Works by contemporary artists are being showcased at the Highlands’ gateway airport in a new series of exhibitions.

Inverness Airport has teamed up with Bridge of Allan based Ealain Gallery to show works of art in a programme of exhibitions in the airport terminal building. Each exhibition will run for eight weeks and feature works by two or three artists.

Callum Smith, Inverness Airport terminal manager, said: “We are delighted to have teamed up with the Ealain Gallery on this project that will give passengers a great opportunity to see works by a range of exciting contemporary artists in the terminal.

“The airport has previously been involved in a number of arts initiatives and this new project will provide a showcase for art to more than 700,000 passengers who use the airport annually.”

The opening exhibition in the Ealain @ Inverness Airport series features works by Dot Walker and Donald Mc Donald.

Dot Walker hails from Glasgow. After school she became a nurse and used her nursing career to travel extensively, including a two year stay in Palestine. She became increasingly involved in informal education at Glasgow Art School and in 1999 did a portfolio year there. Immediately after this she moved to Sydney Australia with her husband and family where she lived for a year and attended Ashton’s art school, doing mainly life painting. Following this the family lived in rural Nepal for 18 months and this was a productive time for painting, drawing on the dramatic landscape, intense light and colourful people there. On returning to Scotland she and her family have settled in the Inverness area. Her palette and brush are drawn by the dramatic skies of the Highlands, coupled with the rugged landscape. 

Donald McDonald graduated from Grays School of Art in 1999. He left his home on the Isle of Lewis moving to Glasgow to progress his career as an artist. He was offered a teaching post in Denmark shortly after, where he taught and studied for several months. His work is about the study of the human figure, its ergonomics, physical limits and its construction. He is fascinated by the transparency of skin and trying to capture the network of tones which flow beneath it. He finds it more important for the painting to look "alive" than "real" in the photographic sense of the word. Of the many opportunities afforded to him was a request from South Lanarkshire Council for a commission, which was presented to the First Minister. It was hung in the Scottish Executive building after touring several Scottish schools.

June McCann of the Ealain Gallery said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase our artists’ work at the airport and hope the passengers enjoy the new permanent feature.

"All the paintings are for sale and will be delivered at the end of each exhibition."

The current exhibition can be view at www.ealaingallery.com and will change over on the 5th of Jan to feature artists Nicola Macdonell and Derek Collins.

“More Contemporary Scottish Art by Ealain Gallery can be seen at "The House of Beauly" Beauly, Invernesshire from the 22nd of Nov for 7 weeks, where we return after a very successful Christmas exhibition in 2006,” said June.