460 artworks by 179 artists

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South Ayrshire Museums and Galleries Service is based at Rozelle House Galleries in Ayr. Alongside is the Maclaurin Art Gallery, run in partnership with the Maclaurin Trust. Also part of the Museums Service is the McKechnie Institute in Girvan. Collections include Fine Art, Natural History, Geology, Textiles and Costume, Archaeology, and Social History, including material from the former burghs of Ayr, Maybole, Troon, Girvan and Prestwick. The site at Rozelle also includes Rozelle Craft Shop, Rozelle Tearoom and the Ayrshire Yeomanry Museum. Fine art makes up one of the largest collections held by the Museums and Galleries service. Most of the collection has a Scottish element, representing the work of Scottish artists or Scottish scenes/life, with many works of local scenes or by local artists. Particularly strong collections are of Robert Bryden, William Bell Scott Valentine and original artists of the Ayr Sketch Club. Much of the ‘local’ work is on paper and is unframed. Work is present in all mediums, with significant works in oil by Thomas Faed, Sir Joseph Noel Paton, George Leslie Hunter, William Muir, John Faed, David Gow, Sir Daniel Macnee, James of Skirking Howe, Eyre Crowe, Alexander Nasmyth, Samuel John Peploe, Lucien Pissarro, Edward Atkinson Hornel and George Henry. Also of note is the large painting 'Judas' by Peter Howson and the 'Tam o’Shanter' series by Alexander Goudie. Significant works on paper include Robert Colquhoun, the Reverend John Thomson of Duddingston, D. O. Hill, James Faed, Sir D. Y. Cameron, G. Leslie Hunter and P. Wyndham Lewis. Most notable within the sculptural collections is Henry Moore's 'Reclining Figure’. Works have been acquired with the assistance of various local and national grant giving bodies.