Morningside Gallery welcomes Jack Morrocco back for Touchstones in its newly renovated space

One of Scotland's most collectable contemporary painters is back in Morningside. Touchstones, an exhibition of 47 new paintings by Jack Morrocco, opened at Morningside Gallery on Saturday 24 October and runs until Sunday 8 November.

It is Jack's sixth solo exhibition at the gallery, and it comes more than 50 years after his artistic journey began at art college. The show spans his full range of subject matter.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Jack has never settled into a single style. Instead, there are constant touchstones that he returns to: particular places, the transforming effect of light, and treasured objects. He has long been drawn back to Venice, the South of France and the Mediterranean, and after a year of travel, research and work in the studio, those places reappear in the new paintings.

Light is perhaps the most constant of his touchstones. He continues to look for the moment when light transforms an everyday scene, making the familiar new again and connecting him to the painters he most admires, Monet and the Impressionists. Closer to home, objects collected over a lifetime appear in his still life paintings.

Jack has described his work as cyclical: each time he returns to familiar ground, he tends to spin off in a new direction, and new subjects and styles emerge.

The exhibition is also the first in the gallery's new-look space following extensive renovations over the summer. Gallery director Eileadh Swan said it would be particularly special to see Jack's paintings in the renovated rooms, and that his subjects offer points of connection between past and present, memory and experience.

The gallery's programme focuses on dynamic, gestural painting alongside more observational and naturalistic styles, and it shows work by recent graduates as well as established names.

Morningside Gallery has championed painting, sculpture and ceramics by established and emerging Scottish artists since 2003, with regular solo shows and curated group exhibitions. For those who cannot visit in person, the paintings can also be viewed online and toured as a virtual exhibition.

Touchstones is open to the public at Morningside Gallery on Church Hill until 8 November, and the catalogue is on the gallery's website.