Artists directory

Irene

Watson

My work begins from attentive listening. It is shaped by a confessional register informed by long-term engagement with people navigating systems of protection and survival. These experiences influence how I think about vulnerability, care, and control, and how lived experience is often managed or made invisible. The paintings hold these pressures quietly, without illustration or narrative. Landscape functions within the work as a psychological space rather than a descriptive one. I am interested in what is lost when organic and random structures are ordered or contained, and how systems shape both people and environments. This tension between control and vulnerability informs the emotional tone of the work. My practice is grounded in abstraction, material process, and text-based visual language. Working with oil, pigment, wax, sand, and collage on canvas or linen, I build layered surfaces through accumulation and removal, allowing earlier marks to remain visible. Text appears as fragment rather than statement, suggesting presence and voice without resolution. Alongside painting, I produce artist books, experimental writing, and performance work that extend these concerns through parallel processes. Collaboration and co‑authoring are central to this practice and continues to shape my understanding of voice and agency.

Location: Perth

Materials: Oil
My work begins from attentive listening. It is shaped by a confessional register informed by long-term engagement with people navigating systems of protection and survival. These experiences influence how I think about vulnerability, care, and control, and how lived experience is often managed or made invisible. The paintings hold these pressures quietly, without illustration or narrative. Landscape functions within the work as a psychological space rather than a descriptive one. I am interested in what is lost when organic and random structures are ordered or contained, and how systems shape both people and environments. This tension between control and vulnerability informs the emotional tone of the work. My practice is grounded in abstraction, material process, and text-based visual language. Working with oil, pigment, wax, sand, and collage on canvas or linen, I build layered surfaces through accumulation and removal, allowing earlier marks to remain visible. Text appears as fragment rather than statement, suggesting presence and voice without resolution. Alongside painting, I produce artist books, experimental writing, and performance work that extend these concerns through parallel processes. Collaboration and co‑authoring are central to this practice and continues to shape my understanding of voice and agency.

Previous Experience

CV Scottish Contemporary Artist Based in Scotland, UK EDUCATION PhD (ongoing), Fine Art / Practice-based Research, University of Dundee M. LITT in Letters (Distinction), MPhil, Public Art & Design Dip Teach in Art, Christchurch , New Zealand BA (Hons), Painting & Printmaking, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS (SELECTED) Design Star Award, UK, 2015 Scotland Unlimited Awards (Levels 1 & 2), 2004–05 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, (international study & travel), District 1010, 1995 Shepley Shepley Trust ( Young ~Talent)Scholarship 1989–90 SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Highlights) artspace Scotland, Perth, UK LINLEY, Pimlico, London, UK The Meffan Institute, Forfar, UK Crawford Centre, St Andrews, UK Gallery 48, Dundee, UK Drawings Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand Angus Museums (Touring Show), Angus, UK SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS ( Highlights) Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK Scottish Society of Arts. UK Glasgow Art Fair, UK Gallery Fresh, London, UK The Barbican,

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