Dorothy is an established Scottish figurative artist who has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad with work held in many private and public collections.
Renowned for powerful draftsmanship and arresting images, Dorothy’s work is characterised by a sense of duality. Strength versus vulnerability, dynamic form versus decoration, sinuous line against solid stance.
Throughout history the female form has been appropriated and presented for the viewer’s consumption. Dorothy chooses to present an iconic image which may at once have a certain allure, but the lasting more challenging impression is one of strength.
There is a deliberate opposition between soft, sinuous contour and uncompromising muscular draftsmanship. The tilt of a head or the tension of an angular arm ending with strength flowing through to fingertip. Soft nape of a neck contrasts with razor sharp shoulder. Poses are often cropped at the hips in a stance from where a soaring, spiraling energy emerges.
For this exhibition, Dorothy continues to explore themes of adornment, using the figure as a vessel for pattern and decor. Embellishment is a classic means of enticing the viewer. Look close enough and you will see lace made up of sea creatures and sharp crustaceans as jewels. Threatening crab claws as flourishing pattern. Statuesque figures are presented ‘clothed’ in decorative elements which can represent textiles or creep out with the confines of a garment onto skin, tattoo-like.
Dorothy’s figurative work is complemented by explorations into organic forms. Again, these large-scale have duality, strength and impact are at their core. The raw energy displayed when a tightly packed bud bursts open and unfurls or matures towards withering decay, or the whirls and whorls of a shell, are not dissimilar. Dorothy loves to exploit the creative potential in all these organic forms and the figure, finding similarities in form, structure and contour.
Dorothy Black
Born 1963, Forfar
Edinburgh College of Art 1981 – 86
BA Degree/Post Graduate Diploma, Drawing and Painting