Crieff ’s Strathearn Gallery, which has been in business for the past 15 years, has a reputation for assisting and encouraging professional artists and craftspeople working in Scotland. Equally they have a reputation for mounting exhibitions bringing variety and talent to the small Perthshire town. In understanding the struggle most artists face to make a living, they offer the opportunity to assist and encourage professional artists and craftspeople working in Scotland. Staging eight exhibitions a year takes a lot of organisation and commitment but it also has its rewards, says Fiona McGuire, whose parents started the gallery in 1994.

This creative family spend time sourcing a wide range of paintings, prints and sculpture as well as ceramics, glass, furniture, wood, jewellery, silversmithing and metalwork, ensuring that the Strathearn Gallery has an eclectic mix to appeal to a wide audience. The next major exhibition at the Strathearn Gallery features the work of Georgina McMaster a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art. A native of Kilmacolm she is currently living in Perth and teaching art and photography at Kilgraston School, Bridge of Earn.

Recently she won the top award at the 147th Open Annual Exhibition of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI). She was presented with the David Cargill Award with a cash prize of £2000 for her oil painting of two hares, entitled ‘Perfect Match’. This is the second time that she has won an RGI award – in 2007 she was the winner of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow Award. Georgina currently exhibits throughout Scotland and London, working on freelance commissions. Her work is mainly based on Scottish wildlife with her Crieff exhibition majoring on highland cattle, hares, otters, foxes, birds and deer. Her wildlife paintings show amazing attention to detail, which she says is a result of getting out into the country and observing the animals in the wild.

The Georgina McMaster exhibition at the Strathearn Gallery will run from 16 June until 11 July. The Strathearn Gallery are among the sponsors of the Jolomo Awards 2009 for Scottish Landscape Painting which will be presented at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Musuem, Glasgow on 12 June.

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Regulary changing exhibitions can be viewed by visiting www.strathearn-gallery.com The Strathearn Gallery 32 West High Street, Crieff, Perthshire Tel: 01764 656100