I was thrilled to be invited to take part in Paisley’s Big Art Show as a ‘featured artist’. This was triggered by the work I’d done during the Lab/Exhibition residency for Creative Stranraer’s first birthday in the Spring. I was invited to take a similar approach to Paisley. This led me to foraging from the natural environment - scouring trees for leaves, berries, bark, moss - to make pigments and inks unique to Paisley.

Once again, the natural environment came up trumps. Poppies, sycamore keys’, lacy docket leaves, iron scraps found around the banks of the White Cart River … all played their part to generate the inks, pigments, paper and natural materials I generated work from. I grabbed just under 100 people and took their thumbprint in the street to make the central feature - a different take on Paisley patterns.

Paisley’s Big Art Show is an annual phenomenon. Thousands of people submit work for consideration. Hundreds of works are hung over a couple of floors of the exhibition space - an old department store. There were 14 categories of prizes and a wide range of delighted artists were applauded by the enthusiastic guests at the private view. I was beyond thrilled to be awarded the overall prize - Best in Show.