Calman Creige

Duais Dìleab Chaluim Chille / COLMCILLE LEGACY AWARD

Catriona Patience

Catriona is an early career artist based in Edinburgh, who uses watercolour, photography and natural materials to create evocative art which reflects a sense of place and the changing seasons. She has a sharp eye for characteristic and telling detail, and a playful style which draws on nature, poetry and folklore to create eye-catching and beautiful work. She creates designs, art and craft which celebrate the details of our connections to the natural world. In particular she is drawn to birds and their island habitats, and this is a theme which recurs throughout her art. She has exhibited at the local Art in Granton exhibition, painted a series of watercolour birds to fundraise for the charity Trees for Life, had memoir and photography published in literary journals and newspapers, created logos and designs for local businesses, and is the owner and creator of the craft business Patience Creations.

In her Colmcille artwork, Catriona uses three distinct elements associated with the life and legacy of Colmcille: watercolour birds, Gaelic archival recordings and film footage shot on islands with historical links to Colmcille. The first aspect involved painting birds from the genus 'Columba', such as doves and pigeons. She combined these images with footage shot on the islands of Inchcolm and Rathlin. The accompanying film brings together these paintings and film footage with an original soundtrack created for the project by composer Carla Sayer, and features an archival recording of Annie Johnston reciting ‘Cànan nan Eun’ (The Language of Birds).