Fortunate to receive a VACMA Bursary early in the year, I have completed some experiments utilising the new microscope purchased and the wooden panels and stretchers afforded by the bursary.
Click on the image below to see some of the experimental time spent in the studio.
#vacmascotland #scottishartist Creative Learning SLAAC Alumni Group SLAAC 2020

I can reveal that this month I was fortunate to be awarded and receive a #VACMASCOTLAND bursary. It will enable me to purchase a digital microscope for use as a tool in my artistic practice, along with various materials such as wood panels, canvas stretchers for linen and perspex to use as surfaces and dedicated time to work with them while I develop a new body of work this year.
This project is funded through The Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards (VACMA).
(VACMA) Aberdeen scheme is jointly funded through Creative Scotland and Aberdeen City Council and managed by Creative Learning.
#creativescotland #creativelearning #lotteryfunded
#botanicalartist #microscopy #visualartist #oilpainter #aberdeenartist #scottishartist #aberdeencity #northeastofscotland #ethnobotanicalartist

After creating the document for local schoolchildren to draw and paint artworks in response to the Ginkgo biloba project at the Duthie Park, an opportunity to add a further element to the mix. Folding paper Ginkgo biloba leaves for an installation.
Here is a link to some information on my newly formed business page 'Art Plantae'.
Hope you enjoy creating the paper leaf.

Ginkgo biloba seeds from mother trees in Hiroshima, gifted to the Lord Provost in 2015, as part of the Mayors for Peace Project, have been nurtured by gardeners in the David Welch Winter Gardens within the Duthie Park in Aberdeen.  
An opportunity arose in late 2019 for me as an ethnobotanical artist to create an artistic response in 2020 to these Ginkgo biloba plants through an artist residency and school and family art workshops in collaboration with the Park Rangers at the Duthie Park, culminating in an exhibition of the achieved artworks of both participants and artist in the foyer of the winter gardens.

Its official! Master of Arts - Fine Art. With the The Graduation ceremony today at in the Music Hall, Aberdeen was a fantastic celebration of the many RGU masters achievements. We were in good company with Dave Mackay the first ever Scottish-born astronaut awarded a honorary Doctor of Technology (Hon DTech). A fire alarm half-way through took the edge off our nerves before finally accepting our degrees.

If you are in the area please feel free to come and meet some of the WASPS artists in their studios,  Click on the image below for more information on this free event. We look forward to sharing our art and craft practices with you.​

The Master students at Grays School of Art, have been allotted space for the MA show in August. Many of us are nervous with excitement and trepidation to curate our last MA show. All should be able to work with the space given. Although not the most significant area, my space has fitting walls for my artworks and another allocated wall in the corridor to exhibit the Sphagnum images currently on show at the Concourse Gallery, Sir Ian Wood Building. As with most art degree shows we will have to paint the floor and walls before setting up the display of work. ​So the paint has been ordered, and the scrubbing brush and mop looked out. Soon the drive towards the Grays School of Art Masters Show 2019 will begin.
The external examiner will be visiting the art school on the day of the private viewing, so it is unlikely that we will know our results at the opening event. The dates of which and the public show days will follow shortly. 

On 15th May, the moment after requesting of Sally Reaper, Director of the Look-Again Festival and RGU Arts & Heritage team, the opportunity to exhibit at the Concourse Gallery in the Sir Ian Wood Building at Robert Gordons University, my Master's dissertation was put on hold in order to concentrate on the solo exhibition SPHAGNUM. Elements of which, will also be shown at my final Masters Degree Show in August.
The show took six weeks to plan from start to finish with help from collections assistant George Cheyne, a seasoned expert in the set up of the Concourse Gallery events, although, in reality, the show was a year in the making prior to that.
The exhibition depicts an overview of my visual research in Sphagnum moss including; the wet and dry Sphagnum moss macro photographs shot with a digital camera in the photographic studio at Gray's School of Art, with assistance from Technician Services Officer (TSO), Fergus Connor. A selection of the microscopic images showing the intricate structures and patterns within Sphagnum moss was photographed using the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences laboratory microscopes with assistance from TSO, Emily Hunter. 
As mentioned in earlier posts within this blog (1) (2) (3) (4) (5), I have been investigating the Sphagnum moss gathered and processed in the North East of Scotland during the era of the First World War, which is depicted by an infographic map that shows some of the moss locations, the towns and the communities involved in this vital activity.
In more recent years up to 2019, looking at what is happening now with regards to Sphagnum moss in the North East of Scotland, there is conservation underway to reclaim many of the drained or depleted Sphagnum moss bogs or peat bogs. One I recently visited is the Red Moss of Netherley, Stonehaven, where evidence is seen of barriers installed approximately a decade ago in order to rewet the bog. The surrounding area now has lush green pools filled with recovered Sphagnum.