A husband and wife team in Newport have changed the name and refurbished their art gallery.
Sheila and Alan Borthwick have operated as Printspace Dundee for the past four years.
But they have now rebranded as No 13 Gallery and increased their range of works of art and craft.
With a new frontage and refurbished gallery at 13 High Street, Christmas gifts and local art is on display over two floors.
Alan says: “We started trading as Printspace Dundee, but we found that people assume we sell mass-produced prints.
“The printmakers’ work is either individual images or very limited runs, not anything more than 50 in a run usually.
“Most of Sheila’s work is what we call monoprints – which are one offs – so they are individual pieces of art.
“So, we decided to rename it No 13 Gallery and we’re handling what we call accessible art.”
No 13 Gallery Newport highlights local
No 13 Gallery’s accessible art comes from mainly Scottish artists, as Sheila and Alan wish to showcase local talent.
Sheila is the owner of the gallery, while Alan helps out behind the scenes.
Her dream of displaying the work of local artists is what led her to open the Newport gallery four years ago.
“Sheila had a legacy which she was wanting to use for something different and there’s a lack of available galleries to exhibit a lot of people’s work,” says Alan.
“Many established galleries have their own groups of artists, often at the higher end of the spectrum.
“We wanted to concentrate on promoting the work of printmakers, as they go through quite an involved process and we thought they were getting a bit of a raw deal with galleries.”
Printmaking can be a messy and time consuming process, involving printing motifs or patterns onto a surface using ink and pressure.
Many local printmakers rely on Dundee Contemporary Arts for equipment, and therefore struggled through lockdown when the printing presses were unavailable.
Promoting independent makers
As well as artwork, the gallery is full of handmade crafts, candles and decorations.
Alan says: “We’re promoting shop local and supporting independents.
“Almost everything in our gallery is from fair trade or British sources.
“We have an element of Christmas with the candles and smaller wooden toys for children too.”
The High Street gallery is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
When Sheila is not on the shop floor she is working on her prints in the studio.
While the artists considered settling down across the Tay in Dundee, they now know Newport is the perfect spot.
Alan hopes locals will look to the small town for a day out and some Christmas shopping.
“Newport is such a nice little town, it’s got everything you need,” he assures.