David Cass: Light on Water, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh ★★★★

Paisley’s Big Art Show is what it says it is: it’s big. One of the largest open submission exhibitions in the UK, it includes some 1,600 artworks this year by 586 artists. Hung salon-style, floor-to-ceiling in the former Allders Department Store in Causeyside Street, the works – selected from over 2,000 submissions – cover a spectrum from amateur artists to seasoned professionals.

The Big Art Show, launched in 2022 by Paisley-based Outspoken Arts, is part of the town’s culture-based regeneration. The organisation will relocate later this year to the former Argos store across the road after a refurbishment of the 1930s building to include workshop space, a gallery and artists’ studios.

The exhibition is broadly organised by medium and genre: photography, video, textiles and stained-glass are downstairs along with the three-dimensional work; upstairs is mainly painting, with sections devoted to abstraction, landscape and portraiture. Even the windows are decorated – by Artclub? Collective, East Ayrshire, a group of care experienced young people. Every surface is put to use.

A handful of featured artists have show-within-a-show style representations. Co-founder of Made in Paisley studios Caroline Gormley shows her own work in A Kitchen Sink Drama, paintings of the domestic which explore the realities of being an artist, business owner, partner and mother. The dishes stack in the sink, a chest of drawers overflows. It’s a bold and unflinching portrait of ordinary life.

Mark Mulholland, a frequent shortlistee in the Scottish Portrait Awards and featured on Sky Arts Portrait of the Year, shows a range of work in Faces and Places. Hyperreal paintings like Thomas in Tuscany contrast with more expressive works like Boys Don’t Cry and I can’t see the chimneys from here which implies an element of narrative.

Erinclare Scrutton presents works using natural inks made from materials found in Paisley, mainly tree-based, but made using from rusted metal from found relics of the town’s industrial past. Colours of Paisley is based on a series of iron-water thumbprints collected from locals. Ashley Cook’s accomplished digital prints draw on fantasy and folklore.

Drawing gets a focus this year, with some outstanding work: Eilidh Mitchell’s lion and tiger, Sarah Locke’s birds of prey, portraits of Sean Connery and Amy Winehouse by Jim Irvine, and of Rod Stewart by John Gilchrist. A new section for black and white work includes the witty ink drawings of Polly Marix Evans, Marion Gardyne’s study of Glasgow doors and Rebecca Scott’s gestural multi-media works on old yellowed documents.

Three-dimensional works are in the minority, but include quirky ceramic figures by Karen Hanvidge, glass sculptures by Ian Pearson, robots made from recycled metals by Alexander Ramsay and Eddie Gorman and relief sculptures of Arabic architecture by Sadia Gul Ibrahim.

The photography section is always of interest, with lovely west coast landscapes by Sarah Morton, panoramas of Glencoe by Kevin McGarry, moody night-time shots of Glasgow by Robin Johnston and some fine observational photography by Daniel Donaldson.

Among the landscape paintings, there is a goodly share of castles, with both Jeff Hewitson and Svetlana Kopytova tackling Eilean Donan in the snow. But those who choose not-so-classic subjects are also worthy of note, including  Stephen Murray’s fresh take on Glasgow’s Royal Exchange Square and Rona McKerrell’s painting of a beautifully tiled Glasgow stairwell. Lindsey Lavender finds beauty in a concrete staircase and an unassuming underpass. Fiona Brydson’s mountain portraits, Isla Prentice’s Kelpies in Blue and Ross Mckay’s moody painting of South Harbour Street in Ayr are also highlights.

In the portrait section, Jamie Munro’s What will it be like? captures a poignant moment between a woman and a small boy. Kerry Egan’s Blue Selfie is very good, as are Hazel Blue’s Light in the Cave and Two Worlds Self Portrait. Christine Taylor’s Me Myself and I captures the artist as she is now along with herself as a child in muted tones. Elliot Killick’s Stranger #3 is worth seeking out, as are his small drawings of divers.

Other things to look out for: Jane Hunter’s abstract The Blue of Longing and Eoghann Mac Colla’s Doonfeeney Dialogue; Charmaine Boyle’s rose and diptych of daisies, Innocence and Reminiscence; Nikkita Morgan’s political embroidery; Anna H Geerdes’ unsettling painting In Limbo; Beth Holmes’ The Cost of Living, made from collaged receipts; six bird prints by Lisa Hooper; Gail Haughey’s delightful duck in sneakers.

It’s true that the quality is mixed, and the floor-to-ceiling hang means some works are better served than others. But take The Big Art Show in the spirit in which it’s offered and you will find it joyful in its inclusivity. And, as long as you have plenty of time, there are lots of gems to discover.

Meanwhile, Scottish painter David Cass takes a long look at the ocean in his tenth solo exhibition, Light on Water, at the Scottish Gallery. Somehow, the show manages to be both an in-depth reflection on surfaces of water (if that is not an inherent contradiction) and to embody deep concerns with climate change, following on from his Rising Horizon show at the Scottish Gallery in 2019 and Where Once the Waters, presented in Venice in 2022.

In a sense, these works are abstract. They don’t depict particular stretches of water, but are concerned with colours and moods; water is the language of the work as much as the subject. The hang in Scottish Gallery, which places the paintings at different levels, creates the sense of the work as the sum of its parts as well as inviting us to look at individual components.

Cass often works on antique and found surfaces, ranging here from an 18th-century solid oak door to wallpaper stamps, marine pulleys, bus blinds and matchboxes. These bring their own characteristics, and limitations, to the paintings.

Two groups of small works move in a different direction: six paintings on panels from codfish boxes show an islandscape from Greece (where Cass has lived) in different moods and colours, and the Years series, also on salvaged wood, look back to the Old Masters with more realist depictions of waves and weather, acknowledging the antecedents of the work. 

For the most part, though, this show focusses on water surfaces. Cass approaches his subject with such energy and engagement that it’s rarely dull, and manages to spark reflection (no pun intended) on climate change without allowing the show to feel heavy-handed or overly didactic.

The Big Art Show runs until 16 November; David Cass: Light on Water until 28 September