Look Aboot Ye: Caring through the Covid pandemic at Lillie Gallery, Milngavie (2023)During the first months of the pandemic, Karen Strang painted and gifted over 90 portraits of key workers, home carers and shielders. The eminent Scottish artist Alexander Moffat observes that these are "capturing in paint the unique humanity of each individual despite the masks and PPE equipment that by necessity had to be worn." These were exhibited widely, ranging from a selection exhibited at Forth Valley Royal Hospital under the auspices of Artlink Central, to two which were projected in Piccadilly Circus as part of the NHS birthday celebration, to coverage in national newspapers, magazines and television, as well as in a book of portraits, Local Key Worker Heroes: Caring through Covid in Clackmannanshire, with proceeds divided between Ochil Mountain Rescue, Strathcarron Hospice and Homestart Clackmannanshire.
These portraits document the network of supportive people in one place at a particular point in time. During the later months of lockdown, Karen began to develop a large scale oil painting portraying the Clackmannanshire Key Workers who featured in the book, 55 folk in total, in a manner that re-presents them (now unmasked) and their location as if across the span of time, setting the individuals both in local history and into the traditions of Western art history.
Alexander Moffat has observed of this Look Aboot Ye painting: "In this hugely ambitious painting they are placed in a landscape that relates to Karen’s earlier theme of the witch-trials that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Forth Valley. The recent and distant pasts are united in Karen's visionary work".
Only now, as we head into 2023, does the artist feel that we can look back on this period and see the exhibition as a tribute to the hard work during that difficult time. The exhibition at the Lillie Gallery will be a celebration of the diversity, effort and breadth of people featured in the portraits.
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Exhibition review by Jan Patience in The Sunday Post (22 January 2023)
During the first months of the pandemic, Karen Strang painted and gifted over 90 portraits of key workers, home carers and shielders. The eminent Scottish artist Alexander Moffat observes that these are "capturing in paint the unique humanity of each individual despite the masks and PPE equipment that by necessity had to be worn." These were exhibited widely, ranging from a selection exhibited at Forth Valley Royal Hospital under the auspices of Artlink Central, to two which were projected in Piccadilly Circus as part of the NHS birthday celebration, to coverage in national newspapers, magazines and television, as well as in a book of portraits, Local Key Worker Heroes: Caring through Covid in Clackmannanshire, with proceeds divided between Ochil Mountain Rescue, Strathcarron Hospice and Homestart Clackmannanshire.
These portraits document the network of supportive people in one place at a particular point in time. During the later months of lockdown, Karen began to develop a large scale oil painting portraying the Clackmannanshire Key Workers who featured in the book, 55 folk in total, in a manner that re-presents them (now unmasked) and their location as if across the span of time, setting the individuals both in local history and into the traditions of Western art history.
Alexander Moffat has observed of this Look Aboot Ye painting: "In this hugely ambitious painting they are placed in a landscape that relates to Karen’s earlier theme of the witch-trials that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Forth Valley. The recent and distant pasts are united in Karen's visionary work".
Only now, as we head into 2023, does the artist feel that we can look back on this period and see the exhibition as a tribute to the hard work during that difficult time. The exhibition at the Lillie Gallery will be a celebration of the diversity, effort and breadth of people featured in the portraits.
Exhibition review by Jan Patience in The Sunday Post (22 January 2023)
