HANNA KACINIEL

POP ART

Hanna enjoys a very special position within the field of Scottish Contemporary art. She is probably the leader in the gaping hole of Scottish modern pop art.

What makes her art so special? Well, consider how the eyes of art history will look back at contemporary art as it reviews this period. Critically, Kaciniel’s paintings offer a very unique insight into how we lived in this period. Her work gives a sense of our emphasis on consumption to define and indulge ourselves. Her work is reflective and is designed to make us smile and have a bit of a laugh at ourselves.

Landscapes, buildings, flowers and people might have variations through time, but the artists who focus on these areas tend to concentrate on modernising the techniques and subject representations themselves with the increasing (modernising) reduction of painted information and abstraction. With Hanna, she does not focus on the way techniques have changed but rather through her representations, reflects on how our souls have changed – our mind, character, thoughts and feelings.

Hanna’s brilliant work is current, modernising and brings into contemporary relevance the highly successful POP ART movement (Warhol, Lichtenstein et al) of the 1960’s. Indeed, Kaciniel gives us a contemporary insight over the products that we enjoy and indulge ourselves with, to make us feel good as we engage all the challenges of life.

I have learned over time that an artist’s work is a personification of their personality. No surprises that Hanna is warm, personable, self-effacing and her conversation always makes you laugh and smile. A presence that is evident across all of her paintings.

ALISON COWAN

Alison Cowan is fascinated by trees.

Trees are beautiful and majestic. They provide aesthetic beauty with their endless variety of forms, textures, shapes and they provide colour throughout the seasons. Cowan particularly likes the summer season and it’s opening (Spring) and closing (Autumn) shoulders. It is one of nature’s ways of reminding us about the cycles of life as leaves form, feed and nourish the tree, and then wither.

Each year the trees form a critical role within the environment, providing oxygen, improving our air quality, ameliorating climate, conserving water, preserving soil and supporting our wildlife. Unlike plants, trees are very hardy and can survive for decades or even centuries. They have evolved over time to fit with their environment, adapting their physical shape and internal functioning to maximise their success within their surroundings.

Cowan seeks to communicate their beauty and power.

Alison’s compositional technique is clever. She favours palette knife and a thickly textured impasto (thick paint) style to form the tree-trunks and leaves. Stunning tactile qualities. Emphasising nature’s spatial spread of trees that you see in forests and the glorious leaf colours of spring, summer, autumn and in some cases (evergreens) even winter. 

Cowan (b.1955) commenced studies at GSA before having a family, a long career as an art teacher and then taking the step into life as a full-time artist. Alison’s fascination with trees translates to her very unique, important and hugely popular contribution to contemporary Scottish landscape painting.