Shetland Arts recently awarded 2 Student Prizes to UHI Visual Arts Students. This exhibition is from one of the winners.
"After a career in teaching, I returned to university as a Fine Arts student in 2021.
Shetland’s landscape inspires me. Being outside running, walking, and working is part of my everyday life and is what informs my art. I draw from my experience of living in the sometimes harsh Shetland environment when painting and printmaking. I explore the everchanging moods, light and colours of the Shetland weather and landscape
My work is seasonal. I respond to growth, colour and decay in the garden, and capture the power of nature in my seascapes.
My work is not purely representational but rather contemporary and experimental and gives an essence of a moment in time and space.
The paintings on display here have been inspired by the summer light shining through the waves as they break on the shore. However, they also have a darker side. Expressed through the title of each piece is the tension between the apparent pristine beauty of Shetland’s coastal scenery and a growing awareness of the ecological catastrophe we are creating through our continued use of fossil fuels, the unsustainable demand on the world’s resources, and the pollution caused by our irresponsible disposal of plastic and other toxic waste. Global warming is causing the rapid and irreversible melting of polar ice and consequent climate change.
We live in a geological era known as the Anthropocene. This era began in 1945 and marks the time when human activity laid down a distinct geological layer on the entire Earth’s surface. Scientists fear it may mark the start of the Sixth Mass Extinction
I would like to thank Iain Morrison of Hame Frame, Gulberwick, for his excellent work in framing my paintings. Finally, thank you to UHI Shetland and Shetland Arts for giving me the opportunity to display my work."
