Tansy Lee Moir | Sheila Masson | Rachael Pollitt | Rachel George | Elaine A Brown | Jyoti Sigouin
Tansy Lee Moir
www.tansyleemoir.co.uk | @tansyleemoir
Tansy Lee Moir grew up in the Peak District in Derbyshire. She gained a BA(Hons) in 3D Design: Wood, Metal & Ceramics from Manchester Metropolitan University.
After graduating she toured the UK for three years as a puppet maker and performer, then moved to Scotland in 1994 to pursue a career as a Community Artist, going on to study Community Education at Post Graduate level at Edinburgh University. For 25 years Tansy used creativity as a medium to support marginalised people in community development projects throughout Central Scotland.
In 2008 she returned to drawing in her new studio at Edinburgh Palette and established her current practice, making work about old trees in charcoal, pastels and oil. Now based in her garden studio in South Queensferry, Tansy works full-time as an artist and educator, exhibiting and teaching across the UK.
Since 2011 Tansy has had seven solo exhibitions and shown in and curated numerous group shows. In 2023 she completed a commission residency at Marchmont House, producing work for their collection and her art is in private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA.
Tansy’s work is inspired by old trees, their forms, their history, and the ways that humans, animals and natural processes have shaped them. Charcoal allows me to express both subtlety and dramatic contrast as I move between light and dark towards the powerful chiaroscuro I strive for. There’s also something poetic about depicting living wood with its carbonised self.
Drawing is my dialogue with the observed world and through dialogue with trees, my work asks not just what they look like, but also what looking at trees can tell us about ourselves.
Rachel George
www.rachelgeorge.co.uk | @rachelgwashere
From Holyrood to the Hebrides
After gaining her BA in Theatre Design (at Nottingham Trent in 1987) Rachel has spent her professional life in theatre, TV & film – first as scenic artist & designer at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre; then freelancing as scenic artist, propmaker & modelmaker for theatre/opera/museum display; and then moving onto TV & film; painting & propmaking on many productions over the past 20 years.
For the past decade, she has been lead propmaker on the “Outlander” TV show.
“I was a St Margaret’s House studio inhabitant from 2011 until early 2018, and although much of my TV work takes place at workshops & studios elsewhere, having a permanent base and a place to make work has long been vital. My days at St Margaret’s House were a happily creative and socially stimulating time.
In the first 2020 pandemic lockdown – with the film industry in hiatus – I began oil painting in my studio, using my memories of past trips to the Hebrides. It was a much-needed chance to “escape” Covid and revisit places I love – and I missed the physical act of painting, which I enjoyed in my years as a scenic artist; painting huge backdrops for the Lyceum, Kings, Traverse, Scottish Ballet and many others.”
Sheila Masson
www.sheilamasson.com | @sheilamassonphotography | @britishtintypes | @massoncollection
Sheila Masson is a photographer and photo historian who has worked within photography for over 25 years in both the USA and the UK. Born in North London to Scottish parents, she moved to the USA as a teenager.
Now living in Edinburgh for the past 15 years, her photographs have been published in numerous books, newspapers and magazines, including America 24-7, Life: The Year in Pictures, Vanity Fair, The Times, Guardian and Independent newspapers. Alongside her own photography, Sheila also specialises in the research of 19th century British tintypes.
She has an MLitt in History of Photography from the University of St Andrews and is currently the Photographic Preservation Manager at the National Collection of Aerial Photography, part of Historic Environment Scotland.
Elaine A Brown
www.elaineabrown.co.uk | @elainebrownart
Elaine was born in Falkirk and is now based in East Lothian, Scotland
It has been a meandering road back to her creative practice having studied in the Tapestry department at Edinburgh College of Art ( BA Hons) in the late 80’s where her final show was sculpture and drawing. This was followed by an Experimental Film and TV production, postgraduate Diploma in Sheffield. She returned full-time to creative practice on the MFA Drawing at Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art, Dundee, and passed with distinction in November 2023.
Early employment included working as a prop maker and sculptor’s assistant, then working as an avid video editor for many years until retraining in web design in 1999, going on to work for more than two decades in the web industry.
St Margaret’s house was home from 2009 – 2020 for ‘The Clooti’s’ web company (Elaine Brown and Rachael Pollitt)
The work in this exhibition is the next step forward and leans towards expressive, honest mark-making where concept and materiality are key.
‘A recurring theme in my work is that we all have an impact, we all leave something behind.’
VACMA Award 2024 and the New Platform development award 2024
Rachael Pollitt
Originally from Nottingham, she gained a BA (Hons) in Fashion and Textiles from Central St Martins, London. After working for several years in textile design, embroidery, illustration, and crafts, she moved to Edinburgh in 2006 and set up a web design business which she runs with her partner.
In the past few years, she has returned to her art practice, pursuing the areas of printmaking, drawing and painting. She is currently studying on the Figure course at Leith School of Art.
‘I have 2 sets of paintings in this exhibition.
1 is a series of figure studies that I’ve been working on over the past couple of months.
The other is a series representing sections my everyday walk. These are based on observational drawings which I then work from in the studio. I try to capture the essence of the drawing, also working from memory and imagination to create something new.
I’ve previously worked with drawing, printmaking, collage and embroidery and paint is a relatively new medium for me.’
Jyoti Sigouin
www.jyotisigouin.com | @jyotisigouin
Jyoti Sigouin is a textile designer and artist who uses screen-printing, drawing, painting and collage to create work on paper and textiles. The use of pattern and colour are integral to her work.