Still. – a solo exhibition of work by Philip Braham first previewed here in June – is now showing at the Union Gallery, and attracting interest from local and national media alike.
Deservedly so, as Braham's works are strangely arresting – even more so than this reviewer had expected. The painterly detail, the technical achievement of rendering an uncanny hyper-reality are more easily appreciated when standing close-up before some of these really quite large images of mysterious landscapes and haunted or haunting figures.
But the exhibition also features smaller works, whose effects are no less interesting or unsettling for their comparative modesty. Take, for example, 'December Morning' (20 x 15cms, pictured top-right). Braham eschews the theatrical certainties of Romantic skyscapes, preferring the murky dawn of winter, the viscous light from which objects seem still in the process of creation or dissolution. That bench, those houses, the line of trees, the unresolved absences of sitter, horizon and event lead one's imagination to draw its own (not necessarily comfortable) conclusions.[img_assist|nid=2011|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=640|height=481]
Another small-scale favourite here was 'Droma' (28 x 38cms, right) – an uncommunicative title which I think refers to a wild area of Wester Ross south-east of Ullapool. Again the light is poor, flecks of snow are being driven upwards on the wind, a veil of mist shrouds the top two-thirds of the painting. But the work's real drama lies in the brilliantly rendered flexing of the land. Braham conveys form and depth superbly here, achieves a kind of moorland musculature in motion which suggests this landscape has a strength and agency of its own. Seen here onscreen (above), the effect is muted – I urge you to go and admire the work itself.
Finally, I greatly admired 'Birch' (30 x 40cms, below), the portrait of a solitary tree, perhaps the survivor of a fire or forestry clearance. Braham's framing of the subject forces us to examine it, but he does not overtly interpret that subject; meaning that, once again, the viewer must do the work, bring his or her own memories and associations to the task of understanding.
I found 'Birch' among the more straightforwardly optimistic of the paintings on display. The tree's posture reminds me of a crucifixion scene – the oustretched arms, the twist of the hips, a branch echoing Christ's final spear wound – which might sound gruesome, but set in the context of the the tree's survival, set against a lightening sky, holds out the possibility of new beginnings, hope.
Still. is seriously entertaining and costs nothing to enjoy. The exhibition will run at the Union Gallery, 34 Broughton Street until 5 September. AM
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