Summary

2021 Ashes to Ashes: glass house painting In 2021 I was supported through a Creative Scotland grant for individual artists to do a month long residency at Merz Gallery at Sanquhar in Southwest Scotland. I spent a week of my time at Merz creating these paintings on a glass house outside of The Bothy, a reclaimed building where I lived for the month.

Description

Before arriving at MERZ Director Dave Rushton and I had discussed creating work on the windows of the Bothy Green House, a glassed shed built by artists Rhona Jack and Callum Wallis in May 2020 as part of their residency then. I was keen to explore this idea as it was a development of work I had done on the windows of my Edinburgh flat during lockdown.

The painting I created on my tenement windows (I can see you from my bubble) explored windows as the ‘border’ between lockdown existence and nature, a symbol of longing and memory. Using silver mirror paint, Ashes to Ashes the paintings on the Glass House, were a response to the prevalence of ash die back, a fungal infection of epidemic proportions that is currently attacking ash trees across Europe (including Dumfriesshire).