Photographs by Iain Stewart.

In 1990, as a post graduate student at Edinburgh College of Art, I worked in a studio in a converted Georgian townhouse in Inverleith  which had an internal door with a window.  I remember I wrote my name with a permanent marker on the window before the studios were ‘divvied’ up to mark my claim on it – and I believe it stayed there long after i had gone. A fellow student in photography and good friend, Iain Stewart snapped a wonderful intimate photograph of me from through the window in my studio with my name in focus. I had never seen the photograph when Iain unearthed it in early 2017. This gave me the idea to ask Iain to help me recreate the same image 27 years on, just as I am about to have my first solo show in Edinburgh for many years. So, I dutifully scribed my name on my current studio door window (this time with a non permanent pen) and Iain took a series of pictures which for me celebrate that I am still here painting 27 years after graduation. I might look a bit older and weather worn but these 27 years have been an amazing journey: to Aberdeen, Chichester, Cyprus, Hastings, Kent, Oxford and back to Edinburgh.

‘Invasions and Excavations’; a solo exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery from 20 April – 6 May 2017. Please contact the Open Eye Gallery to enquire about works in the exhibition.

Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh

Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm
Saturday 10am to 4pm
34 Abercromby Place
Edinburgh EH3 6QE
Phone: 0131 557 1020
Email: mail@openeyegallery.co.uk