Morag Thomson Merriman
- Work
- Biography
I am a visual artist and life-long resident of Edinburgh, moving only within a three mile radius of my old childhood home.
My work is a form of personal archaeology, weaving in family connections to long remembered landscapes, cherished pottery ware and precious garden plants as a meditation on loss, absence and change. I seek to understand and convey place, or the sense of home, ‘presence’ and remembrance, of something being revealed or concealed.
I work mostly on paper, manipulated with layers of mixed media to create subtle, richly textured surfaces. I sometimes allow sections of the work 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 is to create a sense of quiet stillness in which the viewer may linger.
My work is a form of personal archaeology, weaving in family connections to long remembered landscapes, cherished pottery ware and precious garden plants as a meditation on loss, absence and change. I seek to understand and convey place, or the sense of home, ‘presence’ and remembrance, of something being revealed or concealed.
I work mostly on paper, manipulated with layers of mixed media to create subtle, richly textured surfaces. I sometimes allow sections of the work 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 is to create a sense of quiet stillness in which the viewer may linger.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 SSA ‘The Land‘ exhibition, The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock
2025 RSW 144th Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh.
2024 SSA 126th Annual Exhibition 30x30
2024 Ulaidhean /Treasures, SSA, Gairloch Museum, Wester Ross
2024 VAS 30x30, Borders Art Fair, Kelso
2024 VAS Centenary Show 30x30, RSA, Edinburgh
2024 RSW 143rd Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
2023 SSA 125th Annual Exhibition 30x30 online
2023 AngusAlive Meffan Winter Show, Meffan Museum & Art Gallery, Forfar
2023 RSW 142nd Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
2022 SSA 124th Annual Exhibition 30x30, RSA, Edinburgh
2010 Group Exhibition, Craft House Concept Gallery, Edinburgh
1993 Christmas Watercolour Group Exhibition, ESU Scotland, Edinburgh
1993 CD2 Show, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
1993 Group Exhibition, Harestanes Visitors’ Centre, Jedburgh
1992 Solo Exhibition, Helensburgh Music Society October concert, Helensburgh
1992 RSA Students’ Exhibition, RSW, Edinburgh
AWARDS
2025 Awarded RSW Watermark Award, RSW 144th Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
2023 Longlisted for Scottish Landscape Awards
COMMISSIONS
2011 & 2017-2019 Commissions for local authority & private clients
EDUCATION/CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2022–present: Mentoring with visual artist/writer Samantha Clark
2022 Sketchbooks referenced at international InSEA webinar as exemplar of using visual journals to develop visual thinking in education.
2014 Selected for Scottish Book Trust Illustration Lab
2013 Member-tutor, AccessArt
1993–1994 Moray House Institute of Education, AMTIS postgraduate training programme
1987-1992 Edinburgh University & Edinburgh College of Art, MA (Hons) Fine Art
COLLECTIONS
Work in private collections in UK and America
2025 SSA ‘The Land‘ exhibition, The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock
2025 RSW 144th Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh.
2024 SSA 126th Annual Exhibition 30x30
2024 Ulaidhean /Treasures, SSA, Gairloch Museum, Wester Ross
2024 VAS 30x30, Borders Art Fair, Kelso
2024 VAS Centenary Show 30x30, RSA, Edinburgh
2024 RSW 143rd Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
2023 SSA 125th Annual Exhibition 30x30 online
2023 AngusAlive Meffan Winter Show, Meffan Museum & Art Gallery, Forfar
2023 RSW 142nd Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
2022 SSA 124th Annual Exhibition 30x30, RSA, Edinburgh
2010 Group Exhibition, Craft House Concept Gallery, Edinburgh
1993 Christmas Watercolour Group Exhibition, ESU Scotland, Edinburgh
1993 CD2 Show, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
1993 Group Exhibition, Harestanes Visitors’ Centre, Jedburgh
1992 Solo Exhibition, Helensburgh Music Society October concert, Helensburgh
1992 RSA Students’ Exhibition, RSW, Edinburgh
AWARDS
2025 Awarded RSW Watermark Award, RSW 144th Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
2023 Longlisted for Scottish Landscape Awards
COMMISSIONS
2011 & 2017-2019 Commissions for local authority & private clients
EDUCATION/CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2022–present: Mentoring with visual artist/writer Samantha Clark
2022 Sketchbooks referenced at international InSEA webinar as exemplar of using visual journals to develop visual thinking in education.
2014 Selected for Scottish Book Trust Illustration Lab
2013 Member-tutor, AccessArt
1993–1994 Moray House Institute of Education, AMTIS postgraduate training programme
1987-1992 Edinburgh University & Edinburgh College of Art, MA (Hons) Fine Art
COLLECTIONS
Work in private collections in UK and America
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- The Wound Within, emotional landscape, 12x7.5cms
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Receding Light, emotional landscape, 10x7cms
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Deep Sounds Cloaked in Muted Purple, e.l, 10x7cms
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Fading, emotional landscape, Fading Series, 10x7.5cms
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Shift, emotional landscape, Fading Series, 10x7.5cm
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Embrace, emotional landscape, 10.5x7.5cms
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Still Water, landscape memory, 10x6cms
- Mixed Media
- Morag Thomson Merriman
- Hidden, 10x5.5cms
- Mixed Media
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