I am a practitioner involved in a partnership called Connecting Threads who issue funds for creative projects responding to the River Tweed. I run workshops on the art and ecology, using river water and found objects to create works of art by local communities. I also was involved in Annie Lord's project, Painting in Stone, commemorating the restoration of the Berwick Bridge after 400 years.

To celebrate 250 since J.M.W. Turner's birth, I was commissioned by Norham Arts and Connecting Threads to devise a workshop which I called 'Flowing Light' referencing Turner's techniques and colour palette where he painted by the River Tweed below Norham Castle.

https://www.tweedriverculture.org/journal/residency-reflections-annie-lord

https://www.tweedriverculture.org/

This Art and Archaeology project focused on the historic significance of the Whiteadder River in the Lammermuirs. The project encompassed music, poetry, installation, archaeology, flora and landscape. 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 High School,  called Apples and Archaeology. The classroom design was based on  LiDAR images, taken by archaeologists, which revealed the footprint of numerous iron age forts found in the area. We intended to commission crafts people 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

A lovely small botanical garden in Leuven, Belgium where I recorded the many varieties of bearded iris (Iris germanica spp.) in this tranquil oasis. This project was in conjunction with a series of watercolours painted whilst undergoing treatment for breast cancer in Gasthuisberg which remain a powerful reminder of a transformative time.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_Botanicus_Lovaniensis

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 circuitous 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 scholarship 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. I continue go there annually to paint, teach and guide visitors.

Renowned architect and father of tropical modernism, Geoffrey Bawa, was Bevis' younger brother and his garden, Lunuganga, an extensive piece of landscape design was inspired by Brief. Now, both gardens attract architects, artists gardeners and tourists eager to experience, and compare, the brothers' estates.

https://briefgarden.com/

https://geoffreybawa.com/lunuganga

EXHIBITIONS

SOLO SHOWS

1993 Drawings: Brief Garden, Sri Lanka

1997 Banon Resorts India

2014 Kunst en Aperatief, Tienen, Belgium

2015 Drawings and Paintings: Historische Stadhuis, Zoutleeuw, Belgium

2018 Drawings and Paintings: Topolino, Tienen, Belgium

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS

2025 The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists, The Customs House Gallery, Leith, Edinburgh

2025 The Scottish Society of Architect Artists members show, Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh

2024  The SSBA  'Native Flowers and Pollinators' at the Scottish Ornithological Society, Aberlady

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, Rutland Square, Edinburgh

2019 Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, Drawings

2019 Scottish Society of Botanical Artists members exhibition, Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh

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)

2012 In the Garden With Friends, Barn in the Beild, Perthshire 

1996 IoTA Gallery, Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

1994 Gallery 706, Colombo, Sri Lanka with Edward Scott.

 

WORK HELD IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

Public collections: The Geoffrey Bawa Trust, Colombo; Brief Garden, Home and Museum of Bevis Bawa, Sri Lanka.

Private collections: in Brussels, Colombo, Lausanne, Canada, Australia, Scotland and London. 

 

RESIDENCIES, SCHOLARSHIPS and AWARDS

2022 The Torness Cup for best painting in the Berwickshire Art Society annual exhibition, Duns Castle.

1993 and 1994 The Geoffrey Bawa Trust Scholarship: Artist in Residence, Brief Garden, Sri Lanka.

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)

Robson, D. and Sansoni, D. "Bawa - the Sri Lankan Gardens" (2008) Thames and Hudson, London

Ondaatje, M. (1996) Quarterly Literary Review Vol 1 (Nov)

Serendib Air Lanka magazine (1996) Vol 15, no 1 (Jan-Feb)

Institute of Landscape Architects (1994) Vol 2 Spring

Fitzjones, 0. "Stormrider Guide - Europe" (1992) Low Pressure Publications, London 

CURRENT POSITIONS HELD

Director of The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (2025)

Membership secretary for the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (2022-now)

Editor of Nuntii - Botanical Art Newspaper

Secretary for the Berwickshire Arts Society (2022-24)

Part-time lecturer at Borders College (2019- now)

Lecturer in painting for the Berwick Education Association in conjunction with The Maltings Arts Center and Granary Gallery, working alongside the major exhibitions (Anne Redpath 2023; J.S. Lowry 2024; Cedric Morris 2025 and Joan Eardly 2026).

PAST POSITIONS

Guest lecturer at the universities of Hong Kong, Moratuwa (Colombo, Sri Lanka) , Punjab (India) and Edinburgh University Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 1993 - 1996

Design assistant, Hugh Martin Partnership Architects and Town Planning Consultants 1990-1991 (Edinburgh)

Scenic Artist - The Royal Lyceum Theatre, The National Museum of Scotland and The Scottish Ballet 1988-1990 (Edinburgh)

Painter for Smallbone of Devizes and Devign Design Interiors 1985-1988 (London)

Murals in Beruwala Childrens' Hospital, Sri Lanka for the Lions Club, Alutgama, Sri Lanka.      

Medecin Sans Frontiers: watercolours of markets sold in aid of Medecin Sans Frontiers in Hong Kong.

Temple garden, Vashisht, Himachal Pradesh, India

FM radio station in the Himalayas on a non profit community basis, the first of its' kind.

2025-26 Short Courses at The Slade, London

2014-16 Painting, Academie Regio Tienen, Belgium, Kunst en Schilderij

1991-93  MLA Edinburgh University  (Landscape Architecture) 

1986 - 87 Life Drawing, Byam Shaw School of Art

1981-85  BA Cheltenham College of Art and Design (Urban Design)

1980 -81  Diploma Accademia di Belle Arte, Perugia, Italy (Italian, History of Art and Drawing)