portrait of the artist as an old man

My friend Jill and I went to an  exhibition this morning at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. The show was of the work of local artist and civic activist Barbara Kelly, who celebrates her 80th birthday this year, and of other artists who have inspired her. When we arrived at Gracefield, she was being interviewed by Border TV, so we headed upstairs to see the "other artists" part first.

I was struck by this sculpture by another local artist, Freda Blackwood, of yet another local artist (!) the late Archie Sutter Watt. Here is a little information about it:

"The ‘Archie’ portrait was exhibited at the Visual Arts Scotland exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh in November 2000, ‘Face to Face’ a portraiture exhibition at Gracefield Studios in January 2003, at the Glasgow Art Fair in April 2003 and was also show as part of a celebration exhibition of the Archie’s 90th birthday at the Barons Craig Hotel Gallery, Rockcliffe in March 2005. Sadly Archie died in April 2005.

The piece is made by applying papier maché to a wire frame and then building up the layers of colour with coloured tissue paper. There is no paint attached on the surface whatsoever, and the tiny pieces of tissue paper are applied in highly time-consuming layers to achieve the final flat colour finish. The work took many months to complete. The wire-rimmed glasses are the only addition and are a redundant pair gifted by Archie Sutter Watt."

Interestingly, with exposure to light, the tissue paper will lose its colour, and so Archie is gradually fading over time. As do we all :-)