EXHIBITIONS highlighting traditional and cutting edge artistic techniques are to open at The Meffan in Forfar this weekend.

Staff are charting the differences over the centuries using work by contemporary artist Jenny Smith and the late James Watterston Herald, who was born in the town.

Jenny yesterday began setting up her display, featuring laser drawings, artists books and a video piece spotlighting the new direction in her work, alongside earlier pieces.

She gained a first class degree in drawing and painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1993, followed by an MA in multi-disciplinary print from Bristol last year.

Jenny’s work is shown internationally, netting her awards including a Royal Scottish Academy award for painting and a bursary which funded a research visit to Japan.

She has researched how the digital process of laser cutting can be used in drawing and fine art printmaking as part of an interest in the combination of traditional hand-rendered processes and new media.

Jenny hand draws with pencil or paint and incorporates the laser cutter in her finished article.

She is sharing space with Sketches from Life, dedicated to Herald by post-graduate students from St Andrews University.

It aims to shed light on his life and art using sketch books, letters and other material recently donated to the St Andrews Museum collections, as well as a paintings and drawings loaned from private collectors and galleries.

The display bolsters the permanent showing of Herald’s paintings and pastels in the stairwell.

Both exhibitions open on Saturday.