A new exhibition of paintings by artist and musician Sarah McFadyen from Hoy opened in Edinburgh at the weekend and runs until 3 November at the Scottish Storytelling Centre during the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.
Take Me To New Lands & Then Take Me Home combines new paintings alongside some previous pieces from Sarah’s last exhibition ‘The People of the Sea’ which was inspired by author David Thomson’s accounts of the legends of the selkies, and displayed at Orkney Museum in 2023.
Sarah is passionate about the power of creativity and where it can take us. She is fascinated by the edge of the land and the sea, where the known meets the unknown, and her paintings share a common thread about moving beyond what is near and known, crossing over into the ‘otherworld’ and then returning with new riches to enhance the cherished treasure and beauty of the place to which one returns.
Being brought up in Hoy, her childhood was spent playing on the shores and cliffs; one foot firmly on the ground, and one foot in the sea, underworld, rest of the world… dreaming. It is here that the root of her expression lies.
Image credit: Neil Hanna
Whether painting in the landscape or in the studio, Sarah’s work is led by intuition as much as possible. She takes representational elements into consideration but mostly her work is about capturing emotional energy and atmosphere. A lover of good stories, Sarah’s inspiration for her work often comes when walking and thinking about how things were in days gone by, projecting herself into the future and finding links and different ways to open up ideas and conversations.
Orkney Storytelling Festival
The Scottish International Storytelling Festival will be part of this year’s Orkney Storytelling Festival which runs from Thu 24 to Sun 27 October. As part of its Go Local programme of events taking place all over Scotland there will be three guest storytellers taking part: Douglas Mackay, Catherine Little and Liz Tulloch, who will join local storytellers Fran Flett Hollinrake, Marita Luck, Erin Farley and Chris Perry for four days of traditional stories in beautiful places across the islands.
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