W: www.katherinesutherland.co.uk F : Katherine Sutherland-Artist
After training as a nurse in Edinburgh in the 90’s I moved back to the beautiful Highlands of Scotland where I now live and work as an artist.
I receive endless visual inspiration from the drama of the surrounding countryside, which I interpret using bold brush strokes and an exciting pallet of colours. My response to the landscape is both emotional and intellectual and I seek to capture the ‘Sense of Place’ in each piece I create.
My works are produced in a variety of media; watercolour, ink, acrylic oils and charcoal and in a variety of sizes from tiny paintings to very large works.
I take pleasure in creating unique works of art reflecting the landscape of Scotland as I see it, balancing colours and depicting a sense of the unique light and beauty of the Highlands.
W: www.anncoomber.co.uk E: sculpture@anncoomber.co.uk T:01599 577264
The preservation of memories is integral to my work as a sculptor. I feel that the intimate connection between story and art that informed the creativity of our ancient ancestors and First Nation people has been lost in the modern world. Every drawing, every object, tells a story that records and directs their movement through life, landscape and time.
During the creative process of developing stone into curvaceous abstract shapes I like to dig deep into personal stories, memories, experiences and emotions, imbuing the sculpture with meaning – recording my own journey through time and space, both imagined and real.
My work has been exhibited widely and in 2017 my work was chosen for Sculpt at Kew, a contemporary sculpture event showcasing the work of over thirty British and international artists, held at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London. In 2018 my work was exhibited at the Sawyer Gallery, Inverewe Garden for which I created a sculpture: ‘The Shelter of Your Arms’.
W: www.jaholmes.com E: jillholmes27@gmail.com P: 01445 781729 M:07468 198 982
JILL HOLMES (BA Hons Fine Art)
I am so lucky to work in a studio overlooking Loch Ewe and Inverewe Garden. My work is an eclectic mix of subjects and materials. I’ve always found working in different mediums keeps my work fresh and challenging. My source of inspiration is colour, which always includes the use of gold! Much of my work reflects images from the past which use intense colours and intricate pattern work. Celtic imagery, folklore, Medieval & Tudor tapestries, Greek & Roman mythology are all sources of fascination for creating a work.
Discovering new ways of working often come by chance, I always relish the opportunity to learn new skills which can be incorporated into art works. Over the last three years I’ve been on a journey of discovery experimenting with creative textiles, pewter, jewellery, digital artworks including photography, now I’m coming full circle back to my first loves of printmaking and painting.
Over the years I have exhibited extensively in the North West of England in group and solo exhibitions which led to residencies in Galleries and schools. The most prestigious moment of my life as an artist was acceptance to The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition before moving to the Highlands.
W: www.lynneforrester.com E: lynne@lynneforrester.com F: Art by Lynne Forrester I: @lynneforrester T: @lynnejforrester T: 07882 172752
Lynne Forrester works mainly in soft pastels and oil paints to specialise in velvety-soft seascapes and cloudscapes inspired by the beautiful scenery on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides.
Originally from Northamptonshire, Lynne lived in several locations around the UK before choosing to live and work on Skye to pursue her art career whilst surrounded by the part of the world that moves her to paint from the heart. Her initial art training took place at the School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth following her BA (hons) in Cultural Studies at the University of East London. She then continued her studies in Aberystwyth to gain a MA in Literary Studies. Since then, she has worked in seemingly unartistic professions but always managed to weave creative elements through them. Lynne has continued to study and practice drawing and painting over the years, being privileged to work with incredibly talented teachers and artists.
Lynne is now fulfilling her dream to be a full-time artist and has her own permanent solo exhibition space at Lynne’s Art Shed in Waternish, Isle of Skye. She continues to work in soft pastels and oil paints to create cloudscapes and seascapes as well as working on her life drawing and abstract art disciplines too.
W: www.ceramicsattheannexe.co.uk E: iaincampbell1@mac.com F: Ceramics at the Annexe M: 07736 335559
I have come to ceramics fairly late in life, discovering a passion for hand-building in clay, using coils, slabs and pinching to create tactile, sculptural pieces based on simple abstracted forms.
I work with stoneware and occasionally earthenware clays and I am excited to experiment with smoke and pit firings to create unpredictable finishes. I have also recently been drawn to work with raku firings, using patinas to create subtle matt finishes.
My inspiration comes from the land and coastline around where I live in Moray: the vast changing skies, the textures and colours of the woods, the sand and stones on the beaches, the rolling farmlands.
I work from my home studio, “Ceramics at the Annexe”, tucked up a little lane at the back of my house in Forres. The studio is open this year during the North East Open Studios event from 14 to 22 September 2019, and at other times by appointment.
W: www.aileengrant.co.uk E: aileengrant99@googlemail.com B: http://aileengrantgallery.blogspot.co.uk T: @Aileenpix F: @Aileen Grant Artist Tel: 07956980383
AILEEN GRANT Artist Printmaker
Aileen draws, paints and makes prints - etchings, aquatints, photopolymer gravures and linocuts. Her work is inspired by the sea and hills of Wester Ross. She loves to be in the wilds, walking and sketching. She works in her studio in Lochcarron, where she has her printing press set up. Aileen spent her early years in Fife, then lived in Edinburgh before moving to Lochcarron. She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and worked for a number of years as a town planner. She completed the course in Advanced Drawing and Painting at Leith School of Art. She helped to set up and run Lochcarron Gallery 2016-18.
“As well as wild landscapes, I like trees and old structures that speak of the past. I think about the relationship between buildings and nature, and sometimes I re-imagine landscapes from various sketches I’ve made. I also like to give myself challenges, and explore new ideas.”
Aileen’s work has been selected and shown in open exhibitions of the RSA, RSW, VAS, Scottish Drawing Competition and the Edinburgh Macmillan Art Show. She has also exhibited in several group shows in Edinburgh. In 2018 one of her paintings was awarded the President’s Prize by the Arts Society Inverness at the members’ exhibition, and one of her prints received a commendation at Nairn Book and Arts Festival. She is a member of Edinburgh Printmakers, Highland Print Studios, Visual Arts Scotland, the Arts Society Inverness and the Scottish Society of Artists.
F: Jo Simpsons Artwork
I am an artist who is fortunate to be living in the beautiful Highlands of Ross-shire, Scotland. I have a BA (HONS) Degree in Surface Pattern Design and Textiles. Prior to this I completed a BTEC National Diploma in Art and Design and A Level in Art.
Here in the Highlands I am able to gather much inspiration from my surroundings. My artwork interprets what I have discovered all around me, in several different styles and formats. My general style is quite primitive or a little quirky. I often use Acrylic, coloured pencil or watercolour but open to all media. I particularly like to use strong bold colours and I incorporate pattern and texture to many artworks.
I am inspired by places I visit, memories I have, animals, or objects I have collected and photographs I have taken. I will usually sketch and take photo’s whilst out walking in beautiful surroundings. This collected research is analysed and referred to when planning out the best compositions to use. I like to interpret my subject matter as I remember witnessing it and try to reflect the mood it provoked in me. My light hearted quirkier paintings are made up compositions which tell a story and record memories. Imagery tends to be out of proportion and exaggerated to amuse the viewer. My intention is to create artworks which will brighten moods or resonate with the viewer in some way. My appreciation of my environment, is demonstrated through my work.
ROSANNE WISEMAN - BA (Hons) Painting
Depending on the subject matter my interpretation can be figurative or abstract. Working from direct observation and sometimes photographs I make initial colour studies using collage and paint, elements of which are used for the final piece. Focussing on colour, shape and texture I like to use a variety of media to interpret different aspects of my investigations. Although the majority of my work is abstract and often intuitive I believe it is inspired by my natural surroundings be it weather or landscape often influencing my colour choices. I enjoy playing with colour and texture inviting the viewer to examine all areas of the painted surface.
I am lucky to live on the North West coast of Scotland where the spectacular landscape changes frequently influenced by rapid changes in weather and light.
W: www.pictureshack.co.uk W: www.sketchingholidays.co.uk
A lifelong and widely collected artist with a BA in Illustration, Mary King is currently based in Lochinver, Sutherland.
Specialising in pastels, coloured pencils and inks, she ran her gallery 'Picture Shack' for many years before her love of travelling, painting outside and teaching led to a change of direction, and with it, a new-found love of watercolour. She now concentrates on her sketching holiday company 'Vistas' when she is not painting the NW Highlands, where the ever-changing light and timeless, wild landscapes remain her greatest inspiration.
I exhibit under Mary King.
W: www.carolinedear.co.uk E: caroline@carolinedear.co.uk T 01470 582 330
I studied botany in Dublin before qualifying as an architect. I then worked as an architect and landscape architect in Dublin, Utrecht (The Nederlands), Oslo, London and Paris before moving to the Isle of Skye to work in 1986 and have developed my artistic practice in response to being in this particular place. My work explores our changing relationship with the natural world around us examining the link between our inner selves and the outer physical landscape. I sift archaeological cultural and practical traditional skills,
I speak French fluently and have been learning Gaelic. In 2013 I received a Certificate in Field Botany from the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. I have exhibited world wide, most recently in Finland and Canada as well as Scotland and UK. I have received many awards including from Creative Scotland and commissions most recently from ATLAS arts to curate and deliver a series of walks on Skye. I am undertaking an MA in Art and Social Practice at present.
W: www.mike-dodd.com E: mikedodd@orange.fr
I’ve loved drawing and art in general since I was a young child. When I was making art the rest of the world disappeared and I didn’t notice time passing. I was absorbed, complete, watching new worlds appear at the end of my pencil. At art school, a degree in Graphic Design led ultimately to a career as a self-employed illustrator, specialising in picture books and educational material for young readers.
Following a move to live in southern France, I completed an MA in Fine Art in 2008. The next year I was asked by my American brother-in-law to join him on a 1000 mile, 6 weeks long raft trip down the Mississippi River and this experience ignited my enthusiasm for working with natural materials in various ways. Over the last ten years, I have exhibited and made installations in England, Scotland, Wales, France and the United States, including a two-month artist’s residency in 2017 at the National Trust for Scotland’s property of Inverewe Garden and Estate.
W: www.leonpatchett.com
Leon Patchett graduated with a B.A. hons degree in Ceramics from Central St Martins School of Art. A long-term resident at The Stables Studios in Cromarty for over 15 years. Primarily a 3 dimensional artist with a diverse portfolio of work that has brought opportunities to work at home and abroad. He has been able to take on a broader A list of international visual arts residencies & projects.
Ideas of transformation and order are common themes in his work. Concepts of art and craft are often blurred as he has a pragmatic approach to use whatever is necessary or available to realise an idea.
The sculptural work and ceramics develop side by side as it is the norm to work on both simultaneously as each satisfies a necessary part of his creative sensibility.
W: https://www.davidsandum.com/ E: d_sandum@hotmail.com
Born and raised in Sweden, David Sandum moved with his wife to the United States in the early 1990s and settled in Salt Lake City. He attended the University of Utah and graduated in 1999 with a BA in speech communication. Soon after, he returned to Scandinavia with his young family and ultimately secured a position in IT sales. The demands of his new job, on the heels of many years of stress, took a toll on his health, and he fell into a severe depression. It was during this difficult time that he began to draw and paint, inspired by Edvard Munch’s philosophy that we should all write or paint our life story.
In 2002, David had his first exhibit in his new hometown of Moss, Norway. Over the years since, he has pursued a career in art, participating in many group exhibits and annual solo gallery shows. He was also awarded several public art commissions in Hvaler, Norway, and Skagen, Denmark. In 2007 David completed a series of Auschwitz-Birkenau paintings in honor of his grandmother, who was a survivor. One of the pieces was acquired by the Mizel Museum in Denver, Colorado. More recently, David has embarked on several study trips to New York City, Prague, and Amsterdam. In October 2014, he was accepted to work at the prestigious printmaking studio Estudi de Gravat Ignasi Aguirre Ruiz in Barcelona under master printer Ignacio, who has worked with a number of renowned artists, including Dali, Tapies, and Miro. For his etchings, David primarily uses aquatint, drypoint, or carborundum.
When painting, he uses either oil on canvas or gouache on paper. He loves the difference between these techniques. “Working with oils is like taking a long mountain expedition,” he says, “while working with etchings is like climbing without a rope. One mistake and you’re dead!”
In 2010, David earned international acclaim by founding Twitter Art Exhibit, a social media initiative whereby artists from around the world send hand-painted postcards that are exhibited for local charities in need of funding. This annual event has gone global, taking place in such cities as Los Angeles, Orlando, and New York City. The 2017 exhibit in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, attracted more than 1,000 artists from 65 countries.
An author as well an artist, David wrote a memoir about his challenges with mental illness: I’ll Run Till the Sun Goes Down: A Memoir about Depression and Discovering Art. Published by Sandra Jonas Publishing in Boulder, Colorado, the book was released in September 2015. David lives with his wife and two sons in Moss, Norway.
W: www.lynnbmackartist.co.uk E: lynnbmack@gmail.com F: Lynnbennettmackenzieart T:@lynnbmackartist
I was brought up in remote rural areas of the Highlands, studied at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, and now live and work in Gairloch, NW Scotland.
The inspiration for my work is derived from nature, the environment, people and the area in which I live, which provides a plethora of materials and influences. I enjoy creating in a variety of media and exploring new methods of working.
My work has been exhibited widely, I have taken part in several community and international projects and have strong international art connections, in particular with the YATOO organisation in S Korea, participating in the pilot project for the Global Nomadic Art Project in 2014.
As the first NTS Artist in Residence at Inverewe throughout 2017, I continue to work alongside the team here to develop and embed the arts in the garden and wider community.
W: www.joannebkaar.com B: https://thehousedress.blogspot.com/
Weaver of grass, fibre artist inspired by journeys over land, sea & through time. Maker of portable museums of curiosity & baker of cake!
I live in Dunnet, on Dunnet Head, Caithness, Scotland, only two miles from where I grew up in the village of Brough. My artwork takes inspiration from our heritage. Keen to learn traditional skills, research local stories, learn about conservation and care of objects, I enjoy finding inventive ways to attract new audiences while adding new information to artefacts of which little is known. My artwork is varied, and is as much at home in museums as art galleries.
As both participant and instigator of arts and heritage projects and collaborations I have worked in Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, USA, Canada, Estonia, and also exhibited in Japan, Germany, Spain, Australia, Sweden and Finland. My current self-directed projects take inspiration from lichens and also house dresses/ wrap aprons.
W: www.rebellion.earth
DORJE KHANDRO DAWID Songwriter, singer, storyteller
Singing, especially with other people, has always been one of the highlights of my life. I’ve been in various ensembles, choirs and bands, led community song projects, worked as a storyteller in Glasgow schools, and generally adore bringing song into my life and those of others.
As a young woman I was inspired by the wonderful characters and stories found in folk songs. Over time I have become more focused on the songs that nature and the elements would like to bring through me. Most of my songs are thus composed outside. If you see someone with wild hair sitting in the sea or wandering the shores and hills around Inverewe singing and supplicating the elements, it’s probably me.
I find many of my songs are messages about the profound effect we humans are having on our planet, as well as songs of mourning for the devastation we are causing. Man-created climate change has become, for me, the biggest call to action we humans have ever faced.
W: www.indiaflint.com E: appaloosa9@icloud.com
Statement: My work conflates the visual and written poetics of place and memory, using walking, drawing, assemblage, mending, stitch, image-making and text as a means of mapping country, recoding and recording responses to landscape - working with cloth, paper, stone, windfall biological material, water, minerals, bones, the discarded artefacts and hard detritus of human habitation, the local weed burden. I negotiate a path between installation, printing, painting, drawing, writing and sculpture. The work of each day, philosophically rooted in topophilia [the love of place] literally begins with a walk.
Biography: India Flint was born in Melbourne, Australia and earned her MA from the University of South Australia in 2001. She is the author of the highly distinctive ecoprint, an ecologically sustainable plant-based printing process giving brilliant colour to cloth that has been widely adopted in Australia and internationally since the publication of her books ‘Eco Colour’ in 2008 and ‘Second Skin’ 2011. Her work is represented in private collections and museums in Germany, Latvia, the USA and Australia as well as the costume collections of a number of dance companies including Leigh Warren & Dancers and the West Australian Ballet Company.
W: www.mandyhaggith.net/ E: hag@mandyhaggith.net
I have lived on a woodland croft in Assynt since 1999, and combine writing with sailing, environmental activism and teaching literature and creative writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
In 2009 my first novel won the Robin Jenkins Literary Award for environmental writing and in 2013 I was poet in residence at the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens. I have had four published poetry collections (letting light in, Castings, A-B-Tree, and Why the Sky is Far Away), a poetry anthology (Into the Forest), a non-fiction book (Paper Trails) and four novels, including The Walrus Mutterer and The Amber Seeker, the first two volumes of a historical novel trilogy set in the Iron Age.
The Gaelic Tree Alphabet is a theme that runs through much of my work. Since 2011, I have been running a project, called A-B-Craobh (A-B-Tree) - Seeds for Creativity, exploring how the tree alphabet can be used as a structure for sharing folklore, scientific learning and creative writing.
W: www.lisaobrien.co.uk E:: info@lisaobrien.co.uk
Lisa’s practice is constantly changing and draws on sound, visual and experiential elements. Her current work is on paper and canvas creating traces and records of movements, imprints of emotions using transient media and materials such as pigment, graphite, watercolour, charcoal, moving thread and tissue papers, japanese kozo papers juxtaposed with solid acrylic marks. The gestures she uses are instinctive responses to and expressions of an inner emotional landscape and perhaps inevitably, living in the Highlands, they are influenced by the dramatic surrounding environment.
Lisa has spent the past year photographing, recording, painting and drawing abstract emotional responses to her surroundings and experiences. Responding to both the weather conditions and the changing hours of light is entwined with domestic events and sometimes happenings on a global scale, natural phenomena or man made events.
Lisa has a small studio in Shieldaig near Torridon, The Blue Roof Studio. Visitors are welcome by appointment, or see opening times on her website or when the open sign is out by the road.
After graduating from Heatherley School of Art, where she studied classical art, Cindie worked as an artist until her children were small, when she had to stop painting for a while. She began painting professionally again in 2013 and as been working as an artist ever since. Last Easter Cindie did a botanic art course at Inverewe Gardens which was delivered by tutors from Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and loved it so much that she applied to do a Certificate in Botanical Illustration which she has just completed.
Close study of botanical specimens has inspired Cindie to include more plants in her acrylic landscapes and to complete a number of “plant portraits” in oils and in watercolour.
Cindie lives and works in Lochcarron, she sketches and paints locally and uses botanical samples from her own garden and from Inverewe in her paintings and drawings. She is inspired by the light and ever-changing colours of hills, the water and the wide open skies of the Western Highlands, by the lush greenery and by the flowers of Scotland.
