PAST EVENT: This was part of the EAF22 programme.

For the 2022 festival, Open Eye Gallery presented recent paintings by renowned painter and printmaker Barbara Rae CBE RA. Focusing on the seasonal environment of the Lammermuirs, the exhibition was an exploration of the contrasting, yet integral, aspects of the landscape. 

Barbara Rae chose to visit key places that provide her with first-hand insight into an area’s specific social history. Travelling the world in search of inspiration, the landscapes are conveyed through her vivacious use of colour, composition and line.

Under the restrictions of the pandemic and unable to travel to the Arctic as she has done in recent years, Rae instinctively turned closer to home and set her focus on the Lammermuirs. In doing so, she found a world which was full of colour. The paintings vividly depicted the wild integrity of the hillside, contrasted against the traces of human presence which has marked the landscape over a millennia.