Imagine North

I work from my tiny attic studio in Glenmuick, a small highland glen in Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park. Inspired by a romantic sense of North and my Celtic heritage, I make embroidered artworks which are overtly minimal and contemplative, painting with space and atmosphere. The poetry of colour, words or lines from a remembered song or story are all distilled into ideas, which I use to provoke a liminal experience for the viewer. Simplicity is at the heart of my work. I lost my hearing after a viral infection a few years ago, my world suddenly became silent and insular, I try to convey the silence in every piece I make. Beginning each piece in my Sketchbook,I then paint onto artists canvas before layering with millions of tiny stitches, using just the needle, thread and straight stitch on my domestic sewing machine. I have been stitching in this way for many years, mastering the technique whilst paring down the process, each unique finished piece records my movements as the maker and not the automation of the machine. I studied Fine Art at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen and have both an Honours and a Masters degree from my time there.