For David Cass, the sea offers an endless source of wonder at its depths, history, bounty, and sometimes ferocity. Based between the Scottish Borders and Athens, the artist (previously) has long been fascinated by the power of water, especially its increasing vulnerability to the effects of the climate crisis.

On found objects like tins and matchboxes to book pages and antique pulleys, Cass repeats motifs of waves and distant marine horizons in oil and gouache. In Light on Water, his current solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, the artist continues to address the warming and rapid rising of ocean levels around the world through paintings that hover between abstraction and representation.

“Reach” (2022-23), oil and oil bar on primed bus blind on board, 75 x 75 centimeters

While creating much of the work for the show at his studio in Greece, Cass considered the landscape outside—its islands and peninsulas encompassed by water. He observed how the rippling surface can transform its appearance moment by moment due to the weather or time of day. Although “a threat rests behind this mesmeric picture,” he says in a statement. “In this exhibition, light also represents heat.”

Cass draws attention to estimates that 91 percent of Earth’s excess heat energy trapped in the climate system is stored by our oceans. As the planet continues to warm, this storage capability disappears, threatening all manner of life.

The artist calls on a time before we were aware of climate change, evoking the Industrial Age—incidentally, the dawn of greenhouse gases—in a series of oil paintings titled 500 Years that subtly nod to the Old Masters.

Light on Water continues through September 28 in Edinburgh. Find more on Cass’s website and Instagram.

“September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

“October 2017,” gouache on card

“Pulley I – Rockport, ME” (2023-24), oil on marine pulley, 23 x 11.5 x 8 centimeters

“500 Years (after Van Eertvelt) II” (2023-24), oil and pencil on gessoed chest panel, 22 x 29 centimeters

“September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

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