Creative friends recreate popular Aberdeen Art Gallery artworks during lockdown

A group of creative friends have come together to recreate scenes from some of Aberdeen Art Gallery’s most iconic works during lockdown.

Vicki Frenz, Debbie Knorz, Ruth Maxwell, and Rhona MacRae call themselves All4Won, their lotto syndicate name.

At the start of lockdown, they decided to keep in touch by meeting every Friday for a video call.

As three of the friends live alone – two shielding and one with a broken leg – they knew that lockdown would have its challenges, so decided to set creative ‘homework’ tasks to keep mentally and physically motivated.

Seeing the photo recreations in the media of old masterpieces started by the Getty Museum, they decided to try some of their own – with hilarious results.

Most of their photographic recreations were taken using mobile phones on 10-second timers.

They also had two strict rules: no Photoshopping, and only to use items found in their homes, nothing could be bought in especially.

They chose various themes to focus their research and choices, including sculpture, nudes, men, and a favourite theme of Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Despite visiting Aberdeen Art Gallery on numerous occasions during their 40-year friendship, they were surprised by the breadth and diversity of the gallery’s collection.

They said: “We are delighted to have been part of Aberdeen Art Gallery’s Art Fund Museum of the Year 2020 celebrations by sharing our images on the Art Gallery’s social media this week.

“We hope we’ve given the Gallery’s followers some fun and enjoyment with our recreations of artworks from the Gallery.

“Creating our artworks really helped us to get through lockdown. It set us a challenge each week, improved our knowledge of the Gallery collection, and gave us hours of hilarity on a Friday evening when we shared them on our video chat.”

An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said: “The amount of effort the group has put in recreated some of our most famous artworks is tremendous and they are to be commended on their work.

“The recreations are very funny and I’m sure people will enjoy them and may help to appreciate the original artworks in the gallery in a totally different light.

“The artworks we have on display at the Art Gallery are truly outstanding and of international importance and it’s been fantastic seeing the group’s very individual interpretations of them.”

Anyone who wants to recreate their own interpretations of the art gallery’s masterpieces or who wishes to view the thousands of artworks and images from the collections can do so by visiting www.aagm.co.uk/collections