Dumfries and Galloway
This page: updated 22 March 2010
Artistic Tradition
in Dumfries and Galloway
The landscape and climatic conditions of Dumfries and Galloway have long been an attraction for artists and craftmakers.
This includes the fishing port of Kirkcudbright (pronounced Kirkoobree), often referred to as the 'St Ives of Scotland'. In the 1880's Kirkcudbright became the focus of an artists' colony including illustrator Jessie M King and her husband E A Taylor, E A Hornel and George Henry - contemporaries of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and founder members of the group of artists known as 'the Glasgow Boys'.
Kirkcudbright boasts the Hornel Art Gallery, the Stewartry Museum
and the Tollbooth Arts Centre - just a small selection of the 54 galleries
and museums in Dumfries and Galloway.
Art lovers visiting south west Scotland can find works by Henry Moore and Rodin sited in the hills overlooking the Loch at Glenkiln; Jake Harveys' monument to Hugh McDiarmid overlooking the town of Langholm and works by environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy in the grounds of Gracefield Arts Centre. [Pictured on right: work by Finn Barlow]
Gracefield, the largest of the galleries in the Region, houses a permanent collection of Scottish painting from the 1890's and presents a regular programme of international contemporary arts and crafts exhibitions.
Gracefield is also the base for the Regional Crafts Officer who is responsible
for promotion and exhibition of the Regions products.
The craft shop at Gracefield has samples of work and details of the suppliers. There are selections of Ceramics, Printmaking, Jewellery, Clogs and Shoes, Textiles, Toys, Furniture, Wood turning, Metal, Glass and Knitwear. [Pictured on left: work by Janet O'Donnell]
The beauty of the crafts culture in the Region is its availability. Many of the products are sold not just to tourists and visitors on a buying spree, but appear on many a mantelpiece in Dumfries and Galloway.
The Region is rightly proud of its craft culture.