News: My Artist Talk for the Society of Scottish Artists
siobhanmclaughlinstudio • August 4, 2020
Huge thank you to the Society of Scottish Artists
for inviting me to speak about my art practice this week!
I spoke about the development of my process, from walking and drawing to colour and material research. Nan Shepherd's writing in The Living Mountain has influenced this a lot: from her ideology that 'We should not walk up
a mountain but into
them, thus exploring ourselves as well as them’ to her comments on the glowing rose-red of the Lochnagar cliffs in the morning.
It was really lovely to see so many people interested in hearing about my work and there were some fantastic questions asked after. Lots to think about...especially how much I wave my hands around!
If you'd like to watch the full talk, click here
The talk was part of the SSA DIALOGUES Series:
'We are thrilled to begin our SSA Dialogues programme this month with a series of informal Meet the Members events. The four talks will provide a great opportunity to get to know some of our members better and to hear more about their practice. Each event will be held as a live Zoom call, opening up the discussion and allowing attendees to ask any burning questions at the end.'

I'm delighted to present Belongings, a piece by Martin Holman written in response to my show 'Pilgrimages' at Hweg gallery , Penzance 22nd November 2024 - 11th January 2025. I'm really touched by Martin's insights, references and analysis of the work and hope you enjoy reading the text. Read time is roughly 10 - 15 minutes. Thank you to Martin and to Joe at Hweg. For images of the show, see my works page here .

Delighted to have been asked by Lyon and Turnbull to select my Top Picks for the upcoming Art Edit 793 Auction. Aimed at making the art market more accessible, The Art Edit series of auctions enables people to begin or grow their art collection, with estimates starting at £200. Recent lots have included works by Victoria Crowe, Dame Ethel Walker and Dame Laura Knight, and here I'll be highlighting my top 3 picks for the next auction , opening on Wednesday 26th June 2024.

During my residency in Cornwall, awarded by Visual Arts Scotland , Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and Porthmeor Studios, I met artist Peter Ward . After seeing an interesting painting of his at the Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance, I contacted Ward to ask about the medium of 'earth pigments'. To my delight he offered to show me the best pigment collecting sites along the South West Coastal Path.

Letting go of the imposter syndrome and accepting/celebrating the fact that I'm actually a curator. Nearly 3.5k people visited the Alan Davie exhibition at Dovecot Studios . That's mad to me. Thanks so much to everyone who visited, I hope you enjoyed it! A huge thank you to Dovecot for supporting my idea and giving me the opportunity to curate when I had no previous 'professional' experience. From approaching Dovecot with an exhibition plan in September 2019 to speaking at the exhibition opening in June 2022, I've learned a lot. Thanks also to Edinburgh Art Festival , the William Grant Foundation and the John Ellerman Foundation for the support.

Thank you to Edinburgh Art Festival for inviting me to speak at Art Late 2, streamed live from Jupiter Artland this week! It was a fantastic day of discussion, hearing from a range of artists, curators and creatives about their contributions to this years art festival. Watch the video below to hear my 8 reasons why everyone should visit the Alan Davie: Beginning of a Far-Off World exhibition at Dovecot Studios !

Meeting a lot of artists recently, who have such varied practices, has made me reflect on an essay I wrote back in 2018 on the role of artists in artist-run spaces. Particularly, meeting an artist who is currently studying Horticulture, got me thinking about the idea of 'artist-as-gardener'. I've just included a wee section of the essay here, which used EMBASSY Gallery in Edinburgh as a case-study, looking at the role of the artist in an artist-run space. In this section I was processing ideas of authorship and importance given to the 'Curator' title in contemporary discourse. Curatorial/artistic practice has developed significantly since I wrote this in 2018, but I think that the 'artist-as-gardener' idea is still a nice one.