V CHARMIAN POLLOK

Drumlean Cottage,
Kinlochard,
Aberfoyle,
Stirling,
FK8 3TH.
Telephone 01877 387247 / 387322

Qualifications:
B.A. Business Administration, Strathclyde University, 1964-67
B.A. (Hons) Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, 1988-92

At Glasgow School of Art I studied printmaking under Philip Reeves and fine art papermaking under Jacki Parry.

Selected Group Exhibitions:

'Prints from the Four Scottish Colleges', Edinburgh Printmakers, 1990
Royal Scottish Academy Students' Exhibitions, 1991, 1992
Compass Gallery, Glasgow, 'New Generation' Exhibition, 1992
'Alive & Printing - 21 Years of Glasgow Print Studio', McLellan Galleries Glasgow, 1993.
'From the Edge - Photography in Printmaking', Glasgow Print Studio Three Member Show, Glasgow Print Studio, March, 1994
Smith Biennial, Smith Art Gallery, Stirling , 1994 (Convenor's Purchase Prize)
Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, July, 1995
Collective Images, Greenock Arts Centre, November, 1995
Collective Images, Rozelle House, Ayr, October, 1996
Drawing From The Life, University of Strathclyde, November, 1996
Beatrice Royal Contemporary Art Gallery, Hampshire, April/May, 1997.
Meridian Fine Art, Hay-on-Wye, August, 1997
Art in Nature, Wallsworth Hall, Gloucester, August 1998

Regular exhibitor with: The Society of Scottish Artists, The Royal Scottish Academy,The Royal Glasgow Institute, Scottish Artists and Artists Craftsmen,The Line Gallery, Linlithgow, Glasgow Print Studio, The Compass Gallery, Glasgow.

Solo Exhibitions:

The Buddhist Centre, Glasgow, October, 1993
The Green Gallery, Aberfoyle, November, 1993
Highland Printmakers, Inverness, May, 1996.
Glasgow Print Studio, Original Printshop, June, 1996
The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, April, 1997.

1995 onwards - collaborating artist with Artlink Central, Scotland. Project leader on several papermaking courses for various groups in venues such as Her Majesty's Prison, Cornton Vale, Stirling, Bellsdyke Psychiatric Hospital, Larbert, The Whins Resource Centre, Alloa and Westbank Day Hospital, Falkirk. Group leader for Artlink on '7 x 7', a Multimedia Exhibition at the Smith Art Gallery, Stirling, June, 1996.

Leader, 2 day papermaking course for North Lanarkshire Council, Millenium Forest, Scotland Project, 28/29th March.

Forthcoming projects:

Scottish Spirit, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, June-August, 1998 and thenceforth touring USA.
Works on Paper, Green Gallery, Aberfoyle, August '98 Project Leader, papermaking course for West Lothian Arts, April '98.
Artists exchange Scotland/Berlin, August/September '98
SSA exhibition & exchange Japan, 1999

Elected Professional Member of the Society of Scottish Artists, 1993
Elected Professional Member of the Scottish Artists and Artists Craftsmen, 1994
Member of Glasgow Print Studio since 1991.

My work is ecologically based and is essentially about conveying information about the relationship between people and the natural world. By focusing on something apparently ordinary like a leaf and by presenting it in a boxed and framed form within a gallery context, I hope that I can emphasise its importance. I work frequently with organic materials making my own hand-made plant papers, my raw materials coming from the plants, grasses and tree barks of the Scottish countryside. The colours and textures of the landscape are naturally inherent in the papers themselves, the choice of which is conceptually important, being site-specific. The resulting papers may then be formed, cast, printed or painted upon. The papermaking process itself is a metaphor for the endless cycle of birth, life, death and decay common to all nature.