Linkshouse Residency 2025 Artist Announced

Visual Arts Scotland is delighted to announce the winner of this year’s month-long funded residency partnership with the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust, and Linkshouse, part of the Pier Arts Centre Orkney.

Born in Edinburgh and based in East Lothian, Charlene Scott is a visual artist who graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art in 2023 with a BA (hons) Degree in Fine Art Intermedia.

Working primarily with the extraction, material and research of botanical pigments to create works on paper, Charlene’s creative practice is concerned with the parallels she finds between minimalism and the principals of ecology; intimate observation, distillation and attention to nuance. These qualities are essential in her practice where she works with botanical colour and repetition through line, folds and pattern in order to explore quietude and connection to place.

Characterised by simplicity, repetition and abstraction, Charlene’s practice has become a kind of homeopathic mechanism that resembles the process and gestures of its making. Through nuance and the exploration of mark making, her intention is to carry an essence of her relationship to environment that 'con-spires' with plants in celebration of the quiet and undramatic.

Charlene began researching and working with lake pigments during her time as a student. This old technology, whereby a pigment is created from a dye extracted from botanicals, grew from a desire to build a more tangible and intimate relationship with nature and an economy of the materials she uses.

It was during a short visit to Orkney in 2019, as part of an art and archaeology workshop, Charlene found herself face to face with Neolithic mark making that appeared to traverse time and impart feeling. The simplicity and directness of the carefully incised lines stayed with her.

The residency will offer Charlene the opportunity to spend a month at Linkshouse Residency space in March 2025 for quiet reflection and research, with a specific interest in the rich history of mark-making that exists in Orkney. She will also use the period of time and space to experiment with natural dyeing on paper.

Tavienne Bridgwater, President of Visual Arts Scotland, said: “Artist residencies are a unique alchemy, a source of reflection and time, combining interaction in new communal contexts with new peers and environments in a way that is truly unparalleled. We believe these experiences empower artists, helping them recognise their own value and affirming they are exactly where they need to be. Thus, creating a vital environment where artists are supported to make substantial jumps within their practise.”

You can find out more about Charlene and her work here: www.charlenescott.co.uk and keep an eye on our socials for Charlene’s Instagram Takeover next month.

VAS would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter this year, and to the committee for the careful consideration during the selection process.

Photo credit JP Photography