Paisley draws on a  wealth of artistic talent

Paisley Art Institute, which was established in 1876, is an organisation with a proud history that reflects the town that bears its name. Paisley may have seen more prosperous times but it’s a testament to a strong streak of civic pride that this annual show continues to go from strength to strength.

Two guest artists, Bet Low, who died in 2007, and Charles Poulsen, representing painting and sculpture respectively, greatly enhance the show’s quality, amid a mixture of the professional and amateur.

Low was raised in nearby Gourock, and her strong leftwing politics resulted in work that often pitted the urban deprivation of Glasgow against the idyll of Orkney. It was a vision she shared with Edwin Muir, the poet. Indeed she collaborated with another Orcadian, George Mackay Brown, who had been taught by Muir, on a poster poem Orkney, the Whale Islands, in 1987.

Poulsen is a talented sculptor. He’s interested in form, texture and materials. He uses substances such as wax and lead, which can assume a liquid state, and combines them, often embedding shards and splinters of wood. The results encourage a tactile, visceral response.

There are more than 500 entries here and it seems almost invidious to single out one or two for special mention. But some of the images do grab the attention, such as Caroline Gormley’s imposing oil, It’s No Game, ostensibly a depiction of a pub fruit-machine, but in reality a portrait of her late father. Shelagh Atkinson’s colourful but eeriem Know Thyself is starkly expressionistic. Gregory Moore’s Clearing, showing a forest in the process of being felled, is imbued with a beautiful menace.

Portraiture, in the more traditional sense of the term, is something of a theme here and there are notable works in this genre by Helen Wilson, Graeme Wilcox, Franzeska Ewart and Gregory Rankine.

The institute is keen to support students’ work and a number of these show real promise and talent. Helen Varelia’s These Streets, a collage of cuttings and graphics forming a complex abstract image, shows mature compositional and aesthetic merit.

The art world like everywhere is not short of tragedy. In January Karen Scopa, a talented artist, took her own life and her family have established a memorial award in her name. One of the artist’s works, a charcoal portrait, is on the front of the institute’s publicity material. A fitting tribute to a life cut short.

Until June 24