This Art and Archaeology project lasted for a year and 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. I researched, illustrated and co wrote a Foraging Leaflet, a page of  which is included below - wild garlic. We also designed a planting  plan called Apples and Archeaology for a proposed Berwickhsire High School outdoor classroom. This was based on  LiDAR images taken by archaeologists which revealed the footprint of numerous iron age forts found in the area. We hope 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

A lovely small botanical garden in Leuven, Belgium where I went to paint in 2016 - 17. 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

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

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)

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.

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)