The recipient of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Heritage Horizons Artist Residency 2022 was Naomi Mcintosh. Bothy Project in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority, selected Naomi from an open call for practitioners in visual arts, craft & design, music, literature and performance, who were based in the Cairngorms National Park.
Naomi spent two weeks at Inshriach Bothy during the winter of 2022. She used her time on residency to plan a new body of work that reflected a sense of place and belonging in relation to the landscapes of the Park. Naomi used drawing ‘to communicate sanity of landscape and the natural environment’, connect to the self and explore experience. She produced two bodies of work, the first called ‘Embodied Drawings’ and the second ‘Reading Water / Charting’.
“In both weeks the experience has been to communicate a feeling of being in landscape. A connection with the self and not to use drawing and making to describe visual information but to explore experience.”
Following her residency, Naomi took place in the January 2023 Cairngorm Creatives Show n’ Tell event where she discussed her residency experience and wider practice. You can watch a recording here.
Below is a selection of work produced by Naomi during her time at Inshriach:
Birch Bark – Embodied
Ink on Bristol board, 30cm x 42.0cm, 2022
Meadow Foxtail Grass – Embodied
Ink on Bristol board, 30cm x 42.0cm, 2022
Sketch 5 – Reading Water
2022
Sketch 14 – Charting
2022
Naomi Mcintosh is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland with a background in Architecture and jewellery design. Drawing and drawing conventions, the representation of spaces and the relationship between objects and human scale are central themes. Drawing is the starting point for every project. Precise geometry, repetition, pattern making and the interpretation of spaces are themes used throughout and using lines, the pieces she creates are about creating spaces, exploring movement and defining volumes without boundaries.
She employs a holistic approach to her work. Predicated on a belief that everything is interconnected, she aims to capture and share the experience of being in a constantly changing, beautiful and expansive landscape through her work. By being in tune with the environment, she explores the passing of time, seasonality and the ever-present experience of nature. Her work recreates her experiences of place, discovered whilst being exposed to the elements and quiet solitude.
Image (left): Portrait of Naomi Mcintosh. Image by Ben Addy.
Header image 1: Naomi Mcintosh, Quiet Garden. Image by Ben Addy.
Header image 2: Naomi Mcintosh, Lost Song. Image by Ben Addy.
Header image 3: Naomi Mcintosh, Evanescent – To Vanish Like Vapour. Image by Jonathan Addie.
This residency forms part of the Community Arts and Culture project, one of 24 projects in the Cairngorms 2030: Heritage Horizons programme and was supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Community Arts and Culture project will see a variety of initiatives rolled out in the Park and aims to create a greater connection to landscape and place and encourage a desire among Park communities to get involved in climate action.
