Art in the Granite city

For the last of my blogs about my delay in Aberdeen I'm popping into a couple of the city's art galleries. It's actually very rare on a visit of any length to Aberdeen  that I don't pop into the main art gallery to see what's going on. This month they've got the winning pictures from the BP Portrait competition on display. I've managed to catch them somewhere for the last couple of years as they tour the country after the judging. Oh I can't say that I like the winning picture much - you can surf it up yourself if you want but it's not appearing here. At least it's not in the photographically realistic category - I'm really not a fan of pictures who's main attribute seems to be that you can't tell it's a painting even when you have your nose almost in the paint. There were several paintings well worth a look so do catch it if you can.  I rather liked the picture that they chose for the front of the current gallery pamphlet (left) which is Blue Coco by Shaun Downey and the delightful painting below called Clare with Claire by Brian Shields (I managed to find a decent sized copy of that on the net)

While buying a cuppa on Sunday in a Sandwich Bar I spotted the postcard you see on the right there advertising an exhibition of prints by John Byrne at the Peacock Visual Arts centre which I didn't know existed till I saw the card. John Byrne has been an important Scottish painter since the 60s and, to me, most of his paintings seem to be of himself - I suppose he's very paintogenic. He also wrote Tutti Frutti for the telly some years ago and I once bumped into him in the street in Edinburgh and he seemed very nice.

No wonder I'd never seen the Peacock Art Centre before, it's hidden away down an alley of the sort you'd think twice about going into at night. I was though impressed at how inexpensive the prints were (if not quite cheap), some were under £1000 and the rest not all that much more, which for something from someone of Mr Byrne's standing doesn't seem all that bad.

The picture on the card on the right is The Cat Burglar and below is King for a Day.

There was a second exhibition in the Peacock Visual Arts centre which bore no resemblance to the picture on the leaflet that went with it, but seem to go along with the words in the leaflet (with only a moderate "hmm"). So I assume these are photos of Me~Idea by Philip Thompson, but don't be surprised if it's something completely different.

There were tinted glasses provided that made one of the words disappear depending on which pair you picked. I'm getting it so far but.......

.......I had a bit of head scratching with this one. It didn't strike me until later that maybe if I'd looked at this one through the glasses too some of the lines might have disappeared.