Stobo Kirk

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

20743

Title

Stobo Kirk

Description

A landscape painting of a rural country scene in the Scottish Borders. A church building stands nestled between a rolling landscape of hills and trees. A man stands in the long grass with a scythe. In the foreground a path draws the viewer's eye around the building to small brick buildings in the background.

Artist / maker

Patrick, James McIntosh

Size

[1936]

Type

Oil painting

Location

City Art Centre

Accession number

CAC205/1964

Patrick earned his reputation as an etcher with a number of precisely drawn Mediterranean landscapes and city scenes published in London in the late 1920s. His works have a timeless, classical quality and this painting is a good example of his Scottish works, capturing the reflective atmosphere of an autumnal Borders scene. The artist, however, always asserted his right to be selective, 'But it is not really that I paint what I see. Rather it is that I see what I paint'. In 'Stobo Kirk' he has not included the gravestones that surround the church.
Patrick's paintings of the 1930's retain the meticulous precision of the etcher, with elements of each composition carefully delineated. Despite its factual appearance, Patrick's working practice as this point was to assemble his compositions from several drawings made on the spot. This enabled him to select which features of the scene he preferred, combining them into paintings that have an unerring sense of balance and harmony.

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Related subjects

Agriculture and fisheries > Equipment > Scythe

Architecture > Architectural features > Walls

Landscape > Land > Hills

Landscape > Land > Woods and forests

People > Adults > Men

Places > Scotland > Dumfriesshire

Religion > Religious facilities > Graveyards