Current Exhibition

Ron Sandford, new drawings and prints at Vaila Fine Art

Opens on Saturday, December 1st at 6pm

Ron Sandford at 82 is a much loved figure among his Shetland neighbours in Yell, art students from the Royal College to Hong Kong, and collectors of fine drawings world-wide. His exhibition of newly-completed drawings and prints opens at Vaila Fine Art on Saturday 1st December at 6 pm.

The quality of Ron’s drawing is not unlike his signature whistling; initially a familiar tune, but played by a freshly-formed group of jazz musicians, rehearsing on a day off - it takes your mind away from immediate reality, but also making you appreciate commonplace objects in an entirely new way. Ron’s flax plant looks like an embodiment of defiance, aloe vera appears predatory, a polytunnel seems like a wimp struggling in a gale. The Last of the Rose is a tribute to a fine, obsolete flitting boat. Mousa Broch has never been depicted with such an atmospheric aura of history, mystery and artistry. Every image carries a story, but you don’t really need interpretive words, just a proper, slow look at the drawings. Ron’s cross-hatching baffles even professional artists.

Exhibition press release