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Education: Received BFA (Honours) 1993
Edinburgh, Scotland
Cityscapes
"My fascination with large cities began in 1989 when my family immigrated to Canada. I had grown up
in Loanhead, a small coal mining village in Midlothian, Scotland, surrounded by little other than hills,
valleys and farmland. In 1988 I was accepted to study fine arts at Edinburgh College of Art and left
Loanhead to move to Edinburgh, which at the time seemed a huge city; so I was ill prepared for the
skyscrapers that greeted me in North America the following year. I visited my family during school
vacations over the next four years, eventually joining them in 1993 after graduating. On each return
to Edinburgh I would dream of the huge cities I had visited in both Canada and the United States;
becoming fixated on the never ending streets, bumper to bumper traffic and hoards of people that
were so far removed from my life in Scotland.
Initially I found the cities both claustrophobic and overwhelming, yet I could never get enough of
them. For years I worked in bars and nightclubs, often leaving work as the sun was coming up, and it
was during these hours that I came to love living in the city. Walking home I would notice all the things
I missed during the hustle and bustle of the day. Instead of looking down as I shuffled through crowds
of people, I could see clearly down the empty streets, the details in every store front, the reflections
off the windows in the tall buildings, the dew on the road: what seemed ugly, crowded,
claustrophobic, loud became beautiful, peaceful, calm, still; even the odd car seemed to move in slow
motion. I would walk home almost in a trance, as if walking through a dream.
I continue to go for walks downtown during the early hours of the morning here in Montréal. Each city
I visit I rush around all day finding my favourite spots, where I return to do quick sketches and take
photographs before and during sunrise. Even after all these years it never fails to amaze me how
peaceful it is in comparison; even time appears to slow down.
When I paint, I attempt to capture a moment in time rather than simply depict a scene, to create a
sense of peace where it would not normally belong, to show that just as in nature the city centre can
be and is beautiful."
Oceanscapes
“After many years of travelling and painting the cities of North America and Europe, I decided to
explore and spend some time in Central America. I inevitably ended up spending the majority of my
time by the ocean and was drawn back to my youth in Scotland, where as children my family spent
much of our time by the sea.
On returning to Montréal I was initially happy to be back in the city, but my mind was never far from
Santa Teresa, the small village where I lived whilst in Costa Rica and the memories of waking up
every day to the crashing waves. I had expected to be inspired from my trip, but thought that the
inspiration would come from the cities I had visited. The last thing I had anticipated was that the trip
would eventually end up changing my work completely. I found myself disappointed that I had not
spent more time observing the ocean but instead had focused more on the streets of the towns I had
visited whilst there.
I returned a year later and began studying the waves, the colours, the light and the continuous
movement from one second to the next. I finally recognized the patterns of the waves in the distance
and what kind of sets to expect when they reached the shore. I took thousands of photographs of the
crashing water and endless stretches of beach and on returning to Montréal, began the process of
learning how to paint all over again.
The new palette and technique were challenging and it took some time before I was happy with my
new paintings. The end result was a complete surprise to me. These new oceanscape paintings,
despite the use of a completely different colour palette and technique, surprisingly have a similar
blurred effect to that of my city paintings. The images, the crashing waves of water, have the same
strong sense of movement and fluidity that I attempt to achieve in my cityscapes. Another similarity is
the sense of solitude; by removing the presence of people from the majority of my pieces, the viewer
is left with the feeling that they are the sole observer of the time and place painted.
The ocean to me evokes a sense of peaceful tranquility, an opportunity to catch one’s breath and
contemplate. Often the things that seem important in city life lose their significance when sitting on
the beach staring into the ocean. It is my hope that my paintings evoke these same sentiments”.
In the summer of 2005,
Née: Edimbourg, Écosse 1970
Education: BAC en Arts (Honours) 1993
Collège des Arts d'Edimbourg, l'université Heriot Watt
Edimbourg, Écosse
"Ma fascination pour les grandes villes à commencé en 1989, quand notre famille a immigré au
Canada. J'ai grandi à Loanhead, un petit village minier du Midlothian en Écosse, entouré seulement
de collines, de vallées et de fermes.
En 1988, j'ai quitté Loanhead pour entrer au Collège des Arts d'Edimbourg. Edimbourg me semblait
alors être une ville immense. J'étais très mal préparée aux tours géantes qui m'accueillirent l'année
suivante en Amérique du Nord. Les quatres années suivantes je faisais plusieurs voyages entre
l'Amérique et Edimbourg. A chaque retour à Edimbourg, je rêvais des mégapoles que j'avais visitées
au Canada et aux États-Unis; me remémorant encore et encore les rues sans fin, les embouteillages
pares chocs contre pare chocs et ces hordes de gens, si loin de la réalité de ma vie en Écosse.
Initialement, je trouvais les villes à la fois oppressantes et écrasantes, pourtant je ne m`en lassais
jamais. Pendant des années, j`ai travaillé dans des bars et des clubs de nuit, quittant souvent le
travail au lever du soleil, et c`est grâce a ces moments-là que j`ai appris à aimer la vie en ville. En
marchant vers la maison, je remarquais des choses qui échappaient à mon attention dans la frénésie
du jour. J'observais dans les rue désertes du matin, les détails des devantures de magasins, les
reflets dans les vitres des gratte-ciel, la rosée sur la rue. Ce qui semblait laid, bondé de monde,
oppressant et bruyant, devenait beau, paisible et calme; même les rares voitures semblaient se
déplacer au ralenti. Je marchais vers la maison presque en extase, comme si j`étais dans un rêve.
Je me promène encore au centre-ville de Montréal aux petites heures du matin… Je parcours
chaque ville que je visite en long et en large toute la journée, repérant mes endroits favoris, pour y
retourner ensuite, en faire quelques croquis et les photographier avant ou pendant le lever du jour.
Même après toutes ces années, je suis encore surprise de voir les rues si paisibles en comparaison
et d`avoir l`impression que même le temps s`écoule plus lentement.
Lorsque je peins, j`essaie de reproduire un moment dans le temps plutôt que de simplement
représenter une scène. J`essaie de créer une atmosphère paisible dans des lieux où on ne la
retrouve pas normalement. Tout comme de beaux paysages, le centre-ville peut être et est beau."
Edinburgh, Scotland
Cityscapes
"My fascination with large cities began in 1989 when my family immigrated to Canada. I had grown up
in Loanhead, a small coal mining village in Midlothian, Scotland, surrounded by little other than hills,
valleys and farmland. In 1988 I was accepted to study fine arts at Edinburgh College of Art and left
Loanhead to move to Edinburgh, which at the time seemed a huge city; so I was ill prepared for the
skyscrapers that greeted me in North America the following year. I visited my family during school
vacations over the next four years, eventually joining them in 1993 after graduating. On each return
to Edinburgh I would dream of the huge cities I had visited in both Canada and the United States;
becoming fixated on the never ending streets, bumper to bumper traffic and hoards of people that
were so far removed from my life in Scotland.
Initially I found the cities both claustrophobic and overwhelming, yet I could never get enough of
them. For years I worked in bars and nightclubs, often leaving work as the sun was coming up, and it
was during these hours that I came to love living in the city. Walking home I would notice all the things
I missed during the hustle and bustle of the day. Instead of looking down as I shuffled through crowds
of people, I could see clearly down the empty streets, the details in every store front, the reflections
off the windows in the tall buildings, the dew on the road: what seemed ugly, crowded,
claustrophobic, loud became beautiful, peaceful, calm, still; even the odd car seemed to move in slow
motion. I would walk home almost in a trance, as if walking through a dream.
I continue to go for walks downtown during the early hours of the morning here in Montréal. Each city
I visit I rush around all day finding my favourite spots, where I return to do quick sketches and take
photographs before and during sunrise. Even after all these years it never fails to amaze me how
peaceful it is in comparison; even time appears to slow down.
When I paint, I attempt to capture a moment in time rather than simply depict a scene, to create a
sense of peace where it would not normally belong, to show that just as in nature the city centre can
be and is beautiful."
Oceanscapes
“After many years of travelling and painting the cities of North America and Europe, I decided to
explore and spend some time in Central America. I inevitably ended up spending the majority of my
time by the ocean and was drawn back to my youth in Scotland, where as children my family spent
much of our time by the sea.
On returning to Montréal I was initially happy to be back in the city, but my mind was never far from
Santa Teresa, the small village where I lived whilst in Costa Rica and the memories of waking up
every day to the crashing waves. I had expected to be inspired from my trip, but thought that the
inspiration would come from the cities I had visited. The last thing I had anticipated was that the trip
would eventually end up changing my work completely. I found myself disappointed that I had not
spent more time observing the ocean but instead had focused more on the streets of the towns I had
visited whilst there.
I returned a year later and began studying the waves, the colours, the light and the continuous
movement from one second to the next. I finally recognized the patterns of the waves in the distance
and what kind of sets to expect when they reached the shore. I took thousands of photographs of the
crashing water and endless stretches of beach and on returning to Montréal, began the process of
learning how to paint all over again.
The new palette and technique were challenging and it took some time before I was happy with my
new paintings. The end result was a complete surprise to me. These new oceanscape paintings,
despite the use of a completely different colour palette and technique, surprisingly have a similar
blurred effect to that of my city paintings. The images, the crashing waves of water, have the same
strong sense of movement and fluidity that I attempt to achieve in my cityscapes. Another similarity is
the sense of solitude; by removing the presence of people from the majority of my pieces, the viewer
is left with the feeling that they are the sole observer of the time and place painted.
The ocean to me evokes a sense of peaceful tranquility, an opportunity to catch one’s breath and
contemplate. Often the things that seem important in city life lose their significance when sitting on
the beach staring into the ocean. It is my hope that my paintings evoke these same sentiments”.
In the summer of 2005,
Née: Edimbourg, Écosse 1970
Education: BAC en Arts (Honours) 1993
Collège des Arts d'Edimbourg, l'université Heriot Watt
Edimbourg, Écosse
"Ma fascination pour les grandes villes à commencé en 1989, quand notre famille a immigré au
Canada. J'ai grandi à Loanhead, un petit village minier du Midlothian en Écosse, entouré seulement
de collines, de vallées et de fermes.
En 1988, j'ai quitté Loanhead pour entrer au Collège des Arts d'Edimbourg. Edimbourg me semblait
alors être une ville immense. J'étais très mal préparée aux tours géantes qui m'accueillirent l'année
suivante en Amérique du Nord. Les quatres années suivantes je faisais plusieurs voyages entre
l'Amérique et Edimbourg. A chaque retour à Edimbourg, je rêvais des mégapoles que j'avais visitées
au Canada et aux États-Unis; me remémorant encore et encore les rues sans fin, les embouteillages
pares chocs contre pare chocs et ces hordes de gens, si loin de la réalité de ma vie en Écosse.
Initialement, je trouvais les villes à la fois oppressantes et écrasantes, pourtant je ne m`en lassais
jamais. Pendant des années, j`ai travaillé dans des bars et des clubs de nuit, quittant souvent le
travail au lever du soleil, et c`est grâce a ces moments-là que j`ai appris à aimer la vie en ville. En
marchant vers la maison, je remarquais des choses qui échappaient à mon attention dans la frénésie
du jour. J'observais dans les rue désertes du matin, les détails des devantures de magasins, les
reflets dans les vitres des gratte-ciel, la rosée sur la rue. Ce qui semblait laid, bondé de monde,
oppressant et bruyant, devenait beau, paisible et calme; même les rares voitures semblaient se
déplacer au ralenti. Je marchais vers la maison presque en extase, comme si j`étais dans un rêve.
Je me promène encore au centre-ville de Montréal aux petites heures du matin… Je parcours
chaque ville que je visite en long et en large toute la journée, repérant mes endroits favoris, pour y
retourner ensuite, en faire quelques croquis et les photographier avant ou pendant le lever du jour.
Même après toutes ces années, je suis encore surprise de voir les rues si paisibles en comparaison
et d`avoir l`impression que même le temps s`écoule plus lentement.
Lorsque je peins, j`essaie de reproduire un moment dans le temps plutôt que de simplement
représenter une scène. J`essaie de créer une atmosphère paisible dans des lieux où on ne la
retrouve pas normalement. Tout comme de beaux paysages, le centre-ville peut être et est beau."