old fishing village South of Aberdeen perched high above a horseshoe bay, overlooking the North Sea. With it’s rugged rather than picturesque beauty, the attraction for artists is obvious. In fact renowned artists have been coming here since the 1950s. In that time the ‘Watchie’ a 200 year old customs and excise house, has been used as a studio, hosting almost seventy years of continous creative practice. It is off-road and off grid, contemplative and quiet, unless it’s stormy, as it sits out on a headland just north of the village.
Prior to settling here, I’d been coming to Catterline to visit and stay with relatives since I was a teenager and perhaps I had always wanted to come and live here. Many years later and I have been painting in the ‘Watchie’ now for twelve years, after relocating from Glasgow to undertake a two year artist residency in Aberdeen in 2006.
There was a shift in my painting practice about a year and a half ago when the need for a more direct, expressive and painterly approach to my work was resolved by dragging the easel and the palette out of the studio and painting literally what was on my doorstep. This need has been growing in me for a long time, but l resisted for numerous reasons, not least because I had a succesful and identifiable body of work that was widely exhibited, and other notable artists had made paintings of Catterline their subject. But I am in Catterline and Catterline is where and what I want to paint. The results have been a much more rewarding process for me. I feel renewed energy and urgency and the paintings have become more about the moment, the seasons and most of all, about the paint.’ Stuart Buchanan
Joan Eardley* British, 1921-1963. Joan Eardley discovered Catterline, a fishing village, in 1951. Finding much inspiration. She worked on the shore braced against the elements.
Review: ‘The Modern Artists Gallery currently has a captivating exhibition showing the work of Scottish Artist, Stuart Buchanan. We often overlook the most beautiful under our noses because of its ordinary/ness. What can be more ordinary than the view from our house? Buchanan has created a series of paintings of the view from outside his studio ‘The Watchie’ of the village of Catterline, that show an intimacy of observation and enjoyment in the use of paint that I have not seen in his work before. The subtle changes of colour according to the times of the day, the bold brushstrokes to denote clouds, trees and cottages, even the tiny details of red oxide used on Scottish barns and outbuildings. Stuart Buchanan has not only taken a major side step but a brave stride away from his usual and familiar trademark style. For me it's courageous and lyrical, a stride in the right direction.” Gaila Adair. Artist, Author (West Sussex Ramblers) Landscape Designer, Master of Science (MSc) Conservation of Historic Gardens & Cultural Landscapes.
Stuart Buchanan Biography
1992 Glasgow School of Art, Drawing & Painting
1991 Summer Scholarship, Hospitalfield House, Arbroath
1998 Artist in Residence, Hospitalfield House, Arbroath
2003 Founded Mansfield Park Gallery, Glasgow
2004 Inaugural Artist Residency, The Watchhouse Studio, Catterline
2004 The Boys Next Door * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2006/08pARTners Artist in Residence, Aberdeen
2007 Two Scottish Painters and One Other * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2009 Under the Moon * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2011 Oil and Water * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2012 Hinterland, Wall Projects, Montrose
2013 We all need to feel loved * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2013 Poetics, Wall Projects, Montrose
2014 Paintings from the Watchie, Wall Projects, Montrose
2015 Message in a Bottle * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2016 Adrift, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2018 Landfall * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
2020 Close interaction, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay
2020/22/23 Catterline Revisited * Modern Artists Gallery Oxfordshire
