A year on

It is now a full year after completing my hons degree in fine art, and looking back on it now, I feel I have accomplished quite a lot, though some of it has been difficult.
I had a deadline for the RSA show which was in March 2012, and I was one of the artists working on a residency in North Uist called the 'Secret Sea'. The residency ran from Sept 2011 through to may 2012. with an exhibition that ran from march to may.
For the RSA, I had a choice of putting in my degree show work, new work, or a mixture of the two. I decided to do a mix of work from the degree show, and new work, but mainly new work as the focus, so I continued my work on the stag project which I had started, but not submitted for marking during the degree. This gave me something to focus on and made sure that I pushed myself to create artwork even when I didn't feel like it, which I know was the best plan for me, otherwise I would have just sat back and not been creative at all which would have caused a blockage. The main  reason being that I was exhausted after all the years of study, as well as in a lot of pain, ( I cannot do my job at the moment because of my health issues) so I needed to recover, yet at the same time, I knew that if I pushed myself into making artwork, I would carry on growing as an artist. So I did a little each day to give myself an incentive, and having a deadline made sure that I had to push myself to complete the work. I suppose you could say that it was me being my own tutor, continually questioning why I was making the work, doing research, and looking at other artists. I was also encouraged by the fact that in the residency, it would be totally new work I was creating, with new inspirations ( the deer stag work sometimes felt as if it was going stale because I had been working on it for so long, even though it was constantly evolving and changing. ) I had two films on a loop together of performances in the landscape. one of them was stag in Grimsay, and the other one was a collaboration with Anne monk, called stag in the sea. The film was interrupted by a real deer's stag head, which was very old. This meant not only was there a shadow of the stag on the wall in the film but that the film was projected onto the stag head as well. Three deer costumes were on plinths in the exhibition in front of the large cyanotype self portrait with stag remains. Each of the deer had a hand made deer tag of silver with my own hallmark and the Edinburgh assay mark on them. On the wall were two photographs on aluminium, of me as a deer during my performances, with my hand written book of a 'Legend of North |Uist' which has an etched silver cover in between them. Lastly, there was my artists book 'performances in the landscape. I was pleased with the result, and had some good feedback as well.
In the secret sea residency, a group of us undertook some journeys by boat to uninhabited Islands in North Uist. During these trips, we gathered information which we would later use for artworks.
 My blog during the residency:
http://taigh-chearsabhagh.org/2011/10/secret-sea/
Exhibition, I had some remnants of items I had collected on our journeys at the start of the residency, which I had turned in to pure silver. Behind these were six large digital macro photos of  lichens called 'Breathe.' these had a blue tinge which I had created with the use of filters. I had another artists book, called secret sea residency. The film stag in the sea was also in the exhibition, projected on to a piece of cellophane, quite small, and high up.
Andy Mackinnon made a film of some of our artwork during the exhibition:
http://vimeo.com/40304123

For my professional practise, I applied for various residencies, which I found very hard to do, but concentrated on one in particular, ( cove park.) I was really disappointed that I didn't get on to it, mainly because I was keen on meeting new artists, and being in a different environment to see if I would be able to create art work somewhere new. I will now have to get over that and start applying again for more of them.

I joined axisweb as an artist:

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=15914

some of the artwork from the two exhibitions can be seen here.

I also have an art page on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Deborah-Anne-Macvicar-Art/108356822527452

After the secret sea residency and exhibition was over, I decided to get over my blockage with painting again, just because I have always found that it is my first love. It took a long time and  I became quite anxious, but I have managed it. I started by going out into the landscape and drawing in my sketchbook. I wanted to capture my feelings from being in the place on paper, so as usual, the sounds and smells were in my mark making as well as the light and the beauty of the place I was in. I used a limited pallet, with inks, pencil, water colours and oil bars as well as a candle for resist. Then in the studio, I am using my drawings and the remembered feelings to create expressive paintings. I am trying out a few different styles at the moment. I still prefer oil paint when in the studio, rather than acrylics, because of the feel of the medium. I love the smells and the creaminess of it as I apply it either by brush or pallet knife. even when I try to use acrylics for reasons of fast drying, I tend to finish off afterwards with oils on top. Acrylics just looks so flat when dry, compared to oils too. I quite like the combinations of the two so have been leaving some flat areas. I painted three oils for the 'Art on the Map' exhibition, ( which Marnie, Anne and myself are holding together in the cow shed at Baleshare) along with my drawings and some photos and dry point etchings.

My newest work though is for the Alumini of Moray College, UHI. I have exhibited a large photograph of Ronay made with my Horizon camera on my last journey to the Isle of Ronay while the secret sea exhibition was on, and I was the artist on the trip with members of the public.

I have just completed the hons degree at moray college UHI. We had our degree show preview on friday night, and I also found out the Marnie Keltie and I have been selected by the RSA. So we will have to make new work now, for the new conetempories exhibition in Edinburgh in spring 2012.
The degree show is open to the public from 20th june to the 25th june 2011.

level 3 semester one final outcome painting

another treasury

Designs On Benbecula

Hi, welcome to blog
My name is Deborah, and my husband is called Archie. We live in Benbecula, in the Uists. This is a Scottish Island, in the Western Isles.
We have in our family John , who is 25, Iain 24, (engaged and living now in Aberdeen with his fiance Charli)  and Jennifer 18.

We have 5 Bengal cats, as well as having a very large pyranean mountain dog called Aime.

Bengal cats are a breed of cat, descended from an Asian leopard cat/ domestic cat cross.
our cats are: Hazel, amber, sapphire, queen, and our big boy warrior. The first two are brown spotted, sapphire is brown marble, and the boy and queen are blue eyed snows.
We did breed kittens for about 7 years, but have now decided to cut down on the noise and mess levels, which means cutting down the cats!
Archie is from the Islands, as his mum was born in Tiree and his dad was from North Uist.
I was born in Ware, England, and my family moved from Hitchen in Herts to the Isle of Mull when I was 13 years old, so I have lived on Scottish islands for most of my life.
Archie is the manager of a building supplies firm here on Benbecula.

I became a nursery nurse after leaving school the first time, but there were no jobs in nurseries available by the time I had completed my training, as a lot of them were being closed down. I worked as a nanny for 2 and a half years in Mull to one family, and then about 6 months in Dumfries for another family before getting married and going to sea with Archie on an oil tanker. Unfortunately the ship was sold on our trip as the insurance rates became too high because of the war at that time. (1984)
we went back to Mull and settled down and had our two sons, I did work in a shop and as a home carer while there. we moved when john was 5 to Uist, for Archie's Job.  I worked as a home carer again and a relief school auxiliary, and then in an MOD cafe making cakes and soup. At last for a short while I got a job running the creche which I loved although it was not well paid.
Then nearing the age of 40, I went back to secondary school  as an adult, and at the same time started making and designing jewellery for fun. I then spent 10 years studying a fine art degree, and working at the same time, first growing and selling plants, then as a chef, and lastly as a home carer. Just before finishing my degree I became ill and I havent been able to work since then.
I have an hons degree in fine art, and many new friends, but still havent managed to earn much money yet.
I have set up a studio with a dark room on east camp, a local enterprise community here in Benbecula, so if you want to have a look round while on holiday in Uist, please drop in to see me.