Friday 9th April until Friday 21st May 2010 @ The Nails Gallery, Bristol

Artist Abigail McDougall has reinvented her trademark watercolour paintings of Bristol with an exhibition that’s all about leaving the city behind and soaking up the vibrancy of the countryside. Adventures In Light will be on show at the Nails Gallery, beneath St Nick’s Market in central Bristol, until May 21st. The white-washed underground gallery showcases forty of Abigail’s recent watercolours and acrylic paintings produced along the beautiful Bristol-Bath and Bradford-On-Avon cycle paths, as well as views from recent visits to Italy and Morocco.

It’s an enticing display: the paintings glow like sweets against the white walls with colours so luscious you can almost taste them on your tongue. Abigail has a knack for seeing the beauty in everyday scenes, capturing misty mornings and sun-drenched afternoons with equal skill.

It’s exciting to see Abigail take her talent to the next level, too, with several experiments with oils among the watercolours, while the settings themselves posed their own challenges. “Painting rural scenes is very different to painting architecture,” she admits. “You have to look a lot more carefully for focal points and be far more expressive with your brushstrokes.”

The exhibition is also a nod to Abigail’s passion for sustainable living. “I used to cycle extensively throughout the city but I found the constant fumes and risk of getting knocked down too stressful. By contrast, the cycle paths are an amazing escape. It’s so valuable and inspiring to have that direct route into the countryside.”

The exhibition also includes some of Abigail’s luminescent scenes of Bristol, keeping her long-term fans happy. “Going searching for scenery that’s bathed in beautiful light is always an adventure, whether that means going somewhere exotic like Morocco or Italy, or simply getting out of Bristol on my bike exploring and discovering new places,” she says. “I’m hoping the new show will give people a push to go and see what’s out there.”

www.abigailmcdougall.com

www.nailsaffordableart.com

Judy Darley www.essentialwriters.com