2016 got off to an extraordinary start as I won the inaugural W Gordon Smith painting award at the Dovecot Studios Gallery. I presided over two successful Visual Arts Scotland exhibitions at the Royal Scottish Academy and  I was part of ‘Ghostlands‘ at the Tatha Gallery with Kate Downie and Ronald Plowman. I continued to develop my drawing as a means of visual meandering and improvisation which increasingly focussed on civic structures, institutional barriers and personal loss. These lead to a series of  oil paintings which show huddles of characters who are contained, locked in or shut out; some willing victims, others fighting injustices – forming the heart ‘Invasions and Excavations’ a solo exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh in April 2017.