I am a visual artist and my work is born from remembered experiences of the landscapes I have visited, mostly around Scotland and the North. In the studio, I use painting to reconstruct the topographies of those places and tell the story of our wilder world.

Like peering out to sea the from the edge of a cliff, my paintings are a meeting place of two worlds. Often painted with a crepuscular palette, they have the language of a dream one has just awoken from and feel like imagined yet inhabitable spaces. Like stage-sets, they act as a device: an invitation into a ‘tapsalteerie’ world, where one finds characters who are impervious to their environment, amidst leaning lumps of land and unsettled seas.

As well as their fairy-tale like allure, my works are rooted in reality. They are a way to bring two worlds together- the real and the imagined/ the human and the non-human- in the hope of rekindling what is, perhaps, a misplaced familiarity and sensitivity to our natural world.

​To marry what I paint on and with (oils), to my subject matter, in my practice, I am also working towards a conscious connection to natural materials. In 2021, I received funding from Visual Artist and Craft Makers Award to research sustainable oil painting materials. This is something I am continuing to explore and develop. I carefully select paints from earth pigments without additives and in cold pressed oil, and sourced from relatively small manufacturers, such as Wallace and Seymour.

​Izzy Thomson graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2016, with a First Class BA (Hons) in Painting. She won several awards at her Degree show, and was then selected for the year-long Graduate Residency at Leith School of Art in Edinburgh. After that Izzy returned to the Highlands and was awarded a Dewar Arts Award for a studio in Wasps, Inverness Creative Academy, where she is currently based. Izzy's recent awards include a self-directed residency funded by the Visual Artist and Craft Makers Award, to research sustainable oil painting materials and a Northword Bringing Stories To Life, Development Grant from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. In 2021, she was fortunate to receive a funded place from Creative Access on Aardman Academy’s Stop Motion 1 Course. Her recent projects include Salt Tales, a collaborative residency and research project, funded by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals. This year Izzy will undergo the Turps Banana Correspondence Course. 

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