Returning - Shifting seasons on the Solway’s edge
Returning is an exhibition of work by two artists resident in Dumfries & Galloway who each draw inspiration from the landscape and local natural environment, including the migratory birds who return every winter. Louisa Ruthven and Rosie Dobson, friends and near neighbours in Bladnoch Galloway, have worked in collaboration for this exhibition, responding to the habitat and particular geography of Caerlaverock and the Solway Coast.
Over the last ten years, Rosie has been developing work focused primarily on birds, sharing her enduring love for them through studies in print. Having twice taken part in the regional showcase for art and design, Spring Fling Open Studios, Rosie has become known for her beautifully observed and detailed work depicting birds and other native wildlife. Since 2023, Rosie has been engaging with mentors and courses to develop her practice to include paint and pastel, and more expressive techniques giving more recent work a new freedom and vitality. Exhibition pieces include monoprints, watercolour sketches, pastel landscapes, and fine dry-point etchings of birds. Several pieces have been created specifically for the Returning exhibition and are the result of field trips and research in which Rosie immersed herself in the atmosphere and cyclical stories unfolding at the reserve across the seasons.
Louisa is an artist working in textile and stitch. She is deeply committed to the land and the duality of its permanence and fragility, striving in her work to reflect both that delicacy and strength. She is inspired by the 'melancholy transience' of nature and the ancient memories held within the land. Her work has been seen in various UK exhibitions, and she has sold both nationally and internationally. Walking daily along the edges of the salt marshes by her home forms an intrinsic part of Louisa’s creative practice, with her observations and responses to the ebb and flow of the seasons feeding and informing her work. Recent pieces focus on the beauty of oyster and mussel shells, and for the ‘Returning’ exhibition Louisa has created new work inspired by the bird migration of the Solway, imagining this extraordinary journey from the viewpoint of the geese.
Rosie Dobson:
Louisa Ruthven:
