About
Noble’s practice has a strong drawn element mixing automatic drawing, Chinese landscape aesthetics and layers of varnish. Over the last ten years Noble has devoted his practice to the description of an imaginary ancient culture called 'The Meiklians', who built the stone circles around his home in Aberdeenshire. Through drawing, painting and writing he describes this fictional territory of mind, calling the collective body of work 'The Meiklian Project'.
His works offer an alternative meditation on the Scottish landscape, influenced by the ancient landscape of Aberdeenshire, a passion for rewilding the Scottish wilderness and the Chinese Landscape Painting traditions he saw whilst living in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
In his paintings Noble experiments with medium and mark making in an effort to describe the strong impressions that his research and experiences have made upon him, endless archaic forests, hallucinatory visions of starlit skies untainted by light pollution, pine studded knolls, recumbent stone circles, supernatural shamanism and views of the distant mountain, Bennachie.
Noble utilises a unique blend of media, experimenting with turbulent layers of varnish, jewel like painted details, ancient Chinese pigments of Malachite, Vermillion and Lapis Lazuli and a high embellishment of intricate drawing. The surfaces upon which he works are measured to the academically rejected dimension, the 'Megalithic Yard’ which was suggested by archeo astronomer Alexander Thom. This refuted measurement has become an integral part of Noble's process, becoming the foundation upon which he projects his vision of a radical prehistory.
The creation of Meiklian relics was an integral part of Noble's practice until 2015. Working directly with animal bone or skin, he depicts pictographic narratives on to domesticated animals and works more automatically with wild animals. Such relics create the evidence for the Meiklians and suggest a narrative of a hunter gathering community ending their way of life.
Contact: kylenoble@live.co.uk
Solo Exhibitions:
2018 ‘Wild Hanging Woods’, Resipole Studios Fine Art Gallery, Ardnamurchan
2018 ‘Paradise Lost’, 108 Fine Art, Tainan, Taiwan
2017 ‘Forest Magick’, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen
2016 ‘Irvine and Noble’, Victoria Bar, Edinburgh
2015 ‘Before the Stones’, Newave Gallery, Aberdeen
2011 ‘Irvine and Noble’, Cupar Arts Festival, Fife
Awards:
• RSA Latimer Award, 2021
• RSA Latimer Award, 2018
• Shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize, 2017
• RSA Highland Society of London Award, 2014
• RSA William Littlejohn Award, Royal Scottish Academy, 2013
• Selected for Jerwood Drawing Prize, 2013
• Shortlisted for Inaugural Student Award, 108 Fine Art, 2013
• Shortlisted for Chadwell Award, Acme Studios, 2013
• Edinburgh University Purchase Prizes, 2013
• Aberdeen Visual Arts Awards Scheme, 2009
Collections:
• Aberdeen Asset Management, 2014
• Royal Scottish Academy, 2014
• Edinburgh University, 2013
Residencies:
2018 Rahoy Hills Nature Reserve, Ardtornish Estate, Morven
2014 Bothy Project, Inschriach Estate, Aviemore
Art Fairs:
2018 Deagu Art Fair, 108 Fine Art, Seoul
2014 London Art Fair, John Martyn Gallery and 108 Fine Art, London
2014 Art 14, John Martyn Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2023 The Forest, Spey Bank Gallery, Grantown on Spey
2017 John Ruskin Prize 2017, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
2016 RSA The Artist Traveller, Edinburgh
2016 RSA Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh
2016 Irvine and Noble, Victoria Bar, Edinburgh
2015 Outsider Art, Candid Gallery, London
2014 It's just a quick walk into the future, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh
2014 Have we met before, John Martyn Gallery, London
2014 RSA Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh
2014 Art 14, John Martyn Gallery, London
2014 London Art Fair, John Martyn Gallery and 108 Fine Art, London
2013 Jerwood Drawing Prize, London
2013 Summer Show , John Martin Gallery, London
2013 Aberdeen Artists, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
2013 The Meiklian Culture, MFA Degree Show, Edinburgh
2012 Animal Integrity, Roslyn Institute, East Lothian
2012 Doctrine of Signatures, Polar Cap, Dunbar
2011 Irvine and Noble, Cupar Arts Festival, Fife
2011 North East Open Studios, Syllavethy Gallery, Aberdeenshire
2011 Imagination, Tin Pan Alley, Tainan, Taiwan
2010 Fire and Ice, PVAF and Scottish Crannog Centre, Loch Tay
(that’s enough of that)