In September 2022 I spent a week looking at frescoes in England thanks to a Stephen Palmer Travel Award Bursary awarded by Engage Scotland/ Creative Scotland. I would like to thank them for giving me this wonderful opportunity.
I visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to look at the Minoan artefacts collected over 100 years ago by archaelogogist, Sir Aurthur Evans. The drawings and watercolours I made there influenced some fresco and sgraffito paintings on fragments of brick and terracotta pipe. These fragments were shown as part of my Improvised Fictions exhibition at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh in February 2023.
I visited three medieval churches in England. These were Saint Mary’s Chalgrove in Oxfordshire, and Saint Mary’s Kempley and Hailes Church in Gloucestershire. I was blown away by the beauty of the wall paintings, many of which were incredibly well preserved. I made a series of drawings and watercolours on site. In April 2023 I gave a talk , Medieval Wall paintings in Three English Churches to Paris Affresco Paris Affresco is a group formed by Isabelle Bonzom in Paris to extend knowledge of fresco painting and training and opportunities for fresco artists. I was fortunate to receive some of this training for my fresco at Merz and in Saint Jacut de la Mer in Brittany in 2022.
