The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Acclaimed stained glass artist receives prestigious craft prize
Perthshire-based artist Pinkie Maclure has won the £1,000 Zealous Emerge Craft Prize for her work in stained glass, which reinvents the medieval artform to explore the modern world through darkly-humorous stories and wry observations.
The prize has been created to celebrate the work of emerging artists across 12 creative categories.
Distinguished judges this year included the head of the Crafts Council Rosy Greenlees OBE, artist Yinka Shonibare and glass artist Peter Layton.
Maclure’s stained glass light box Beauty Tricks, an exploration of the beauty industry and its effect upon women, children and the environment, can be seen in the Art of Glass exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland until September.
Meanwhile, her stained glass panel The Family is installed at the capital’s Chalmers Sexual Health Centre.
Largely self-taught, Maclure started working with glass when a friend asked her to help him restore traditional Victorian windows and doors.
Frustrated by the familiar designs she was asked to copy, she began to make her own, teaching herself to paint as a form of therapy, inspired by the dark imagery of medieval glass.
She first exhibited her work with the Outside In organisation, which helps artists who have difficulty accessing the art world, in its Radical Craft touring exhibition.