Take Me To New Lands & Then Take Me Home
Opening Event: Sat 5 Oct 3pm to 5pm. All Welcome. Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR
A new exhibition of paintings by Orcadian artist and musician Sarah McFadyen explores the line between the worlds of fact and fable, and the place where land and sea meet, as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival this October.
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 on an island, 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.
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.
About the artist
Sarah McFadyen is an Orcadian artist and musician originally from the Island of Hoy who currently lives and works in Pathhead Midlothian. After finishing school, she went to Edinburgh College of Art to study sculpture. There she became involved in the music scene and has been working as a professional musician for the last 20 years. Much of what she has painted over the years has been to compliment a musical idea, but around five years ago, she discovered intuitive expressive painting which is where her practice sits today.
In 2020 Sarah won the Fitzroy Prize for Painting and in 2023 she went on to exhibit her work at the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall.
