Curator of Highland community art gallery takes exhibition online after it was closed due to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The curator of a Highland community art gallery is showcasing her own work online after it closed for the foreseeable future due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jayne Austin was due to stage her first exhibition, Looking In, at the Upstairs Gallery in the offices of architects HRI Munro in Academy Street.
Instead, her work, which includes ink paintings based on her own response to the pandemic, has gone online.
The exhibition title is based on a lifetime spent as an outsider.
"The work I had originally planned to show did not seem relevant by the time of my exhibition because the year had been overtaken by the global pandemic and this work had been focused on making sense of looking back," Ms Austin said.
"In mid-June I drew over a hundred charcoal sketches informed by an emotional response to Covid-19 ranging from elation to dejection, something of a rollercoaster, most of which is dark and brooding.
"In the second half of the year, I found a different path, one which connected with me more closely as an abstract artist and let me breathe again."
She is drawn to Eastern culture, such as symbolism associated with the use of colour.
"Black expresses the depths of the unknown and the colour of solemnity," she said.
"Perhaps a fitting symbol for the sorrow faced by our global family and my heart is with those who have lost loved ones to the pandemic and others who have faced loss in the form of career, focus, even relationships."
But she did not want to end the year on a dark note and hoped people would find optimism, hope, and dreams yet to be fulfilled in her work which can be found at www.jayneaustin.co.uk.
