Studio: March

The first week of March has been eventful, with the last days of Horizon Rising in North Uist and a series of activities to mark its close; followed by a studio visit from adventurer Ben Fogle, signing off on paintings commissioned to mark both his epic Everest ascent and his 49-day Atlantic crossing. A recent set of seascapes were also installed in central London this week; and, new exhibitions have been confirmed for the coming months. A busy few days, which I thought merited a blog post.

2020 is Scotland’s Year of Coasts & Waters, and I’m set to take part in a few shows on the theme this year. Horizon Rising opened in early January. If you’re familiar with the series, you’ll be aware of its concept. In short, the paintings discuss sea-rise.

The Uists are unique, rugged islands. They’re places of culture, community, tradition. They’re also at the face of sea level rise in Europe. We’ve gone from storm to storm so far this year and the effects on these remote islands are plain to see. The machair plains are saturated and floodwaters are yet to drain from gardens, fields and some roads.

But it seems to take a lot to shake the islanders I met. They’re used to living with harsh weather and everyone I spoke to at Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre was aware of the impact climate change will have in this part of Scotland. The gallery and arts centre – pictured here – cannot develop on its existing site due to predicted storm-surge sea levels.

Art students at the in-house art school are almost all creating site-specific works. I held tutorials with several engaging students, including the school’s two BA fourth years – Katherine Taylor and Hector Start – who are each illustrating the island, but from opposing perspectives. While Start is capturing the immense landscape through physical and closely considered oil paintings; Taylor is exploring the world beneath the water’s surface. Often producing works outdoors, Taylor has developed a technique of combining cyanotype with pigment, salt and hand-made papers; producing unique works of depth. Her sketchbooks are packed with experiments created at the water’s edge; alongside research-based studies exploring (among other things) the phenomenon of marine snow (pictured below left, with permission).

MarineSnow and SoulVessels

As well as meeting with students, I held a workshop and gave a talk. Images can be seen on instagram and a summary transcript of the talk can be downladed here. The workshop focussed on found materials and sustainable studio practices; each participant bringing items for transformation. Artist Kirsty O’Connor worked with me on the day, whose artwork is well worth exploring – particularly her Soul Vessels project (pictured above right, with permission) which poignantly “commemorates personal losses, as well as honouring souls lost at sea in their search for a new home, linking the current migration crisis with people having had to leave Hebridean shores in the past”.

Work on this project began in 2017, directly after my exhibition Pelàda. Pelàda focussed on Venice – another island already feeling the impact of rising sea levels. In the months after Pelàda I stepped away, zooming out to explore the topic of sea rise more generally. The paintings have been created using various found materials, but mostly metals. The first showing of the series was in The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; and one year later, this re-imagined (and re-arranged) version of the project – with new images of up-close sea surface – sat next to the sea in Lochmaddy | Read more on the overall project here

David Cass