I grew up in a suburban area of Edinburgh, where large areas of housing had been built on farmland belonging to former estates. Small pockets of woodland were left to provide recreational use or just left to grow thick with brambles. It was into these woods that I went to play with my friends and the woods and disused railway line were places to go on adventures, make discoveries and have fun. I find it interesting how much I now draw on childhood

experiences to inform my current practice.

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Having moved to Perthshire, I live and work from my studio in an area which planning authorities describe as a brownfield site. I feel these areas need to be looked at more closely and during lockdown I did just that. Restricted as we were, I started to look at the plants growing between the concrete walls of the mill lade on the site of my studio. As I did this the history of the landscape began to appear. I love finding this layering of time on a landscape and much of my recent work has been about the idea of a shifting, changing, precarious environment.

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Since then, I have been working on two bodies of work that I call ‘Rewilding’ and ‘Flowlands’ and which begin with a receptive process which allows ideas and connections to be made. I work with paint, both watercolour and gouache, along with paper clay and recycled materials, ever mindful of my impact on the environment.

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The watercolour paintings which form part of this exhibition are from a much larger group of work which I began during lockdown. I recognised a need to put a routine into place which would allow ten minutes of making every day. It was a tool to ground myself when everything felt uncertain and frightening. The view from my studio window was my subject, it was a non-judgmental, undemanding process and one which I have continued with. The importance of this morning routine underpins everything I do, and it changed my approach to work and thinking. It was a mindful moment, the power of which was highly transformative.

 

I am currently a student on a Contemporary Art Practice course and I am managing to realise some long-held ideas as well as enjoy the input of others, which I feel is so important to my practice. I am a professional member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Society of Scottish Artists and Visual Arts Scotland.