Love is in the air at Helensburgh Art Hub’s Front Room Gallery as it prepares to stage a new exhibition with a romantic theme.

Featuring largely local artists, the exhibition opened on Saturday, February 11 at 2pm in the gallery on West Clyde Street, with everyone welcome to peruse the artwork while enjoying a glass of fizz.

The three-week exhibition includes work by Ania Blasinska, Maeve Dixon, David Bruce, Mariusz Pratkowski and Karlyn Marshall. Also showcased are works from Rowena Comrie, Maureen Rocksmoore, Garter, Brian McFie, Stephen Scott, Scott MacDonald and Morven Swann.

Looking ahead to the exhibition, Karlyn Marshall, gallery owner, told the Advertiser: “The Front Room Gallery is proud to promote local artists, crafters and makers. Helensburgh and the surrounding areas are home to a diverse array of creative talents and it’s wonderful to see them come to the fore in this way.

“We would encourage everyone to take a good wander along the seafront to come and visit us as we showcase our latest exhibition.”

News of the Front Room Gallery’s Love is in the Air exhibition comes as the gallery – and Helensburgh Art Hub – continue to recover slowly following the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a social enterprise and a not-for-profit organisation, the art hub relies upon the work of volunteers to help with a range of tasks including staffing the gallery, assisting at workshops and devising social media content to help raise the hub’s profile.

Now Karlyn is keen for more volunteers to get involved. She continued: “Since reopening, like all businesses, we have found less footfall and engagement. As public confidence grows, our workshops seem to be taking off again.

“We have a full programme of events from painting to photography to bottle lamp making and it would be great to expand our volunteer base as these activities start to take off.

“We run a range of workshops for the community, some free or subsided others incurring a cost. All profits from the workshop go back into the art hub.

"We work with a range of charities, schools and organisations providing bespoke workshops including the likes of Jean’s Bothy, Jigsaw Cornerstone, The Welcome In, Parklands School and The Garelochhead Station Trust, so we are heavily involved in the Helensburgh and Lomond community, and hope to remain so for a long time to come.”

Anyone keen to get involved, or find out more about Helensburgh Art Hub, can email: helensburgharthub@gmail.com.

Those keen to exhibit should go to frontroomgallery.co.uk.