From the studio No.31 (17th Mar 2024) →

A glimpse from my trip to Edinburgh for

Visual Arts Scotland - Then and Now: 100 Years of VAS

It was great to visit the old city where I spent 4 years of my life as a student - humming with new coffee shops, tourists, bag pipes and creativity. Visiting this exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy was thrilling, it is a very large and glamorous space - I sipped prosecco and mingled with new artist friends from deep within the Highlands. It was a beautifully hung show with each room hung according to colour. It worked.

Apparently my second cousin was showing a painting there too (we both went to Edinburgh college of art, she was 3 years above me) plus a cohort from Cornwall (from a Cornwall-Scotland residency exchange). But alas we didn’t know and we didn’t meet. Shame.

Below are some images from the event.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence 2022

Oak gall ink and gesso on panel; 122 x 122cm

This painting, was selected from over 1500 entries. 242 artists were showcased. Using my signature paint, made from locally foraged oak galls, I have made the painting with traditional gesso on sustainable poplar wood panel.

During the exhibition there was also a room showing work 30x30cm from all members of VAS, all under £250. This is a travelling show and next visits Borders Art Fair click for catalogue.

Exhibition photography - Instagram: @robin_mair_photography @colinhattersleyphoto & me.

From the studio No.30 →

It’s been a busy week with a trip to Hermon, Pembrokeshire, Wales and a trip to Newlyn, Cornwall.

In West Wales where I live, I was invited, along with 8 other creative practitioners, to talk about my creative practice, during a day of celebration of 'Making New Connections' on International Women's Day. Nearly 50 artists, makers, creatives from Wales brought together to give talks, partake in workshops, connect and share food, held in the new beautiful timber framed studio @ystiwdio and Hermon Village Hall. This part of the day was a Petcha Kucha, where creatives are given a 7-9 minute slot to give a slideshow and talk about their practice. Well actually, since I have a recently and beautifully made studio documentary by Huw Richards Photography, made in conjunction with my solo exhibition at Elysium Gallery in 2023, I played that on the big screen. It duration is 9mins, so perfect, not a lot of talking from me!

A special thank you/diolch to the steering group members @lindanorrisgallery @lisaevansstudio @pip_a_lewis_ @stirlingsteward @msbaker101, helpers on the day, the wonderful artists who delivered presentations and our photographer Dion Cowe @stoneandivy.photo

Making New Connections - Creu Cysylltiadau Newydd supported by the Arts Council of Wales Sharing Together Fund @celfcymruarts

The very next day I was down in Newlyn, adjascent to Penzance, in Cornwall. There the fantastic independent Newlyn School of Art resides in an old school, started in 2011 and runs many many courses in fine art, mostly painting - such as is Newlyn’s tradition - taught by many of the best-known artists working in Cornwall today. Newlyn’s history is mainly of being a fisher town but also in the 1880’s a artist colony was established and in 1899 the Forbes School of Painting was founded by Elizabeth and Stanhope Forbes in the famous Anchor Studio in Newlyn.

I was invited for the weekend, as a visiting artist, to tutor on the year long mentoring programme. I had a fantastic time, it was so much fun and seriously, what a super course it is. I screened my two films including the exhibition tour and gave a 45 minute talk about my studio practice on the Sunday. The talk followed a journey of studio practice, beginning with my first solo exhibition at Belgrave St. Ives, to my 4th exhibition with the gallery, to leaving Cornwall in a converted luton box truck, my ‘Nomadic Studio’ on a 5 month travelling residency to the Highlands of Scotland, to landing in an 80 acre oak woodland in West Wales where I ventured to make my practice more sustainable, to my most recent solo exhibition in 2023, showing 5 years of work across 4 large galleries, all using botanical colour, foraged or home-grown to make paints, inks and dyes.

Driven by an inspiring course leader Jesse Leroy Smith, I was also working alongside fellow artists Marie Claire Hamon and Kate Walters.

For my third day in Cornwall, Jesse invited me to hang some of my work in one of the studios to set up for a filmed interview. Shot by film-maker Alban Roinard, another artist whom I met during my time living 10 years in West Cornwall, interviewed by Jesse, fuelled by good coffee and croissants, we had a blast. The interview will be available through the Newlyn School of Art programme where they are building a resource of artists, curators, gallerists and art practitioners.

What a weekend, who knew working could be so fun!