QEST Scholarship, Merz fresco
In 2022, I received a QEST Anthony and Elizabeth Mellows Charitable Settlement Trust Award to gain further training in fresco painting. The first part of this, in June, involved working on a wall. I was keen to get practice in this as I had previously mainly worked on...
Cill Rialaig Residency
In March 2022, I spent eleven days on a residency in Cill Rialaig, County Kerry, Ireland. I had broken my hip the month before, so arrived with a crutch and the help of my wonderful artist friend, Hazel Walker, who drove me from Shannon airport and helped me get...
Familial Places
Earlier this year, I received a Creative Scotland Open Fund Bursary to research and develop ideas based on my family. I spent time gathering information in the places I was brought up - Kilmarnock, Cults, Aberdeen and Banff - and in my mother’s current house in...
Story Forms
When does form become story? How does a story reveal its forms? Three artists Olivia Irvine, Linda Kosciewicz and Michele Marcoux present an installation of new work - painting, drawing, printmaking & video - to consider how artists create this alchemy. Visual...
Byre – an exhibition in a barn
I took part in Byre, a site-specific exhibition in a barn in Northumberland for one weekend in September. I showed charcoal drawings which I had made two years ago whilst on a mini residency here; they were of trees, lanes and farm buildings. Alongside, I...
Byre
Life Under Lockdown
'Life Under Lockdown' was the theme of a micro-residency I was chosen for in 2020, through NHS Tonic Arts. Seven artists, all born in different decades, were asked to respond to the theme by producing new work which would be exhibited at the Western General Hospital...
Merz Diary#4, Pamphy Linns
Olivia Irvine : MERZ Diary #4 from arts-news on Vimeo. I visited the celebrated ‘faerie dell’ at Pamphy Linns many times to draw and paint. later, in the studio, I made collages and a diorama reflecting my experience. The Kirkconnel poet Alexander...
Merz Residency Video Diary#3
I put together the charcoal drawings from around the Bothy, the Euchan Water and some older drawings to make two large collages. I had worked out beforehand where things would go, but made some changes as I went along. The idea of collaging time is interesting....
Merz Residency Video Diary #2
Olivia Irvine : MERZ Diary #2 ‘After my first week of drawing down by the Euchan Water and around the Merz Bothy, I started thinking of ways to combine the drawings. I went back to the locations to gather more material, in particular, darker drawings and close-ups....