CALADH at Collect

I was invited by Craft Scotland to show my work at Collect in Somerset House in London early March 2023. For the show I printed a collection of wallhangings titled ‘Caladh’, all screen printed onto unbleached natural linen using paper stencilling.

The inspiration for this collection comes from Caladh Harbour a small harbour with no road access a few miles north from where my workshop is in Tighnabruaich. Here a large house owned by the Ingham Clark’s once stood with swimming pools and golf courses but since it’s demolition Caladh has returned to an almost wild natural state. If you look hard enough there are still hints of its existence, like the family graveyard on the island, moss covered staircases and carved rocks, rows of cherry trees amongst the natural oak and hazel woodland, a lily pond deep in the woods and so much more. When gathering visual inspiration I took a small dinghy and visited Caladh, rowing around the old light house and to the island that makes up the harbour, Eilean Dubh. It was an incredibly still, frosty winters day. You could hear the seal sliding into the water and the heron’s wings flapping as it went to nest in the Scots pines. Through intricate paper stencilled patterns, my prints capture the atmosphere and features of Caladh making you question what was once there and bringing to mind the way in which nature can take over, leaving only traces behind.