The Self-Isolation Residency
Athole House Studio Dunoon Scotland 2020-2021
Portrait (Virtual) Exhibition
Air Gallery Manchester UK 2020
This self-directed residency became an extended process of introspection, allowing me to examine my artistic motivations in their broadest sense while paying particular attention to the enduringly complex and challenging medium of painting. The principal body of work to emerge from this experience was the Personal Topographies series, which is discussed in detail elsewhere. Prior to embarking upon that project, however, I undertook a phase of research and experimentation, exploring a range of alternative directions and techniques that would ultimately inform its development.
Confined almost entirely to the studio, my initial instinct was to focus on subjects that were immediately accessible: self-portraiture and still life, often combining the two. Desiderata: A Self-Portrait (below), produced during this time, was subsequently exhibited in Portrait, a successful virtual exhibition organised by Air Gallery, one of the earliest exhibitions of its kind to be presented during lockdown.
Athole House Studio Dunoon Scotland 2020-2021
Portrait (Virtual) Exhibition
Air Gallery Manchester UK 2020
This self-directed residency became an extended process of introspection, allowing me to examine my artistic motivations in their broadest sense while paying particular attention to the enduringly complex and challenging medium of painting. The principal body of work to emerge from this experience was the Personal Topographies series, which is discussed in detail elsewhere. Prior to embarking upon that project, however, I undertook a phase of research and experimentation, exploring a range of alternative directions and techniques that would ultimately inform its development.
Confined almost entirely to the studio, my initial instinct was to focus on subjects that were immediately accessible: self-portraiture and still life, often combining the two. Desiderata: A Self-Portrait (below), produced during this time, was subsequently exhibited in Portrait, a successful virtual exhibition organised by Air Gallery, one of the earliest exhibitions of its kind to be presented during lockdown.
Although this early work proved successful in its own right, I soon recognised that the circumstances of isolation were directing my attention beyond the immediate environment of the studio and towards broader questions of memory, place, and personal geography. Landscape has long been a significant aspect of my practice, and during this reflective phase I revisited numerous sketchbooks and works from earlier stages of my career. I also revisited work from an earlier phase of my practice as a process painter, in which I investigated my palette and material relationship to paint through highly specific and systematic methodologies.
The convergence of these two strands of inquiry, landscape and process painting, together with reflections upon the internal landscapes shaped by years of travel, ultimately informed the development of the Personal Topographies series. This body of work culminated in a solo exhibition that reopened Dunoon Burgh Hall to its public exhibition programme following the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The convergence of these two strands of inquiry, landscape and process painting, together with reflections upon the internal landscapes shaped by years of travel, ultimately informed the development of the Personal Topographies series. This body of work culminated in a solo exhibition that reopened Dunoon Burgh Hall to its public exhibition programme following the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Viewed retrospectively, this period of enforced isolation proved to be one of the most significant phases of critical reflection within my practice. What initially appeared to be an abrupt interruption became a catalyst for reassessing both the formal and conceptual foundations of my work. Through sustained engagement with self-portraiture, still life, landscape, and process-based methodologies, I was able to identify previously unrecognised connections between place, memory, materiality, and personal experience. The resulting Personal Topographies series emerged not simply as a response to the circumstances of lockdown, but as a synthesis of concerns that had developed throughout many years of artistic practice and travel. In this sense, the residency demonstrated how periods of uncertainty and restriction can generate new perspectives, transforming disruption into an opportunity for creative renewal, critical self-reflection, and a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between lived experience and artistic practice.