Two former Gallimaufry Gallery owners, Jean Thompson and Hilary, have organised an auction of Scottish art at Oban’s Regent Hotel from 2.00pm-7.00pm pon Saturday 27th February.
The auctioneer will be Donald Morrison and he, the artists, the Regent Hotel and the organisers are giving their respective contributions free, with all proceeds going to the Dalmally-based charity, Mary’s Meals for its aid effort in Haiti.
The charity
Mary’s Meals is focused on linking food with education for children in developing countries and areas of sharp need across the world. They have developed high nutrition meals and every child in every school it works with gets one such meal a day. This is a two-strike operation. it gives children a reason to go to school and it keeps them alive and healthy.
The charity has actually been working in Haiti since 2006 – at what is known as the world’s worst slum, Cite Soleil in Port au Prince and in Hinche, in the inland plateau.
With an already established presence, on-the-ground knowledge and contatcs, Mary’s Meals has been particularly effective in getting food and medical supplies to those who need them and is already working on its contribution to immediate and longer term recovery and development plans.
The artists
Among the artists donating the full sale price of their works to the appeal is Calum MacFarlane-Barrow, whose son Magnus runs this international charity from Dalmally.
Others include Elizabeth Bruce, Sue Challis and Keith Salmon.
Elizabeth Bruce is a Scottish contemporary artist whose painting style is representational but not photorealist.
She has worked in all media on a variety of subjects, usually concentrating on acrylics – still life, treescapes, figures, interiors and landscapes.
In January 2003 she was elected a member of the Glasgow Society of Women Artists. Her work has been shown in various galleries in Argyll, as well as the RGI Kelly Gallery and the Lillie Gallery, both in Glasgow; and the Torrance Gallery in Edinburgh.
Elizabeth likes to keep her work within the ‘affordable art’ bracket and prices start as low as £25 for an unframed lino-cut, while paintings are all between £140 and £500.
Sue Challis has lived and worked on the West Coast of Scotland for over twenty years. Educated in North London, she qualified as a lecturer in craft and design and youth leadership.
She now concentrates on acrylic painting and pen & ink drawing, responding to the bright colours and dancing light of the North West Coast of Scotland – passionately evoked in her work.
When she is not painting, Sue and her husband run another Argyll charity, the Strachur-based Raven Trust, sending containers of aid, medical, educational and small business start-up equipment to Malawi.
Keith Salmon is aiming to be at the auction in person. This award winning artist combines his twin passions of hill walking and landscape painting.
What makes him truly remarkable, though, is that he lost much of his sight almost 20 years ago. Despite these ‘difficulties’, his work won the Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting in 2009.
Describing some of his visits with partner Anita to some wild and remote glens and summits, under all conditions throughout all four seasons, Keith says ‘Even with my fuzzy vision this is a truly wonderful and stunning landscape. In my paintings I try to capture something of these incredible places, something of their sheer scale, complexity and beauty.’
The need
There cannot be a more worthy causeat the moment than the bringing of all possible relief to this poorest, most abused and hardest hit population.
There cannot be a more appropriate or more effective charity for Argyllachs to support than Mary’s Meals with its long track record, its established presence in Haiti and the inspirational imagination that shapes what it does and how it attracts support.
The art auction at the Regent Hotel in Oban on 27th February is one such opportunity,.Making a donation is another – and you can do this online at any time at the Mary’s Meals website.
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