About
Aimee’s practice is grounded in observational drawing as a means of orientation and immersion.
Working in the landscape enables a richer engagement with open space as experienced in places of wilderness, where there is still some sense of deep time. Leading on from this and influenced by Chinese painting, Aimee is interested in moving focus and expanded space in picture making, allowing the eye and the imagination to wander through, evoking how we experience landscape.
Investigating the drawn image as a mysterious kind of portal, she uses tone and spatial effects of colour to heighten illusionary depth. Using a range of materials, Aimee allows a tactile sensitivity between media and paper surface to inform explorations of ambiguous surfaces and forms, inspired by subjects including rock, lichen, plastic and decay. Drawn marks layer time into works like strata, emulating nature’s processes, and our entangled relationship with the environment.
Aimee is also influenced by texts about photography, memory, and the duality of images. Through drawing, she seeks ways of opening-up, fragmenting and reimagining both her own and found photographs, subverting the instant consumption of our image-saturated world.
BIOGRAPHY
Aimee lives and works in Shetland, Scotland. Born in Lincolnshire, Aimee studied Fine Art at Falmouth University, graduating in 2015. Following a residency at Sumburgh Head Lighthouse, she re-located to Bressay, an island on the east side of Shetland. Since 2016, Aimee has been working on drawing projects from her island studio. Visual Arts and Crafts Awards from Creative Scotland in 2018 and 2020 have allowed for further experimentation. In 2020, Aimee was awarded a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company to study World War II ruins in Orkney. Alongside her practice, Aimee shares her drawing experience in workshops locally. A Look Again Create Networks Grant allowed her to develop online drawing activities, and in 2021, Aimee received a Big Draw Guest Panellists Choice Award for her drawing prompts series, published on social media.
Aimee’s work has been exhibited in the UK and Switzerland. In 2020, she was selected for Wells Art Contemporary and the following year for Figurative Art Now. She has been commissioned by Shetland Museum and Archives to create drawings of collection pieces, and her work also features in their collection.
In 2023, Aimee studied with the Royal Drawing School on their year-long online programme. This was part of a period of drawing development and research, supported by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals.
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EDUCATION
2023 Online Drawing Development Year with The Royal Drawing School
2021 Creative Entrepreneurship Short Course | Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
2012-2015 BA Fine Art (First Class Honours) | Falmouth University, Cornwall
Dissertation Title: ’A Handful of Dust: An exploration of today’s artists’ use of the sublime in response to contemporary ruination’
2011 UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (Distinction) | Lincoln College, Lincolnshire
2011 UAL Certificate in Drawing, Lincoln College
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Drawing Beyond, Breaker’s Gallery, RDS Notting Dale Campus, North Kensington, London
2023 Part of ‘Knit and Knot’ with Eve Eunson and Marie Bruhat, Shetland Wool Week, The Bop Shop, Lerwick
2022 The Art of Dressing, Da Briggiestanes, Shetland Museum, Hay’s Dock
Working with Wool, Speldiburn Cafe, Bressay, Shetland
Casting On Shetland Wool Week, Da Gadderie, Shetland Museum, Hay’s Dock, Lerwick
Wild Land, part of Art Walk Porty Festival, two sisters Gift Shop, Portobello Rd, Edinburgh
Creative Entrepeneurship Showcase. Look Again Project Space, 32 St Andrew Street
2021 Hidden Flowers Bloom Most Beautifully, Kafi 55, Dorfstr 22, 9055 Bühler, Switzerland
Figurative Art Now, Online Exhibition
2020 Wells Art Contemporary, Online Exhibition
International Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2019 Plastiglomerate, Feature Space, Mareel, Lerwick, November
Bressay Artists Exhibition, Speldiburn Cafe, Bressay, Shetland
International Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2018 Materials and Methods, Speldiburn Cafe, Bressay, Shetland
2017 Home and Away, Da Gadderie, Shetland Museum
Studies at a Mill, Speldiburn Cafe, Bressay, Shetland
Traces, Bonhoga Gallery, Weisdale, Shetland
International Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2016 'Black & White', The Shetland Open 2016, Bonhoga Gallery
War Ruins of Shetland, Shetland Museum, Hay’s Dock, Lerwick
International Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2015 Rising Stars, Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth
Best of the South West, Pound Arts, Wiltshire
Falmouth Fine Art Showcase, Embassy Tea Gallery, London
- Selected by Sacha Craddock and curated by Jesse Leroy Smith.
Falmouth Fine Art Degree Show, Falmouth
Studio Works, Hair Today, Falmouth
2014 1+2=2, The Poly, Falmouth
Inside Out, Part of the Confluence Art Programme, Penryn Campus, Penryn
Memento Mori - Remember That You Are Mortal, Falmouth Art Gallery
- Part of the MOTH research project, Falmouth University
Sketch House 8th Night, Penryn
Slide/Show, The Poly, Falmouth
2013 Definition, Wellington Terrace, Falmouth
The BAMS Student Medal Project , The Goldsmiths Centre, London
2011 CfBT Education Trust Exhibition, Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln
COMMISSIONS
2023 Illustration for ‘Love in Human Herts: Selected Poems of Vagaland’ published by Shetland Amenity Trust
2023 Illustrations for a new knitwear collection by Fair Isle With Marie
2022 Illustrations of Shetland dressing boards for the Shetland Wool Week Annual 2022, commissioned by Shetland Museum and Archives.
RESIDENCIES
Artist-in-Residence, Sumburgh Head Lighthouse, Shetland, Scotland, 2nd – 29th August, 2015
COLLECTIONS
Shetland Museum and Archives Collection
MEMBERSHIPS
a-n Network
TALKS
2020 Guest Lecture, for Shetland College UHI, 26th October, Online.
2018 Motherhood, Loss and The First World War, Bressay Heritage Centre, 22nd November
An evening remembering Shetland women and mothers from the First World War. Part of a centenary commemoration project led by Big Ideas and funded by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), with a National Lottery grant from Big Lottery Fund to work in Home Nations. www.big-ideas.org
2015 Artist Talk and Open Studio, 23rd August, Sumburgh Head Lighthouse, Shetland. Part of Sumburgh Head Lighthouse Residency.
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2024 Visual Art & Craft Maker Award
Shetland Arts in partnership with Creative Scotland and Shetland Islands Council
2023 Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals
To support a year of drawing development and research
2021 Guest Panellists Choice, Big Draw 2020-1 Festival
For ‘Elements’, a series of online drawing activities
2021 Look Again Create Networks Grant
To support creative networking activity in the Shetland, Orkney and Aberdeenshire area
2020 Visual Art & Craft Maker Award
Shetland Arts in partnership with Creative Scotland and Shetland Islands Council
2020 Artist Bursary. a-n The Artists Information Company.
Award for research trip to Orkney, WWII-ruins in Scotland's Northern Isles project.
2018 Visual Art and Craft Maker Award
Shetland Arts in partnership with Creative Scotland and Shetland Islands Council
2016 Prizewinner, The Shetland Open 2016, Bonhoga Gallery
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Please visit the Aert Workshops page to see my workshops.
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2021 Symbionts, contribution to Hidden Flowers Bloom Most Beautifully, exhibition publication.
2019 The Artists Write: Plastiglomerates. Art North Magazine. Issue 4, Winter
2017 Studies at a Mill’. Accompanying text for exhibition at Speldiburn Café.
2015 ‘Ruins of War’. Accompanying essay for Sumburgh Head Lighthouse Residency.
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2020 ‘Artist’s work goes on show at historic Wells Cathedral’, The Shetland Times, 2nd Oct.
Riddel N. ‘Aimee Selected for Contemporary Art Exhibition’. Shetnews.co.uk.
2019 Davenport, C. ‘Hidden Landscapes’. Shetland Life. Issue 470. December.
2017 Hamilton, A. ‘Artists and Makers Show Superb Work’. Shetland.org 60°North Blog.
Mackenzie, J. ‘Lasting treasure at Home and Away’. Shetnews.co.uk. 27th Nov.
Gordon, S. ‘Intricate works draw on weaving industry’. The Shetland Times, 6th Oct.
Davis, P. ‘Open winners come together at Bonhoga’. The Shetland Times, 5th May
2016 Davis, P. ‘Local artists find plentiful ways to interpret monochrome theme’. Shetland Times
Hamilton, A. ‘Local artists express in Black and White’. Shetland.org 60°North Blog.
2015 Gordon, S. ‘Wartime bunkers stir the emotions for Labourne’. Shetland Times, 14th Aug.
