Margaret Fay Shaw

Acrylic on Canvas

“I spent the summers of 2013 and 2014 living and working on the island of Canna, a very small Hebridean island with a population of around twenty people. One week in 2013 there was a storm, I couldn’t study the orchids, and my tiny old caravan was being battered by the rain. I was invited to seek shelter in Canna House by the archivist, Madga …. There I fell in love with Margaret Fay Shaw, hearing Madga’s stories of this incredible woman, her sharp wit, incredible musical talent, her photography and her delight in people and culture. Reading all her diaries, I felt like I got to know her really well even though I never met her. I watched her film obsessively, with her chain smoking in her 90s, sharp as anything. So intelligent so interesting and so interested. An incredible woman and cultural archivist. I wanted to paint her. This experience made me realise that I could engage with this process…

In January 2025 I was painting at home. My caring situation had changed during lockdown, and I wasn’t able to do felting due to the (intensive) processes. I realised with painting that you could go in with two minutes and no more spare time. You can put some paint on the picture and walk away and not think about it and then add more later. I started playing with paint and colour. I went to a workshop at Musselburgh Art Club, thinking I’d paint some horses at the racecourse, and then when I got there I was just so so fascinated by the people.  I ended up drawing and painting the people and I had this outer body experience where all my posture changes and my face changes its kind of like I embody the person and it was a really strange feeling, and I got a buzz from it and wanted to do more. 

I wanted to do portraits celebrating a community that I’ve come to love and celebrating the stories that I think are much more interesting. For me, painting portraits has been a really important way of connecting to people and having conversations as I can find it really difficult to talk to people. I find it hard to ask people questions about themselves and having this framework of ‘I’m painting you’, “it’s about you’, as I sort of get worried that when I’m interviewing, I’m being nosey. In the past I have always looked at people’s hands- in the same way that another person might look at their face to read their emotions or tell things about them. People’s hands are so different, everyone’s hands are completely unique in the way they hold them, the way they move, the way the different joints bend… Whereas this has really allowed me to really really connect with people’s life stories in a way that another conversation would feel a bit uncomfortable. Being part of this community is part of my identity and it has changed who I am in lots of ways, in really good ways and it has taught me a huge amount about community and myself.”

Niamh Britton