Under Open Skies at Thomson's Tower
Under Open Skies by Jennifer Austin will be exhibited at Thomson's Tower, the yellow octagonal building on the shores of Duddingston Loch has entertained many artists in its 200 years including Henry Raeburn, who immortalised the loch in his painting of 'Rev Robert Walker, skating on Duddingston Loch'.
The Tower has also welcomed J.M.W. Turner 'the painter of light', he of 'big skies'; so how appropriate then that, the red carpet has been rolled out for Orkney's Jennifer Austin – her exhibition 'Under Open Skies' is scheduled for the second week in June.
Jennifer has exhibited previously; in Orkney at the Workshop and Loft Gallery in St Margaret's Hope (May 2024) and at Highland Park in Kirkwall (March 2025) and in Edinburgh, at the Morningside Gallery (2024). She is completely self-taught and a pupil of the school of trial and error; she is the first to admit that her painterly craft and subsequent success and achievement owes much to YouTube during lockdown.
This exhibition is a celebration of light; more specifically how light falls in, on and through the natural world. On display will be a mixture of oils and prints that illustrate Jennifer's relationship with light – a relationship that has been acquired through her Orkney upbringing. 'Light' in Orkney is special – in the summer it can go on forever while in the winter, though in shorter supply, it can reveal itself in moments of intensity. It's in Jennifer's blood and in the air she breathes; both are revealed in her paintings – none more so than in the impressive 'Golden Hour'. I think Turner would have approved.
Jennifer's exhibition runs from 8 to 14 June 2025 between 10am and 3pm at:
Thomson's Tower
in Dr Neil's Garden
5 Old Church Lane
EH15 3PX
Tim Dean
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