Throughout February 2024 Anna took up residence in the Old Squash Court Studio at Marchmont Estate, near Duns, courtesy of Marchmont Makers Foundation. 

Well renowned local artist Anna King has a long history with Marchmont, and indeed the Old Squash Court, which she used as her studio long before it was renovated by our late Patron Hugo Burge. 

She was later commissioned by Hugo to paint the old greenhouses at Marchmont, to make a record of them before they too were fully renovated.

Georgina and Fee spent a month sharing the light filled Old Squash Court Studio in early 2022, in preparation for their shared stand at the Borders Art Fair shortly afterwards.

Georgina specialises in Drawing, printmaking and sculpture.  Based near the East Lothian coast she has been influenced by her surroundings, resulting in a fascination for sea-going vessels. Over the years Georgina has developed a drawing technique of Monoprinting which enables her to experiment with mark making as well as the printed image.

During her time at Marchmont she turned her attention to the trees on the estate, particularly those which had suffered storm damage, which resulted in a beautiful triptych of large scale drawings, as well as a number of on-site sculptures and sketches.

www.georgina-artist.co.uk

A regular at the Borders Art Fair, Martha Ellis will be spending the first 2 weeks of June at Marchmont, to study the buildings, gardens and collection.

Martha’s work explores the positive and negative space within natural and urban landscapes, reducing complex scenery to more simplified lines and block colour. After hours of drawing from life, she turns her work into cut-out pieces which are mounted directly to the wall to allow shadows to cast. 

Greatly influenced by nature, Martha's work investigates the juxtaposition between constructed buildings and their natural surroundings, often from drawings based on her visits to Kew Gardens and the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

This Residency at Marchmont Creative Spaces will give Martha the opportunity to explore the estate and to develop more drawings on which to base future work. 

She won't be short of inspiration!

www.marthaellis.co.uk

Jo Taylor spent 2 weeks at Marchmont in May 2021, to explore the house's architecture and collection. 

An artist educator, Jo specialises in ceramics, with drawing and printmaking used as tools to explore visual research.  Since graduating with an MA in Ceramics, she has exhibited her work extensively in the UK, US and Europe, in venues including TATE Liverpool, COLLECT at Somerset House and the Kasteel D'Ursel in Belgium. 

Jo's sculptural works are inspired by architectural features such as ornate  plaster ceilings, wrought iron and carved stone, aiming to convey the sense of grand gesture, the drama of shadow, and the dialogue between space, structure and ornament. The stunning interiors of Marchmont House have been a rich source of inspiration for her work.

One of Saatchi Art's 'Rising Stars' 2019, Richard Goldsworthy became the first artist to take up a one month residency in Studio Cottage, Fogo, which is one of the latest Creative Spaces at Marchmont to be developed.

Born in Macclesfield, before moving to Buckinghamshire, Richard studied Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art between 2015 and 2019.  During that time he completed a residency at Hospitalfields, Arbroath, before being awarded the Royal Scottish Academy's Barns-Graham Travel Award in 2019 which allowed him to travel to South Korea. Since graduating he has had exhibitions in London, Harrogate and Edinburgh.

To date Richard's artistic focus has been sculpture.  Working with wood, he carves, chars or casts elements to create highly contrasted, visually intriguing objects.

A further two artists shared the studio space throughout April; Rosemary Everett and Janet Cleghorn.

Rosemary Everett, a print maker and book artist, has been developing her artistic practice since 2015. She has studied printmaking at Edinburgh Printmakers, Abbeymount Studios, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Poldrates and Robert Smails, as well as completing courses on Book Arts at the University of Edinburgh.

After restoring a vintage flatbed printing press, Rosemary used her time in the Tower Studio to develop and produce a hand-bound, small edition artist’s book. The book’s content was inspired by, and journaled, the house and landscape, celebrating Marchmont’s distinctive story and sense of place.

www.instagram.com/everett_creates

The Tower Studio welcomed Gill Walton and Rebekah Tolley-Georgiou in March, who applied jointly to share the studio space.

Gill and Rebekah met as undergraduates and have known each other for over 30 years. Working in different ways with different media, they have always discussed their working practices and wanted to explore how their experiences of these most unprecedented of times converges to influence their respective practices. Gill has used the space to explore the theme of emerging from the global pandemic, which resulted in a new body of work reflecting the current feeling of hope.

Gill Walton has exhibited regularly at the Borders Art Fair, where she was awarded the ‘Best Stand’ prize in 2019. A life-long, multi award winning artist, Pieces completed during her time at  Marchmont have already been selected for the PAI Scottish Drawing Competition and by the SSA.

www.gillwalton.co.uk

Claire Beattie was the first of our artists to take up residence in the Tower Studio for the month of February.

Born in Ayrshire, Claire Beattie grew up on the Moray coast, before graduating with an MA in Fine Art and distinction in painting from the University of Edinburgh. She now lives and works in the Scottish Borders.

Claire has shown her landscape paintings professionally throughout the UK since 2008. Her work, inspired by the Scottish Borders landscape, is in many private collections, and has been shown several times at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute. As well as being a member of the Society of Scottish Artists and Visual Arts Scotland, she has been successfully represented at the Borders Art Fair by various galleries over the past few years.