Details
| First Name | Rachel |
| Last Name | Sutherland |
| Username | Rachelesse |
| How did you hear about us | Recommended by SSA Member |
| Website | |
| Region | Scottish Borders |
| Disciplines | Drawing, Illustration, Painting |
| Themes | Botanical, Environment, Figurative, Landscape, Site-specific |
Statement
| Statement |
As both an artist and a landscape architect, my practice revolves around the rather old fashioned notion of Natural History and Philosophy: plants, insects, plans of gardens, and landscape. I have immersed myself in the long tradition of botanical art in Europe, India and Sri Lanka for 35 years now. I was obliged to teach myself this discipline during a residency (from the Geoffrey Bawa Trust 1993-5) in Brief Garden where I had the daunting task of identifying a terrifying number of tropical plants with no prior knowledge, no internet or coloured books, and, sometimes no electricity! 10 years passed in sketchbooks before I got a nice big studio in Belgium where I upped the scale to landscape painting which is less exhibited. However, I did receive – much to my astonishment – the Torness Cup (2022) for best painting in the Berwickshire Arts Society. A more recent body of personal work embraces ‘What the Cat Dragged In’ and is a series of sadly demised, but closely observed, mice, shrews, voles and birds in watercolour. Much to my dismay I have to add.
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Biography
| Biography | Scottish/Australian b.1961 Australia, grew up in Scotland. In my youth I worked as a commercial painter for The Royal Lyceum, the National Museum of Scotland and the Scottish Ballet, and, as a design assistant within my father’s architectural practice. A scholarship to the Bawa Gardens of Sri Lanka embedded my practice of botanical art, natural history and garden design. I still visit Sri Lanka regularly, to lecture and paint. My work is held in Brief Garden House and Museum, The Geoffrey Bawa Trust and in private collections. I keep up the traditional practices of life drawing (Wooler Arts) and still life painting (Leith School of Art and Berwick Education Association) as both student and teacher, always in a loop of learning. My roles include membership secretary for the Scottish Society of Botanical Art, the Berwickshire Art Society and a member of the Scottish Society of Architect Artists. My track record of solo and group exhibitions, scholarships, awards and publications, are detailed in my website. Along side my artistic practice, I lecture part-time at Borders College, and with the Berwick Education Association.
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