I am a visual artist from Scotland working in printmaking, photography and drawing. I graduated last year with a MA distinction in Art and Humanities from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. My work is based on the aesthetics of the landscape and I use this visual language to challenge assumptions about the natural environment, to reinterpret the grandeur of natural land forms, and to re-present this visual information laden with power.

I am currently based in the North of Iceland in a remote town called Olafsfjordur where I have been living and working for five months as artist in residence with two separate organisations: Nes and Listhus.

Prior to this I have spent a large amount of time in residency programmes including an expedition around the Northern Isles of Scotland with the Clipperton Project and working with the Bothy Project on two different projects. I have been selected for numerous artist in residence programmes this year which include Lyth Arts Centre in Wick, Cove Park, Cill Rialaig in Ireland and also one of 10 artists globally to be selected for the annual expedition around the archipelago of Svalbard with the Arctic Circle Organisation this coming October.

When I am back in Scotland I have a studio in Dundee where I work full time as an artist and exhibit my work locally and internationally. I have exhibitions scheduled for this year including two in Iceland, Grampian Arts Trust Solo show, John Muir show and ‘Just Landed’ exhibition at An Talla Solais, Ullapool from the 25th of March to the 1st of May.

My process in my visual art work is very much based place based. I tend to work in various mediums mixing them together and creating layers and textures responding to the land around me.
My drawings are large scale, gestural, and sweeping, in imitation of the landforms themselves. My prints are layered and tactile, responding not only to the land-forms but the textual rock surfaces as well. As my work has developed, it is the internalised grandeur of the landforms that take precedence. My photographs highlight the bareness and hostility of these wild landscapes that are exposed to the elements on the edges of the land.

I hope my work can serve as records of landscapes in flux, honoring the transition of them and inspiring our global community to take action for the future. By producing my art work I hope it will give people a chance to connect with that landscape and respect the nature that is so wild around us, to then cultivate a deeper understanding and inspire others to make a difference.

My future plans are creating larger work produced from my time spent in Iceland and all of the inspiration I have gathered here, preparing my work for upcoming exhibitions and getting organized for my largest project to date: my upcoming trip to the High Arctic this October.
I have been invited among a select group of artists and scientists worldwide to participate in The Arctic Circle Residency Programme in October 2016 for three weeks around the remote and northern Archipelago of Svalbard. The other residents and I will sail together on an ice class barkentine tallship explore Svalbard, just ten degrees from the North Pole, creating, collaborating, observing and documenting as we go.
This residency is incredibly important to me as it is in Svalbard where the effects of progressive climate change are the most apparent and where wildlife and the sea ice is significantly under threat. It is a place of wonder yet fragility and I find it important for my practice to record the shifting of the landscapes and the effects that global warming is inflicting on the Arctic.

I aim to record, document, and build up a large body of new drawings/ paintings, prints and photographs all made on the voyage through the Arctic and all directly connected to the place and what I observe whilst on the expedition. I hope to instill love for the landscapes in people so they too can be inspired to conserve this place that is significant to our future as a whole. I am currently raising funds for my project so if you would like to back my trip and receive art work made in Svalbard in return please click this link.

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