In last week’s blog, I shared with you a conversation I had with archaeologist Mark Edmonds, as together we pondered a flint handaxe that Mark had written about in his book and brought to my studio. It’s a perfect teardrop shape, but with a twist to it, so it fits the...
I recently shared a conversation with archaeologist, writer and artist Mark Edmonds. He came to my studio at the weekend to talk about his new book “Making a Handaxe”, bringing with him an object of contemplation and conversation: an exquisitely shaped...
Last week I spent a few days back in Edinburgh. I lived and worked there for more than thirty years. It’s the city I moved to at the tender age of seventeen to study at art school and one I still love very much. It’s where I grew into myself, made lifelong...
I’m delighted to have writer and podcaster Susan Mathews as guest for this week’s newsletter. Season 2 of Susan’s podcast The Subverse has been my ‘go-to’ listening recently, and her thoughtful conversations around water have helped to...
It’s late Winter, or perhaps it’s early Spring. An uncertain season here in Orkney, either way. It can mean anything from shirtsleeves and birdsong to blizzarding snow and sometimes both of these in the same day. We’ve had some gentle days recently that saw the hens...
I was lucky enough to read an early copy of Victoria Bennet’s beautiful debut memoir “All My Wild Mothers”, just published by John Murray Press. I was immediately struck by the way she shows how our care for the natural world is inseparable from our care...