Whiteadder arts project 2020-2021
This Art and Archaeology project focused on the historic significance of the Whiteadder River in the Lammermuirs where I now live and paint. The project included music, poetry, installation, archeaeology and other exciting things. It happened during covid and was an online event in the end, but the links here give you access to our achievements. We researched and illustrated a Foraging Leaflet and designed an outdoor classroom for Berwickshire Highh School, called Apples and Archeaology. This was based on LiDAR images taken by archaeologists which revealed the footprint of numerous iron age forts found in the area. We hoped to commission crafstpeople to make benches of different native woods, but the project was never realised.
https://whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Hillfort-Orchards-June-2020-lowres.pdf
https://whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com/
https://whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com/creative-arts/
http://whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Foraging-leaflet-low-res.pdf
Kruidtuin flemish project 2016-17
A lovely small botanical garden in Leuven, Belgium where I recorded the many varieties of bearded iris and other species in this tranquil oasis. This project was in conjunction with a series of watercolours painted whilst undergoing treatment for breast cancer in Gastuisberg; they remain a powerful reminder of a tranformative time and are being published to raise money for Amoena the breast cancer trust in Belgium.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_Botanicus_Lovaniensis
Brief Garden Sri lankan scholarship 1993 -5
Created between 1929 and 1989, Brief is the most inventive, enchanting and influential garden in Sri Lanka. Primarily an artists' garden, it is a series of beautifully composed views and spaces created at different times, in different moods, and connected by colourful and circuitious woodland walks. Brief is the life work of Bevis Bawa, artist, writer and landscape gardener. In 1993, a year after Bevis died, I received a scholarhip from The Geoffrey Bawa Trust to record and illustrate Brief. I created a pen, ink and watercolour inventory of all the plant species and art works therein, and a detailed planting plan for conservation purposes.
Geoffrey Bawa's garden is not so far from his brother Bevis' and is called Lunuganga. I went there to paint on occasions but otherwise lived in a little cottage within the paradise of Brief itself. I still go there to stay, paint, teach and guide visitors around, all of which I adore.
I am currently writing a book proposal, about Brief, for The Monacelli Press.
https://briefgarden.com/
https://geoffreybawa.com/lunuganga
Exhibitions, scholarships and publications
EXHIBITIONS
2024 The SSBA 'Native Flowers and Pollinators' at the Scottish Ornithological Society
2022 Berwickshire Art Society (Torness Cup winner for best painting) Duns Castle
2022 The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists, Firestation Creative, Dunfermline
2022 Humbie Hub - joint show with Rowena Price (SSA and winner of Jacksons' painting prize 2023)
2020 Scottish Arts Club members exhibition
2019 SAC Edinburgh, Drawings
2019 SSBA at the SAC, Edinburgh
2018 Topolino, Tienen, Belgium (solo show)
2017 RGI Kelly Gallery Glasgow, Ligne et Couleur Scottish Society of Artist Architects (SSAA)
2016 Paris Ligne et Couleur (SSAA)
2015 Glasgow Arts Club,Ligne et Couleur (SSAA)
2015 Historische Stadhuis, Zoutleeuw, Belgium (solo show)
2014 Kunst en Aperatief, Tienen (solo)
2012 In the Garden With Friends, Barn in the Beild, Perthshire
1997 Banons Resorts India (solo show)
1996 IoTA Gallery, Lamma Island, Hong Kong
1994 Gallery 706 with Edward Scott
1993 Brief Garden, drawings
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Work held in private collections in Brussels and Kent, Colombo, Lunuganga and Brief, Lausanne, Canada, Australia, Scotland and London.
RESIDENCIES and SCHOLARSHIPS
1993 The Geoffrey Bawa Trust Scholarship: Artist in Residence, Brief Garden, Sri Lanka
1994 The Geoffrey Bawa Scholarship to further study at Brief, Lunuganga and Colombo
1992 Edinburgh University Small Project Grant to study the design of open space in Berlin
1984 British Council Scholarship to study architecture at the summer school in Budapest, Hungary
PUBLICATIONS (work included in)
Stormrider Guide - Europe (1992) Low Pressure Publications (London)
Insitute of Landscape Architects vol 2 spring 1994
Serendib Air Lanka magazine Vol 15, no 1 Jan-Feb 1996
Michael Ondaatje's Quarterly Literary review 1996
Bawa - the Sri Lankan Gardens by David Robson and Domonic Sansoni (2008)
POSITIONS HELD
Membership secretary for the Scottsih Society of Botanical Artists
Secretary for the Berwickshire Arts Society
Part-time lecturer at Borders College
Guest lecturer at univeristies of Hong Kong, Columbo (Sri Lanka) , Punjab (India) and Edinburgh.
Charity and community work
Murals in Beruwala Childerns' Hospital, Sri Lanka:
Hong Kong, watercolours of markets sold in aid of Medecin Sans Frontiers.
I designed a temple garden in India and ran the first FM radio station in the Himalayas on a non profit communituy basis.
Education
2014-16 Academie Regio Tienen, Belgium, Kunst en Schilderij (Painting)
1991-93 MLA Edinburgh University (Landscape Architeture)
1981-85 BA Cheltenham College of Art and Design (Urban Design)
1980 -81 Dip Accademia di Belle Arte, Perugia, Italy (Italian, History of Art and Drawing)