2022 Residents

Curiosity for the natural world, with a particular affection for coastal edges, runs throughout my work and was the catalyst for creating The Nature Library. It is often said we must understand something in order to protect it; I’m interested in the importance of caring for the unknown—what we might never understand—while resisting the view of marine life as ‘otherworldly’, admiring them as kin entirely of this earth.

My experience at the Argyll Hope Spot inspired slow, methodical pieces, devoting my attention to beautiful and new-to-me species which caught my attention underwater and held it back on land.

The ocean is a place we all enjoy looking at and few things are as relaxing as listening to waves crashing onto a beach. But what’s below the surface is often hidden out of sight. As a podcaster and storyteller, I love taking listeners on immersive journeys around Scotland’s regions and landscapes.

The artist residency inspired me to bring the magical underwater world of the Argyll Hope Spot to the surface and share thought- provoking and immersive audio poems to take listeners along with me.

Painting from a vantage point high on a blustery clifftop with sea birds soaring overhead, following mountain hares through the Cairngorms in winter, or slipping beneath the waves to enter a world of exotic colour and abundant life. These are experiences that define my life and work as an artist, making work in and of the moment, taking time to pause and be enchanted by the natural world.

Liz Myhill RSW ASWLA is an award winning wildlife and landscape artist, she lives and works in Highland Perthshire and the Isle of Skye as well as making regular study trips throughout Scotland to work on location.

I have snorkelled in the Sound of Jura for over twenty years. Fascinated by the realm of seaweed beneath me I see it as secret and unexpected treasure with underwater sea meadows and kelp forests gracefully riding the ebb and flow of the tides and currents. I dive for eye-catching specimens and collage, arrange and press them to capture their exquisite colour and diverse and extraordinary form.

Printmaker and diver Louise Scammell is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. She taught printmaking at Dartington and now at Art House, South Brent where she lives and works. Using an underwater drawing pad and cameras, she observes, sketches and films marine life on the South Devon coast.

She translates her sketches into artists prints in her studio using techniques including lithography, woodcut, linocut and monoprint. She is committed in communicating the beauty of this extraordinary underwater environment through her practice.

I am a sculptor working in stone and have lived in Argyll for 18 years. I am inspired by the wild places in Argyll and the sea.

The Argyll Hope Spot snorkelling residency helped me to really take notice of what is under the surface and the beauty of the marine life. Swimming in the sea helps me feel part of that world and I try to express that in my work, how we are part of nature and connected to it.

In my photographic work I try to capture the colours and textures that make up the beautiful coastal landscape of Argyll, Scotland. Many of these colours are natural but after looking closely there are many colours which are not naturally part of this landscape. Plastic waste litters this coastline, brought ashore by Atlantic storms. Bleach bottle blues, algal greens, industrial reds, volcanic greys and vibrant lichen yellows are combined in my images as they are in the landscape around me. What is natural and what is human made is not easily unpicked in the resulting images.

Paul Henery is a Northumberland based wildlife artist who works in a figurative manner utilising on-location field sketches as the basis for more developed works. Working across a range of media he seeks to capture the light, weather and the mood of a place. Paul is a regular wild swimmer and snorkeller and was delighted to take part in the Argyll Hope Spot residency last summer. Although amazed by the profusion of marine life all around Paul wanted to show the wider ‘underwater scape’ of the Argyll coast. Paul believes in the ability of artists to communicate ideas and this project will show how it is vital we preserve our marine environments. 

I include performance in this presentation, represented by photographs of snorkellers wearing spiral headdresses. The spiral echoes nature’s magical systems, used in ancient cultures to symbolise unity, transformation and the Earth’s journey around the sun. Underwater drawings of marine life, captured during the Argyll Hope Spot Residency, are engraved inside the spiral and change as they are worn, capturing the alchemistic play of natural elements on the surfaces of the metal. I aspire to nurture hope for a sustainable future using art, by exploring phenomenological, psychological, and aesthetic connections between people and marine environments, highlighting biodiversity loss and the need to protect it.

I have always been inspired most by wildlife and the natural world. This love definitely transferred into my work as a tattoo artist, and combining my love of wild swimming and the sea during this residency was super inspiring. West coast marine life now features strongly in a lot of my work, and has clearly inspired my clients too!

Susannah exhibits underwater drawings of Seagrass (Zostera Marina). These sensory images were made while snorkelling through a sea grass meadow during the Argyll Hope Spot snorkelling residency in 2022. Seagrass is an endangered keystone species which sequesters carbon and is a vital habitat for marine life.

Susannah is an artist living in Argyll. She is currently studying for a postgraduate MA in Art and Social Practice at UHI. Her work is concerned with creating human and more-than-human connection through interactivity with the landscape.