A Recent Beauly Gallery Event

On this page we take a look back on past events at The Beauly Gallery. Our current and future events can be found here and some planned events can be found here.

A Woman's Journey

"This event seeks to share the creative expression of a woman's journey in life. Overcoming adversity, trauma, crisis or abuse, emerging as women in their own right. Celebrating and embracing the paths that lead the way. It is a unique exhibition of arts and crafts from female artists and extraordinary women of the Scottish Highlands."

The Woman's Journey exhibition had it's opening night on March 30th 2007. Below we present some images showing just some of the women whose work was shown at this important and fascinating exhibition. By clicking on the thumbnail images you will be able to see larger scale versions.

Ishbel Strachan

Born in Evanton, Ishbel was a hairdresser for most of her working life. She has been painting for the last ten years, working in all mediums but particularly enjoying pastels and oils, her inspiration coming from the surrounding scenery.

She is married with a grown up family and has lived in Strathglass for the past twenty two years.

Jay Muirhead

"I have no formal training in art. I started painting in acrylics three years ago. My painting was a way to express my emotions, create a world I wanted to live in. I love strong colours, it's a celebration of life. My journey has been worth every step, through physical and emotional abuse, coming to terms with the fact I was a person with a right to make a decision, to live a life of happiness. To learn that growing as a person wasn't wrong. Life should not be fearful."

"Now I write and paint, some people like what I do, others don't, and that's okay. I may not be a master painter or a famous author, that is unimportant, I have become a person, a woman who is confident. I enjoy what I do, what I create. My life is my own, the paths I choose are my own, that is worth more to me. That is my best achievement in life."

Sally Chadwick

"I am a self taught artist who has spent her life so far exploring a variety of different media and techniques. Moving away from city life and superficial values has given me far more freedom to develop my creative side, amongst people who value independence highly. I have always found people and faces fascinating to draw but never believed I could sew anything until my friend brought me a book on creative cloth doll making. Since then, I have learned that self-belief can achieve miracles!"

"Making these characters brings together everything I love the most, and I learn something new with every creation. Each doll stubbornly brings his or her own character to the procedure, (sometimes not what I had in mind at all!). Saying goodbye is like losing a tiny friend."

Sandhya Whiles

"Coming from a practical background in nursing I never believed I could ever do any of that 'drawing and crafty stuff'. Having moved from the city to the country my inability to draw remains, but I did, however, decide to give the 'crafty stuff' a go."

"My beaded necklaces are the results and are testament to the journey I am in the process of making and the discovery that if you dare to try, then anything is possible!"

Sonia Bidwell

"I was born in Cormwall in 1940, the only child of rather eccentric parents who lived on a house boat. At the age of seven I went to Catholic boarding school, a happy loving place which had a lifelong influence on me. At eighteen I started a Veterinary Degree in London, fell in love, failed my exams, married, did all manner of jobs and eventually moved to Skye in 1983 where I farmed for 20 years. Now retired to Rosehall, Sutherland. My childhood wasn't particularly artistic, though my parents both had craft hobbies. I always loved colour, especially in textiles, and this has shown in my clothes, our house and garden and now in my art!"

"I weave on a metal grid and then add found objects, such as wood, bone, shells etc. My inspiration for these works are mainly the poetry and legends of Scotland. I find a suitable piece, read it through and through and draw the picture that I formed in my mind. Then I plot out sections on the grid assemble my textiles and begin! Each takes about three weeks. On my journey through life I have been a wayward daughter, a young wife working hard at many things, medicine, farming, education, then a mother with not so wayward daughters, and now a grandmother to beautiful Freya and Alice. There have been tears and laughter, illness and good health, but there has always been love. Forty six years married to a loving man who has always supported me in all my stages of womanhood."

Sila Collins-Walden

"I was born in England, and spent a lot of my early childhood in Ireland. I always wanted to be an artist however; my mother had other ideas for me. I was to have a career in healthcare. My chance encounter with a team of artists whilst working in a large psychiatric hospital in late 1979 brought me closer to my ambition of becoming an artist. I gave up my job and embarked on a course at Art College. I never regretted it."

"I have worked as a community artist/tutor for many years as well as running workshops and art classes in Manchester and Inverness. I work mostly in acrylics though I use other media often experimenting with oil, watercolour and introducing unusual material such as: bits of wood, paper, eggshells and cobweb dust! I work with a palette knife and fingers (I call them fingerscapes!). I create semi-abstract renditions of the mountainous regions of Scotland, especially the West Coast, the Island of Skye as well as the arctic environments of Cade and America. I also do what I refer to as Flowerscapes; again these are semi-abstract works of flowers and come mostly from my imagination."