Tolquhon Gallery, near Tarves, is celebrating twenty five years in business this Christmas.
To mark the occasion, an Open House will be held on Saturday (December 1) from 11am to 5 pm. The gallery exhibits paintings, sculpture and selected crafts by respected artists from all over Scotland.
Artist, Danny Ross, and his wife, Joan, bought the farmhouse at Mains of Tolquhon with the aim of turning it into both an art gallery and family home.
More than 150 exhibitions later, the gallery goes from strength to strength. Danny said: “Things may have started slowly but we soon built up a loyal following both among artists and clients.
“Indeed we are showing a number of artists in our current exhibition who took part in our opening exhibition and we have many clients who first visited when we opened in 1987.”
Among those taking part in the Christmas exhibition is Chris Bushe, son of the late Fred Bushe, founder of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop at Lumsden. Chris is an acclaimed artist who now exhibits mainly in London. He was a young graduate when he was the first artist to hold a solo show at Tolquhon. Karen Smith, a ceramic sculptor, has created work especially for the show and her new pieces have already sold.
Danny and Joan first saw Karen’s work at her degree show at Gray’s School of Art in 1987 and she became a regular contributor. The gallery now deals with upward of 300 artists. Joan said: “In 1987 we were the only gallery in the North-east dealing exclusively with living artists. Now there are almost thirty.
“It was a leap of faith to establish a gallery but we are so glad we did.
“A huge change has come with the development of the internet as people can now see all our exhibitions online and we ship paintings worldwide.”
From the Ellon Times