A painting inspired by a trip of a lifetime to Patagonia in South America has helped a Perth artist win a prestigious residency award.
Liz Myhill has been named as one of the winners of the Dumfries House Residency Award in 139th Open Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW), currently on at the RSA Building in Edinburgh.
Liz’s striking painting, Lagoon’, which shows icebergs floating in a glacial lagoon in the High Andes, caught the eye of the judges.
Her prize is to spend a week on a painting residency at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
Liz said: “I spent four months travelling around South America last winter. We did a lot of trekking in the Andes. This lagoon was right on the border of Chile and Argentina.
“It’s a really desolate, stripped back landscape. There was a sense of the landscape still being shaped by glaciers and extreme weather.
“You could hear the sounds of little fragments of ice clunking as the icebergs melted, it was incredible.
“And it was absolutely freezing. Even in a thermal sleeping bag, with a full set of thermals and a down jacket, I was freezing.
“But it was a wonderful place.”
Liz says she is “excited” about the residency at Dumfries House, which was saved for the nation in 2007 by a consortium headed by the Prince of Wales, and is now a visitor attraction.
It has a focus on supporting the arts and traditional skills.
Liz continued: “Spending time in different places leads my work in different directions.
“I like to make sketches and get immersed in a place.
“Coming to understand a new place makes me re-evaluate what I’m doing and find new solutions to problems.”
Liz studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee and now lives in Stanley.
She has a studio in the new Creative Exchange building in Perth, a joint project of Perth Council and artist organisations WASPS.
The RSW 139th Annual Open Exhibition at the RSA Building runs until January 30 and features 234 paintings by over 100 artists chosen by the RSW’s selection panel.
Liz is not the only Perthshire artist to shine in the exhibition.
Jean Hill from Murthly was named as the winner of the £250 Turcan Connell Award for her painting ‘Winter Fog in the Den’.
