Stark juxtaposition of humanity and nature to fore

Jock McFadyen paints the places he knows best and where he finds himself most often: the Thames estuary and the islands and coast of Scotland — large, elongated landscapes, still and desolate, sometimes with miniscule human figures set against the vastness of the sky or luminous watery vistas.

His work is set out in the balcony space of the Dovecot Gallery (a converted Victorian bathhouse) and the natural light that floods down from above only adds to the eery, static atmosphere of these expertly crafted paintings. In one, Pink Flats, McFadyen has relocated a classic Brutalist block to a waterside setting. Both elements exist, but not together. In common with many landscapists throughout history, he has done a little rearranging, to suit his purpose. Humanity and nature, starkly juxtaposed. Tiny human figures on the rooftop look outwards. Are they lost or contemplating the future?

These more recent works are a far cry from the figurative imagery McFadyen created in the 1980s and 1990s; indeed few contain any human form, although almost all have a human presence either as stick-like figures or as interventions in the landscape, either as architecture, shipping, abandoned vehicles, lights or graffiti. Another, oddly bleak image, Estuary Music (2007) shows a vast sky and flat landscape. At one end, miniscule daubs of graffiti and at the other, a figure playing the fiddle, which was modelled on the artist’s wife, the musician Susie Honeyman.

While McFadyen, like so many Scots before him, took the Great North Road to London, his compatriot, the textile artist and weaver, Archie Brennan (who died in 2019) also followed the emigrant path, living in Manhattan and later, the Hudson Valley, for the last decade of his life.

Brennan is an unsung hero of the art world and had he not been a weaver, he would have been a painter or a printmaker, because so many aspects of his work are shared by those traditions. This lavish, comprehensive and immaculately presented show does a great deal to redress the great gap in our knowledge of Brennan’s exciting, groundbreaking career.

As a weaver Brennan shared his skills, working as a teacher in New Guinea; he travelled to work in places as diverse as Greenland and Hawaii. His impressive oeuvre embraced trompe l’oeil, where he delighted in playing with perspective, as well as drawing attention to the constructs and conceits within his work. He embraced Pop Art and, like Warhol and Paolozzi, used contemporaneous icons such as Muhammad Ali as his subject matter.

McFadyen is the better-known artist while Brennan remains, unfairly and unnecessarily, a somewhat niche figure. These shows will significantly up the reputations of both.