RSA Scottish Art
Signs and Games of the Black Shed
 | Artist: Dennis Buchan |
| Title: Signs and Games of the Black Shed | |
| Year: 1991 | |
| Medium: acrylic on canvas | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: built environment | |
| Source: RSA Diploma Collection | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist | |
| Description: Dennis Buchan was born in Arbroath and studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. After a period of teaching in schools he returned to his college in Dundee as a lecturer, and now paints full time.The inspiration for this apparently abstract painting, Signs and Games of the Black Shed, was taken from a large, tarry shed at Arbroath harbour. It was surrounded by fishing equipment and there were signs nailed to its outer walls. Both the title and the painting play on this view - the blackness of the work indicating the shed itself and the bright colours conveying the medley of fishing tackle, the notices and the sea itself. The painting has been executed very freely indeed. A broad, heavy brush has been used to apply liquid layers of thick black paint. The strong colours and opaque tones of acrylic paint make the forms stand out from the canvas, and the fact that acrylics dry quickly means that even areas next to each other can feature radically contrasting colours without bleeding together.The composition seems to be arranged in several interlocking blocks. Horizontal and vertical lines are predominant, but the strong and energetic brushwork effectively breaks into these lines to create a vibrant field of merging forms.The mood of this painting, oddly enough, is not a dark or negative one. There is a real cheerfulness about the saturated colours peeping through the deep black, as though the blackness was not strong enough to suppress the brightness of life. | |