Callum Innes - Works on Paper 1989–2012

Callum Innes’ explorations of material processes are well demonstrated in this first exhibition dedicated to his works on paper. Abstract images of colour familiar from his paintings on canvas fill the space, each one creating particular tensions, hinting at the removal and addition of paint, and suggesting the processes and techniques used to create it.

The exhibition contains several series’ of work: two walls of the gallery upstairs are filled with a sequence of 18 watercolours, each of which appears to be a single block of translucent paint, but reveals through slight imperfections the layers of pigment that have built up a more complex image. These quiet works sit well with the room’s larger paintings, which, both fragile and weighty, engage the viewer with real intensity.

This body of works on paper is consistent and beautiful, but even a series of new works using ground chalk sticks – described as ‘reverse sculptures’ – breaks little new ground. The exhibition demonstrates the tension, richness and depth that is already familiar in Innes’ paintings, but there is nothing truly unexpected in this otherwise engaging body of work.

Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 14 Jul