The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
From hot and old to inspirational but cold
Apair of painting students from an Aberdeen art school have travelled to the freezing north of Europe and the sweltering heat of the Caribbean as part of their studies.
The students from Gray’s School of Art won travel scholarships this summer to make the trips, and have now shared their experiences.
Final year painting student Paul Doyle, 52, won a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship, while coursemate Izzy Thomson, 22,won a Cross Trust Scholarship.
Mr Doyle, from Collieston, spent three weeks in communist Cuba learning how artists are responding to social and political changes.
Miss Thomson, from Cromarty, chose to travel to Iceland for 10 days to explore the country’s brutal environment for her inspiration.
Both students have said the trips have inspired them and left a lasting impression.
Mr Doyle said visiting the island had proved a “culture shock”.
“With the aid of the scholarship I was able to spend three weeks in Cuba, visiting artists and students at the university in Havana, seeing the 12th Havana Biennial and also visiting some more rural places.
“I was very lucky in that my contact in Havana, an art student, introduced me to lots of artists.
“Cuba was a culture shock for me. The society is unlike anything I have experienced before. With the oppressively hot and humid July temperatures, the landscapes and the way of life, I’ve been left with some very strong impressions.
“Artists there have a unique and difficult set of circumstances which has made me think more about some of the reasons people make art, and the part that this can play in communication, when other channels may not be open.
“The scholarship has given me lots of material to help me in my studio practice and to progress through my fourth year at Gray’s, and I am very grateful for the opportunity.”
Miss Thomson added: “Going to Iceland presented itself as a valuable opportunity for me to physically and imaginatively connect with this mighty but humble place – both to the landscape and the people and artists in it. I don’t think I would have been able to make the kind of paintings I desired just from being in Scotland.
“It has extended my knowledge and boundaries of human life in a country that has ignited my visuals.
“I found I could channel myself into exploring, researching, collecting and learning, leaving me with a juicy amount of new material to bite into for my final year.
“It was an opportunity somewhere very unique and which bequeathed me with a ticket to the kind of characters I had been searching for – the ones I need to pepper my paintings with. My painting – both the narratives and the way in which I handle the paint – has certainly been influenced by the Icelanders’ gentle attitude to an unforgiving environment.”