Category: Blog

Permission to Draw taster session coming soon

  • Post date January 11, 2025

Permission to Draw taster session image

Permission to Draw 2025

I’ve always told people that drawing is a teachable skill, because I was lucky enough to have some great teachers throughout my career. It’s true – anyone with an interest can learn to draw what they see, I’ve seen proof of that with my own students.

So in 2021 I developed my online observational drawing course to share those skills and pass on the pleasure of drawing.

You can join my 2025 course now – it’s starting soon…

How this drawing course works

Permission to Draw consists of 10 classes in 2 x 5 week Blocks, giving you a full ‘toolbox’ for observational drawing.

Classes will run via Zoom on a Tuesday evening 7.30 – 9.00pm GMT, beginning in February 2025.

Block 1 Perception – starts 4th February

  • The cognitive shift, seeing vs knowing, negative space, relationships and mark making.

Block 2 Representation – starts 11th March

  • Measuring, line into form, tone, visual gym and bringing all the tools together

Free Taster session

I’m offering an introductory session on Tuesday 21st January 7.30 – 8.30pm GMT in my virtual studio, where I’ll show you how the course is structured and answer your questions about participating. Get in touch to get the link and I’ll see you there!

Get the link

Artist Tansy Lee Moir drawing quote

Categories Blog, Teaching

share:

‘Shadow Dance’ at the Royal Scottish Academy

  • Post date December 19, 2024

society of scottish artists exhibitionInstallation views of my drawing ‘Shadow Dance’ in the 126th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Scottish Artists, at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh,  23rd November – Wednesday 11th December 2024.

gallery wall with charcoal drawing

This drawing is one of my latest body of work ‘Ghosts‘, which seek to capture some of the parallels between the tree and human figure.

Thank you to the SSA Council and volunteers for all their hard work in mounting this excellent show.

shadow dance on the gallery wall
‘Shadow Dance’ Charcoal on canvas

See my exhibitions page for upcoming shows.

art gallery view in Edinburgh

Categories Blog, Exhibitions

share:

Six spectacular trees

  • Post date December 11, 2024

Discoveries on a north-east tree hunting trip

a midwinter tree
The Greek god

I found myself standing on a chilly field edge in rural Aberdeenshire, shocked into stillness by the sheer beauty of this twisting old beech tree. It appeared to be dancing, with a torso reminiscent of a marble statue, stretching its limbs away from the wind and towards the glimmer of mid-winter sun. I fell in love right there.

Photo of a fallen tree
Sleeping dragon

Intrigued by the ruins of a small cottage amongst a shelter belt on a high ridge, I climbed the hill and discovered this horizontal tree wriggling its way across the slope. I nicknamed it ‘sleeping dragon’ and took photos from every angle. I think it could have been a willow but it’s hard to tell without its leaves, perhaps I’ll find it again when it wakes in spring.

Photo of a tree with a drawing in a sketchbook
The King of Haddo

The easiest find of the whole trip was waiting for me in the grounds of a country park, standing magestically behind its protective fencing. Small birds flitted between the low lying branches, clearly loving the opportunities that accumulated dead wood affords. I usually think of beeches as being feminine, but this tree seemed like the king of the parkland.

Photo of a tree with a drawing on an easel
The levitating ash

After a frosty walk through dense blocks of forestry on the banks of the Ythan river, the path broadened and brightened as it emerged into an ancient  landscape. Several people had told me I should visit this site, but the ruins of Gight Castle itself were not the memorable thing for me – instead it was the way that this ancient ash defied gravity, hovering above the pasture. The trunk combined living and non-living wood in a fascinating demonstration of the way trees adapt their forms as they age.

Photo of a tree with a drawing on an easel
The looping tree

Walking through the small hilltop wood to this tree felt a little like a pilgrimage, since I’d visited it last winter and had a brief below-zero drawing session with it then. This year, being a luxurious 2 degrees above freezing, I managed to make 4 more substantial studies of this bizzarely balanced beech before my feet went numb. I have to get back to it on a warmer day…

Photo of an ancient ash tree
The sculpted ash

Though I couldn’t possibly have a single favourite, I’ve saved the most spectacular tree from this trip till last. An ancient remnant of a parkland or wood pasture landscape, this ash was valiantly clinging on to life despite being a fragment of its former self and being surrounded by dead ashes, killed by Chalara (ash die back).

a close up image of an ancient tree surface
The surface of the sculpted ash

Its surface seemed to me to be like its own unique universe, with infinitely complex formations, ripples, whorls, nibbled edges and bored out holes. Sculpted by time, weather, humans and other animals, this single tree could be a lifeltime’s work for an artist like me. Where to start?

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Blog, Trees

share:

Live on BBC Scotland’s Out of Doors

  • Post date December 9, 2024

BBC Scotland Out of Doors programme Thick Trunk TuesdayI had the pleasure of talking about trees and art on live radio this weekend.

BBC Scotland’s Out of Doors programme invited me to chat to presenters Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart about the hashtag #thicktrunktuesday which I’ve been posting with for four years now, sharing some of the 1000s of tree photos I’ve gathered.

You can listen to the interview on iPlayer here, about 51mins into the programme (available in the UK only).

 

Mentioned in the interview:

#thicktrunktuesday

Ancient Tree Inventory

Society of Scottish Artists exhibition

Art and Nature Collective

a large beech tree trunk
A beech tree worthy of #thicktrunktuesday in Haddo Country Park, Aberdeenshire.
Categories Blog, Press

share:

Way-Markers ArtMovesFife

  • Post date November 28, 2024

New experiments in charcoal printmaking

You can see my series of experimental charcoal prints – ‘A to B, a coastal journey’ in the ArtMovesFife ‘Way-Markers’ exhibition this weekend at The Boilerhouse, St Andrews Botanic Garden, St Andrews. 10am -4pm Friday 29th Nov – Sunday 1st Dec.

charcoal drawing
‘Trainspotting seals’, charcoal and acrylic on paper, 30 x 42cm

I used the charcoal transfer technique I’ve been developing to layer, change and extend my markmaking for these works. It was a good opportunity to try out the methods I’ve been teaching on my recent Charcoal Printmaking with the Gelli Plate workshops.

charcoal drawing of sounds heard on the beach
‘Birdsong and motorbikes’, charcoal and acrylic on paper, 30 x 42cm

Along our journey by train and foot from Aberdour to Burntisland, we stopped to listen intently to the sounds of the shore, making sketches as we walked. These new drawings have elements of those sketches embedded in them.

charcoal drawing
‘Lions of the mind’, charcoal and acrylic on paper, 30 x 42cm

Landmarks large and small puntuated our route along the coastal and I’ve included some abstracted references in these works which hint at them.

charcoal drawing
‘Conversations on the coastal path’, charcoal and acrylic on paper, 30 x 42cm

The four drawings in sequence form a journey remembered in charcoal. I’m delighted they are joining the other artist’s work for the event and a huge thanks to Kate Downie and Gillian McFarland for their inspirational artistic leadership.

Full details

Poster for WayMarkers exhibition ArtMovesFife

 

Categories Blog

share:

SSA 126th ANNUAL EXHIBITION

  • Post date November 18, 2024

Shadow dance, a charcoal drawing by Tansy Lee Moir

 
‘Shadow Dance’, one of my ‘Ghosts’ series, has been selected for the Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh this autumn.

The SSA Annual Exhibition is one of the largest contemporary art exhibitions in Scotland. It is produced and supported entirely by artists with no public funding, bringing international and local artists together, enriching the creative culture of Scotland and providing a platform for diverse perspectives.

My large charcoal drawing will be exhibited alongside artworks including painting, sculpture, installations, video and performance selected from the open call, which attracted almost 2000 submissions.

Details

Open Saturday 23rd November – Wednesday 11th December
Monday – Sunday 10am – 5pm
Upper Galleries, The Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL
Entry: £6 | £4 Concessions
Free entry for under 16’s and SSA Members
Free Entry for all on Mondays

Categories Blog

share:

Autumn Treasures at Dundee Botanic Gardens

  • Post date November 16, 2024
charcoal drawing of birch tree branches
Brangle

Birches at the Botanics

Two of my ‘Birken’ drawings will be showing soon at Dundee Botanic Garden’s Green Gallery, in the latest Art & Nature Collective show.

‘Autumn Treasures’ features works created by 22 members of the Collective. Each artist contributes their own voice and style to this unique collection of works inspired by the brief of creating small-scale works (20×20 cm) inspired by objects or scenes from autumnal walks.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 23rd November until 15th December, 11am-3pm daily and I will be invigilating on Friday 13th December.

a charcoal drawing of a birch tree and its branches
Raivel

See more from the ‘Birken’ series

More about the Art & Nature Collective

More about Dundee Botanic Gardens

Categories Blog

share:

‘Ghosts’ on show at Kilmorack Gallery

  • Post date May 21, 2024
a charcoal drawing with a figure or tree
Apparition, charcoal on canvas, 80 x 50cm

Exhibition news

My next exhibition, ‘Ghosts’ opens soon at the Kilmorack Gallery, near Beauly, Inverness-shire. This beautiful gallery in a converted church is the perfect setting for a gathering of eleven new charcoal works.

‘Ghosts’ features dynamic, sculptural drawings inspired by the figure and the tree, reflecting my fascination with the human/arboreal relationship. They capture the way light catches a tree’s trunk to reveal the intricacies of its scarred surface in relief. Subtle layered marks and shifts of tone suggest corporeal forms emerging from the velvety blackness of charcoal.

The exhibition runs from 1st June – 5th July 2024

Full details here

a studio shot including charcoal drawing tools and a drawing in progress by Tansy Lee Moir

Categories Blog, Exhibitions

share:

Transforming

  • Post date January 19, 2024

Making a film poem

This time last year, I talked to my pal and collaborator Steve Smart about making another film together. Over the last couple of years we’ve worked on ‘Foraging’ about the way I find the trees which inspire my work and ‘Connecting’, which show how I get to know their individual characters through drawing. He created two beautiful short films which you can see here.

Tansy Lee Moir drawing at Marchmont residency

Steve’s new vision was to capture elements of my work as a film poem,

Read more » “Transforming”
Categories Blog, News

share: