Research based visual artist inspired by journeys over land, sea and through time, combining  fact, fiction and folklore.

I live in Dunnet, on Dunnet Head, Caithness, Scotland, only 2 miles from where I grew up in the village of Brough. I hold a BA Hons Degree from Grays School of Art, Aberdeen and a Master of Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University. I’ve been self-employed since graduating in Dec 1992, starting as artist in residence for the Isle of Skye a few weeks later. In 2003, The Guild of Master craftsman published my book ‘Papermaking and Bookbinding Coastal Inspirations. 

My artwork takes inspiration from our heritage.  As both participant and instigator of arts and heritage projects and collaborations, I have worked and exhibited in Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, USA, Canada, Estonia, Catalonia and the UK while also  exhibiting  in Japan, New ZealandFinland, Oman, Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

My artwork is varied, and is as much at home in museums as art galleries, and am the recipient of an ‘Iconic Artists in Iconic Places Award’ from  Museum Galleries Scotland and Creative Scotland.

I have many on-going self-directed projects including one on aprons.  Inspired by the competition to cross the Atlantic non-stop in 1919, I instigated an international community paper aeroplane exchange between 8 museums, heritage groups, and galleries in the North of Scotland and Newfoundland.

I have been invited twice to Iceland, and been selected twice as artist-in-residence for Newfoundland and Labrador Crafts Council in Newfoundland where I was also and invited as key-note speaker for their conference  ‘Using Crafts to Tell a Story’ in collaboration with the Intangible Cultural Heritage department of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s and more recently returned as consultant for the Trinity Historical Society on their portable museum project.

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.  By invitation, I gave a presentation about my work for the Botanical Society for Scotland at the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE) and exhibit in their John Hope Gateway Gallery, I was also invited by the British Lichen Society to give a presentation about my artwork at their AGM,  the venue was again, the RBGE. 

I solved the mystery of how Angus MacPhee made his grass garments. Angus was a crofter from Uist who spent almost 50 years in a Highland psychiatric hospital. During this time he chose not to speak - instead he wove a series of incredible costumes out of grass. My full size replicas are now part of the Art Extraordinary Trust collection along with Angus’s original grass garment, all now held in Glasgow Museums, and subsequently invited as one of the speakers for the symposium ‘Scottish Woven Communities’, an international gathering of knowledge, in the department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews as part of research by Dr Stephanie Bunn. 

I collaborated for a number of years with Lynn Taylor, a printmaker in New Zealand.  We arranged  our exhibitions to open simultaneously in New Zealand and Scotland.  A self-directed project inspired by the maiden voyage of the Westland ship in 1879 from Scotland to New Zealand. 

Invited by Chrysalis Arts I was lead artist in a two year, slow art, community artist residency project in Swaledale North Yorkshire and invited as artist in residence for the National Trust for Scotland at Inverewe Gardens.

I have organised art based fundraisers for local heritage groups run by volunteers raising £6000 for Brough Bay Association,  Castletown Heritage Society and  Mary Anns Cottage, all in Caithness.

Research based visual artist inspired by journeys over land, sea and through time, combining fact, fiction and folklore.

I live in Dunnet, on Dunnet Head, Caithness, Scotland, only 2 miles from where I grew up in the village of Brough. I hold a BA Hons Degree from Grays School of Art, Aberdeen and a Master of Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University. I’ve been self-employed since graduating in Dec 1992, starting as artist in residence for the Isle of Skye a few weeks later. In 2003, The Guild of Master craftsman published my book ‘Papermaking and Bookbinding Coastal Inspirations. 

My artwork takes inspiration from our heritage.  As both participant and instigator of arts and heritage projects and collaborations, I have worked and exhibited in Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, USA, Canada, Estonia, Catalonia and the UK while also  exhibiting  in Japan, New ZealandFinland, Oman, Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

My artwork is varied, and is as much at home in museums as art galleries, and am the recipient of an ‘Iconic Artists in Iconic Places Award’ from  Museum Galleries Scotland and Creative Scotland.

I have many on-going self-directed projects including one on aprons.  Inspired by the competition to cross the Atlantic non-stop in 1919, I instigated an international community paper aeroplane exchange between 8 museums, heritage groups, and galleries in the North of Scotland and Newfoundland.

I have been invited twice to Iceland, and been selected twice as artist-in-residence for Newfoundland and Labrador Crafts Council in Newfoundland where I was also and invited as key-note speaker for their conference  ‘Using Crafts to Tell a Story’ in collaboration with the Intangible Cultural Heritage department of the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s and more recently returned as consultant for the Trinity Historical Society on their portable museum project.

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.  By invitation, I gave a presentation about my work for the Botanical Society for Scotland at the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE) and exhibit in their John Hope Gateway Gallery, I was also invited by the British Lichen Society to give a presentation about my artwork at their AGM,  the venue was again, the RBGE. 

I solved the mystery of how Angus MacPhee made his grass garments. Angus was a crofter from Uist who spent almost 50 years in a Highland psychiatric hospital. During this time he chose not to speak - instead he wove a series of incredible costumes out of grass. My full size replicas are now part of the Art Extraordinary Trust collection along with Angus’s original grass garment, all now held in Glasgow Museums, and subsequently invited as one of the speakers for the symposium ‘Scottish Woven Communities’, an international gathering of knowledge, in the department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews as part of research by Dr Stephanie Bunn. 

I collaborated for a number of years with Lynn Taylor, a printmaker in New Zealand.  We arranged  our exhibitions to open simultaneously in New Zealand and Scotland.  A self-directed project inspired by the maiden voyage of the Westland ship in 1879 from Scotland to New Zealand. 

Invited by Chrysalis Arts I was lead artist in a two year, slow art, community artist residency project in Swaledale North Yorkshire and invited as artist in residence for the National Trust for Scotland at Inverewe Gardens.

I have organised art based fundraisers for local heritage groups run by volunteers raising £6000 for Brough Bay Association,  Castletown Heritage Society and  Mary Anns Cottage, all in Caithness.