Artist's Statement
I am a visual artist and my work born from remembered experiences from the landscapes I have visited, mostly around Scotland and the North. In the studio, I use painting, illustration, model-making and one-stop animation to reconstruct the topographies of those places and tell the story of our wilder world.
Like peering out to sea the from the edge of a cliff, my paintings are a meeting place of two worlds. Often painted with a crepuscular palette, they have the language of a dream one has just awoken from and feel like imagined yet inhabitable spaces. Like stage-sets, they act as a device: an invitation into a ‘tapsalteerie’ world, where one finds characters who are impervious to their environment, amidst leaning lumps of land and unsettled seas.
As well as their fairy-tale like allure, my works are rooted in reality. They are a way to bring two worlds together- the real and the imagined/ the human and the non-human- in the hope of rekindling what is, perhaps, a misplaced familiarity and sensitivity to our natural world.
Materials
To marry what I paint on and with (oils), to my subject matter, in my practice, I am also working towards a conscious connection to natural materials. In 2021, I received funding from Visual Artist and Craft Makers Award to research sustainable oil painting materials. This is something I am continuing to explore and develop. I carefully select paints from earth pigments without additives and in cold pressed oil, and sourced from relatively small manufacturers, such as Wallace and Seymour.
Biography
Izzy Thomson graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2016, with a First Class BA (Hons) in Painting. She won several awards at her Degree show, and was then selected for the year-long Graduate Residency at Leith School of Art in Edinburgh. After that Izzy returned to the Highlands and was awarded a Dewar Arts Award for a studio in Wasps, Inverness Creative Academy, where she is currently based. Izzy's recent awards include a self-directed residency funded by the Visual Artist and Craft Makers Award, to research sustainable oil painting materials and a Northword Bringing Stories To Life, Development Grant from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. In 2021, she was fortunate to receive a funded place from Creative Access on Aardman Academy’s Stop Motion 1 Course. Her recent projects include Salt Tales, a collaborative residency and research project, funded by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals. This year Izzy was asked to make an animated music video for Musician Colin Macduff’s new album Glide.