Mike Healey at Ainscough Contemporary Art

This solo exhibition of thirty new works was held at Ainscough Contemporary Art, London, who produced accompanying catalogue. The directors and selection panel curate a relatively small number of annual exhibitions of the work of UK artists. Following a joint exhibition with two co-exhibitors in 2004, Healey was invited to have a solo exhibition in 2005. The outputs extended Healey’s theoretical research on the impact of specific geo-locus on the work of the Colourists and consisted of visual experiments undertaken in coastal regions of Brazil, which were linked to ongoing experiments undertaken on in the West Coast of Scotland. The work produced for this exhibition deepened Healey’s visual research in peripheral and coastal light conditions and enabled him to produce larger scale works based on new experimental depictions. Research undertaken in Brazil facilitated a departure in theme and resonance. The new large scale paintings relied on extensive on-site research and exploration on Iona and the Isle of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides, an area so remote that little recorded painting is currently accessible as antecedent. The rationale underpinning the project was that new larger scale visual research methods undertaken on shifting light effects in ‘peripheral reaches’, such as the Hebrides could be combined as a cohesive whole with the new paintings of experimental light effects in the more tropical coastal areas of Brazil .Three of these works were subsequently purchased through the agencies of Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, for the new headquarters of the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh, where they are on permanent display.