Art: Painters in Residence

Artists in Residence 2012

In May 2012 there will be two artists in residence in Collioure

Bill McArthur works and lives on the island of Sanday in the Orkneys. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art .

After 20 years battling the elements as a fisherman,in the Atlantic and North Sea, he became fascinated by wave action - the way in which strong winds denaturise water, turning it into flying wind-borne spray; at the way in which tide influences a wave's profile and also the effect of rocks and shallow water on how a wave disburses its energy.

His seascapes draw on a lifetime of observation. "I was constantly impressed by the harsh environment in which I worked. The experiences were deeply etched on my psyche".

Frank Convery R.S.A. also a graduate from the Edinburgh College of Art and for 14 years was the Head of the school of Painting at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.

From the outset, Matisse and Derain energised his vision for colour and simplified form. His paintings alternate from abstraction to figuration. "Each new development in my work has always been triggered by an objective phase of drawings that I've made or some photographic research study, which gets revised and connected with other cultural issues that are engaging me at the time, an
edited mix is then reprocessed and resolved, back in the studio."

He works mainly with mixed media and on larger scale canvases (2+ metres wide)