Art Preview: Stand - Emblems of Imagination

‘Stand – Emblems of Imagination’ is John Bissett’s third exhibition since retiring from full-time teaching, and promises a further opportunity to appreciate the work of an accomplished abstract painter, with his own way of interpreting and expressing the world around him and his responses to what he finds and sees.

On show at White Space, 11 Gayfield Square, 1st to 8th August, and open from 11.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., Bissett’s solo exhibition offers an opportunity to explore the most recent work of this still-developing artist.
Bissett sees his work as being essentially concerned with the interaction and integration of colour, shape, line and texture and freely acknowledges the influences of European abstract artists such as Poliakoff, Hoffman, de Stael and Lanyon.

His striking canvases reflect an outlook that seeks to portray the positive whilst maintaining a clear-eyed interpretation of his subjects and themes.

Bissett’s many interests and concerns surface in his varied interpretations of these, and whether meditating on or mediating landscapes, nature in all her forms, the man-made world or simply found objects or experienced emotions, Bissett fully conveys his engagement with what the novelist Arnold Bennett expressed as ‘the interestingness of existence’ in fresh and vivid ways.

August in Edinburgh is always a packed month for the culturally active and aware, but Bissett’s exhibition offers an oasis of reflective calm before all this begins, so why not take a little trip to Gayfield Square and recharge your own sense of enjoyment by experiencing something of the infectious enthusiasm of John Bissett?