Dale Halliday’s new exhibition at Thomas Tosh features a mixture of landscape and still life in oil on canvas.

“My landscapes aren’t attempting to be exact representations, I would describe them as being based on combined memories of places,” says the artist.

As a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in the 1960s, Dale was taught by influential figures in the Scottish art scene including: Alberto Morrocco, David McClure and James Morrison. His oil paintings then were inspired by the buzz of the contemporary art scene and influential exhibitions such as ‘54:64’ at the Tate Gallery in London.

But life after Dundee took Dale down a different path. After graduating, he taught painting in Dumfries but in his art he became more focused on silversmithing and jewellery design that he had also studied at art college.

Dale went on to sell his jewellery at the fondly remembered store Opus that was a feature of Dumfries retail for almost forty years, and which he cofounded.

Like a lot of us in recent years, events have meant a return to things we value. And for Dale that is expressing himself through his oil paintings.

With a life long fondness of Chagall, his current paintings utilise different perspectives in the same work. And Dale also has a lasting admiration of Joan Eardley, whose work is in the collection of Gracefields in Dumfries.

“I remember being at an event at Dundee College, and Joan was there in her fisherman’s jersey. So though I didn’t get to talk to her, I can say I was in her presence!”