Sutherland native depicts county in collage exhibition

One of Ann Davidson's collages entitled "Blue Iceberg".

ANN Davidson is holding an exhibition of her renowned abstract collages at Lancaster University next month, which she hopes convey the beauty of her native county, Sutherland.

Entitled “North from Sutherland: Paintings-in-Sections of Sutherland, Iceland and Greenland” will be shown at the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University from May 9 until 3 June.

Ann was born in 1950 and grew up in Tongue and Helmsdale. She says: “Sutherland has a spirit of remoteness that was even greater in the post-war years. At that time all but one of its roads were single track.”

When Ann went to art school in London, she started to paint scenes from the area because she wanted to show everyone what it was like.

Now, her abstracted landscape paintings-in-sections are made using a form of collage which she has invented. When she composes an image, she juxtaposes pieces of coloured paper in various permutations. The method avoids the restriction caused by gluing pieces before the composing is complete and it ensures the completed composition is not lost when it is taken apart to be glued. A high degree of consideration of composition is enabled.

This exhibition represents almost ten years’ work. It is mainly the result of Davidson’s quest to Iceland and Greenland in search of what she calls “Sutherland, exaggerated”.

However, she feels it has a retrospective angle. Climate change has already removed some of the great icebergs of the high Arctic which form part of her body of work.