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Open Light is an exhibition of new and recent paintings by Inverness born painters Eric Cruikshank and James Lumsden. Both artists share an interest in the creation of a sense of light, space and depth emanating from within their work, which although influenced by minimal, abstract, and reductive painting, is rooted in landscape and a sense of place. The exhibition will be on view from April 6th to May 27th, 2024. 

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and gallery on Castle Wynd in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland. Admission is free. The collection and facilities are managed by High Life Highland on behalf of Highland Council.

Taking landscape as a starting point, Eric Cruikshank’s paintings are not about literal presentation, but focus on the emotive qualities of place. Using an objective palette tied to the Scottish landscape, color acts as a vehicle to reveal the underlying points of reference. Meticulous color layering creates an ambience of calmness and serenity that requires quiet contemplation. The passage from one color to the next is blurred and effusive without any visible recess, just like an immaculate sunrise. His work oscillates between opacity and translucency, between representation and abstraction, exploring notions of color and light in a painterly space while investigating the process of painting itself. In the absence of imagery or narrative the panels are left open to interpretation, as an almost blank plane, to reflect the viewer’s own emotions and ideas. The viewer is encouraged to readdress notions of their surroundings where the familiar is opened up and made full of possibility.

James Lumsden works between the Isle of Lewis and Edinburgh, developing separate yet related series of work in each studio. Rooted in considerations of light, depth, and mark – although essentially abstract – his paintings allude to landscape and a sense of place which has developed from living on the island. Building multiple thin layers of translucent color, each painting is imbued with an internal light; not a depiction of light but the search for a sense of light emanating from within the painting. His aim is to create open paintings which are positive and affirming, something brought to life, struggled for, with a sense of it having its own history. With titles that often relate to music he hopes that the viewer will respond to the paintings as they would to a piece of music, without the need for words. As with music he hopes that the work instils some sort of feeling in the viewer.