Win and shortlist accolades for Caithness women at major national art show in Edinburgh
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A professional artist from Lybster, Magi Sinclair, has just been announced as the recipient of the Scottish Landscape Award for Environmental Art and a Thurso woman was also shortlisted at the prestigious show.
Magi wins a prize of £3000 donated by the Cruden Foundation for her work 'Flow Mist Rising' and the award was made at the inaugural Scottish Landscape Awards exhibition preview which she attended along with Lindsey Gallacher from Thurso whose work was also shortlisted.
On winning the award, Magi said: "As a landscape artist, I have an affinity for wild places in the north of Scotland, typified by the vast low landscapes and huge skies.
"Caithness, where I was born and continue to live is quite wild and open. Drawing in carbon is my way of revealing the fragility of the land and the beauty of the area. I really am delighted to have received this prize."
Using the Flow Country has been a theme in Magi’s work since she was a student at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 2014. In her award-winning work, she used carbon and the ashes from burned pieces of peat to convey an area transformed by changing seasons, weather and play of light.
Lindsey Gallacher’s drawing 'On Burn Road' was created on scratchboard and 'At the Junction to the Hill of Forss' was made using encaustic wax and Indian ink. She said she was delighted when told that two pieces of her work had been shortlisted: "This was the first time I'd had the courage to submit my artwork for a national competition and I couldn't believe it when I got the call," she said.
"The exhibition, opening last Friday, was a very special night to be part of and the work is of such a high standard that I'm going to have to pay another visit to Edinburgh to absorb it all. I was also really proud to watch Magi walk up to collect her award, I'd called it before I had even seen the rest of the entries, she really deserves the recognition."
Their work will be on show at the exhibition which runs until March 3, 2024 at the City Arts Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DE. Admission is free.
The judging panel included influential art-world figures Barbara Rae CBE RA RSA RSW (chair) Ade Adesina RSA, Marian Leven RSA, David Mach RA HRSA, and Jane and Louise Wilson RA.
The exhibition is the biggest and most ambitious survey of contemporary landscape art in Scotland today and includes emerging artists alongside established professionals. Magi’s and Lindsey’s pieces are three of 133 artworks selected from 2800 entries currently on display, spanning two floors of the City Art Centre.
Each of the selected works reflect all dimensions of natural and man-made environments including those that are imaginary, surreal, abstract, documentary, ecological and realistic across a wide range of media – from painting, sculpture, drawing and miniatures, to film, animation, audioscapes and virtual reality.
