Details

First Name

Gillian Adair

Last Name

McFarland

Username

gillianmcfarland

Website

gillianadair.co.uk

Region

Fife

Disciplines

Ceramics, Installation, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture

Themes

Abstract, Environment, Identity, Landscape, Site-specific, Political, Narratives

Statement

Statement

Visual Artist/Researcher with a collaborative practice. HCPC registered Art Therapist.

Interests : Process, Materiality, Time, Psychoterratic States, Noticing.

Graduate of St Martins, London

My practice is research-focussed on the narratives that move me. I make creative interventions that are process led and that value embodied and situated learning. Underpinning my practice is a belief in the need to explore old and new ways of seeing and being in the world.

I have been involved in a range of inter-disciplinary research projects collaborating with art therapists, artists, astronomers, geneticists, and social scientists.  I am artist co lead on ArtMovesFife, a dynamic large scale collective artwork that is unfolding across the creative landscape of Fife.

I work with a variety of materials and processes from my studio in moderately rural Fife.

I am a professional member of Visual Arts Scotland and Society of Scottish Artists and am a council member of the SSA.

http://gillianadair.co.uk

https://www.artmovesfife.org/

https://www.creativityandcuriosity.com/

https://confluenceofnorth.co.uk/

https://mcfarlandsinger.com/

Biography

Biography
  • I am a Visual Artist/Researcher with a collaborative practice.
  • The recipient of several awards from Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, and Creative Europe.
  • Involved in a range of inter-disciplinary research projects collaborating with art therapists, artists, astronomers, geneticists, and social scientists.
  • An elected professional member of the SSA, and a member of council, and an elected professional member of Visual Arts Scotland.
  • A graduate of St Martins, London
  • I work from my studio in rural Fife.

Awards, Prizes & Funded Projects

2024                                   Hoskings House, Residency Award

Creative Scotland Award ArtMovesFife Project

2023                                   Institute of Physics Scotland Award for touring planetarium art show 

2019                                    VACMA award, with Creative Scotland

2018                                   Arts Council Artists Award, ‘Developing your Creative Practice’

Royal Scottish Academy, WASP Residency Prize (The Booth, Shetland)

Leicester Society of Artists, George Pickard Prize (Gold)

2017                                    Bath Fringe Arts Prize

Arts Council Funded Research Project, ‘Drawing DNA’

Royal Astronomical Society Award for C&C Project Development and Workshops

Hope Scott Funding for Art & Astronomy Project

 

Co/project lead

2023                                 ArtMovesFIfe, connecting people,culture,place and planet

2022                                   4 Nations International Fund collaborator Artist Support Recipe Book

Creative Scotland Sustaining Creative Development Grant for SSA

2020                                   Creative Development Award Creative Scotland, ‘Harbour’

Daiwa Grant, ‘Confluence: Spirit of North’

Hutton Institute, Research grant, Meosis Project

‘Resilience Diaries’ Research Project Crafts Scotland,

 

Selected Exhibitions

2025                              Scottish Symphony:Form and Colour, Crane Court Gallery, London

2024                              SSA Annual Exhibition RSA, Edinburgh

VAS Centenary Exhibition RSA, Edinburgh

VAS  Now and Then, Dalkeith Palace

Way Markers, ArtMovesFife , St Andrews Botanics

2023                              SSA Annual Exhibition , McLaurin Galleries

Royal Scottish Society of Watercolours, Royal Scottish Academy.

Green Gallery, Dundee Botanics (Hutton Institute, Meiosis)

Space, Inaugural exhibition, National Space Research Centre, Leicester

2022                            Creativity and Curiosity, Birmingham University.   Commonwealth Cultural Programme

SSA Annual Exhibition RSA, Edinburgh

2021                             ‘In Time’ Harbour, Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust, Edinburgh

‘Dear Planet‘ National Theatre of Scotland Screenings. COP26

SSA Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh

‘ Confluence of North’, Creative Exchange Perth and An Lanntair Stornaway

Kitikata City, Fukushima, Japan, Nishiaizu- Fukushima, Japan

RSA Annual  Exhibition, Edinburgh

‘Surge’ Visual Arts Scotland , Tatha Gallery, Newport on Tay

Society of Women Artists, Mall Galleries, London

2020                           Criminal Quilts, touring exhibition with Ruth Singer

Society of Scottish Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

‘Moons’ Glasgow Science Centre

Dark Skies, An Lanntair, Stornaway

2019                           Society of Women Artists, Mall Galleries, London

Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Amsterdam

2018                           Berlin Science Week, Zeiss Gross Planetarium, ‘Falling Walls’

National Space Centre, Leicester, ‘Creativity and Curiosity’

Society of Scottish Artists Open, Edinburgh

The Edge, Bath University, ‘Visions of Science’

Royal Scottish Academy Open, Edinburgh (prize winner)

 

Bibliography/Publications

Articles and Reviews

“Wee art in the Wee Forest, a nature based art therapy pilot” International Art Therapy Journai Inscape.  Armstrong, McFarland & Ramm

Times Review of Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Exhibition. RSA Giles Sutherland

Creativity and Curiosity: Exploring the Space Between Artists and Astronomers, G. McFarland & I. Parkin, Scottish Society for Art History Journal, 2023-2024
‘For the Sake of Science: an ethnographic study of artists in collaboration with scientists’, MA Science Communication Dissertation, UWE 2023
Art Reviews: SSA & VAS Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Duncan Macmillan, The Scotsman Magazine, December 2019
Creativity and Curiosity – Moons, exhibition catalogue, Newarke Houses Museum, Leicester, 2019
Creativity and Curiosity, exhibition catalogue (German/English), Zeiss-Grossplanetarium, Berlin, November 2018
Creativity & Curiosity, catalogue, September 2017
Elements, iScience Magazine, Imperial College, London, Summer 2017
Creativity & Curiosity, Astronomy & Geophysics Magazine, December 2016