Fossil Fish of the “Old Red” from the Collection of Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming of Altyre (1798-1842)

The 7th John Ruskin Prize Exhibition, “From the Eye to the Hand” 2025, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London

34cm H x 155cm W

Pencil on paper

Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming was a natural philosopher. Her work between horticulture, palaeoichthyology (the study of fossil fish) and curation places her amongst the 19th century women who collected for the advancement of human knowledge. Drawing is an intellectual activity somewhere between observation, transcription and invention. With a forensic eye and a careful hand Eliza studied her collection in depth, drawing out the strange topography of fish and stone and ultimately, combining fossil fragments in new, as yet unimagined anatomies. “Old Red” refers to Middle Old Red Sandstone from the Orcadian Basin, an ancient ocean floor between Moray and Shetland.

The John Ruskin Prize was founded by The Guild of St. George in 2012, under the administrative umbrella of The Big Draw supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust. The Guild of St George is the charity for arts, crafts and the rural economy founded in 1871 by the Victorian art and social critic, John Ruskin (1819-1900).

Winged Victory 2024

198th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy 2024

91 cm H, 147 cm W

Pencil on paper

“Winged Victory” is a diptych drawing in pencil on paper, a study of a sheer rock face in a disused granite quarry at Tormore on the extreme west of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Here the granite is a distinctive iron ore red in colour. It is sharp and fissile, carrying on its surface the marks of geological time, of melt and cleave. In the 19th century Ross of Mull Granite, at once durable and decorative, was put to use across the world as pavements and docks, lighthouses and monuments. The canopy that shelters Prince Albert in his memorial in Kensington Gardens is held aloft by columns from the quarry at Tormore, sent south by sea from the Ross of Mull via the Sound of Iona.

Bring me my cloak of invisibility 2023

Then and Now: 100 Years of Visual Arts Scotland 2023 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

57 cm H, 49cm W, 3.5 D

Pencil on paper

Calcite is a very common mineral found all over the world, often in proximity to Limestone so, seashells. In their transparent form, as “Iceland Spar”, Calcite crystals demonstrate considerable refractive properties. The Icelandic Sagas reference a “sunstone” used by the Vikings for navigation on cloudy days. More recently it has been utilised in the development of military grade optics, bombsights and anti-aircraft guns. The appearance of Calcite, its silken folds, is initially seductive. On realisation of its primary human use, the mood shifts to one of menace. In 2011 researchers at Birmingham University, Imperial College London and the Technical University of Denmark developed a cloaking system using Calcite prisms and gold to bend light. In their experiments it was possible to disguise the presence of a paperclip.

The Burial Ground on the Maam Road 2020

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition 2021-22, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, Drawing Projects, Trowbridge, Cooper Gallery, Dundee

81cm H, 66cm W, 4.5cm D

Pencil on paper

The Maam Road is the old drove road linking Comrie to Loch Tay. Black Cattle from across Scotland were sent to the Tryst along these paths by drovers, the original Scottish cowboys. The Burial Ground lies on the western border of the Dunira Estate. Now overgrown, caught in a humid haze of rebellious Yew and opportunistic Birch, it once offered rest to the Dundas family, the scions of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. Dundas remains a contentious figure in the history of Scotland. Inconceivably powerful, he delayed the abolition of the British slave trade. All landscapes register human actions.

Ithaca, from Penelope’s Window II 2018

Derwent Art Prize Exhibition 2018, Mall Galleries, Mall, London

62 cm H x 75cm W x 2cm D

Pencil on paper

Office of Woods 2018

Royal Scottish Academy, RSA Open Exhibition 2018, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

43cm H x 43cm W x 2cm D

Pencil, gesso, pigment, panel

Ariadne 2018

Society of Scottish Artists Open Exhibition 2018, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

28cm H, 195cm W, 10cm D

Pencil, gesso, pigment, panel, shelf [with animation]

Icarus 2016

Royal Scottish Academy, RSA Open Exhibition 2017, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

40cm H, 25cm W, 2cm D

Pen, pencil, photocollage and gampi paper on tinted gesso board

I Spy 1947 2016

Royal Scottish Academy, RSA Open Exhibition 2016, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

44cm H, 37cm W, 2cm D

Pen, pencil, photocollage and gampi paper on tinted gesso board

Artemis Agrotera: Silent Pursuit 2016

Society of Scottish Artists Open Exhibition 2016, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

73cm H, 68cm W, 3cm D

Pencil, gesso, pigment, panel

Chronograph Drawing: 50 years 0.05 seconds 2016

Society of Scottish Artists Open Exhibition 2016, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. The Ramsay Cornish Prize 2016

190cm H, 110cm W, 500cm D

Pencil, gesso, pigment, panel, found chair

[installation view Summerhall 2020]