Olivia Irvine : Familial Places

Recent MERZ artist in residence Olivia Irvine received a Creative Scotland Open Fund Bursary to research and develop ideas based on her family. Olivia spent time gathering information in the places she was brought up – Kilmarnock, Cults, Aberdeen and Banff – and in her mother’s current house in Edinburgh. She made trips to these places over the summer and filled a sketchbook with drawings of parks and other outdoor spaces she spent time in as a child. The secret nature of enclosed spaces fascinates her. in her mother’s house she continued this theme, drawing the rooms where family celebrations take place as well as some precious objects which are small enclosed spaces in their own right.

Olivia has since used many of these sketches, as well as her memory and imagination, to inform a series of oil paintings in her studio in Edinburgh. She would like to thank Creative Scotland for this opportunity. Olivia will talk about her work at MERZ during Sanquhar he Winter Arts Festival in December.