Morag Thomson Merriman, Home

Scottish contemporary artist

My statement

I am a Scottish contemporary artist based in Edinburgh.

My work explores remembered landscapes and the emotional imprints these have left on me, sometimes for many years. I am fascinated by my ever-evolving connection to cherished, familiar landscapes and the accumulative layering that is ‘place’.

My paintings are an intuitive response to the way memory is overlaid with historic or recent experiences of loss, absence and change. I experiment with ways to convey ‘presence’, or the sense of something being revealed or concealed in the landscape. This in turn has also sparked a new exploration of the still life genre, inspired by my inherited collection of textured pottery ware, and the objects’ relevance to the landscapes they came from.

 

 

Small in scale, my work is mostly on paper, manipulated with mixed media to create subtle, richly textured surfaces. I sometimes allow sections of the landscape or still life to fade, as memory can, with little definition, using soft muted colours. This is offset by a sense of presence and solidity elsewhere, thanks to the textural layered mark-making and strength of colour.

My intention overall is to achieve a sense of stillness and quietness to invite the viewer to linger.

Image (top): Strata of Being, mixed media landscape memory, 14 x 9.5cm, 2021.