Small Worlds and Curious Journeys – Louise Scott

An artist’s take on Victorian zoologists, their textbook illustrations, love of microscopy and their curious journeys to kill and collect from the natural world.

The exhibition is loosely based around my fascination with Victorian zoologists, their textbook illustrations ( often etchings or engravings from drawings done by them selves) Their fascination with killing, catalogueing, collating, pinning, dissecting and putting under glass everything they could from the natural world around them which contrasted starkly with a simultaneously very romantic view of the same world.

Alongside these works are etchings and collaged pieces based around marine travel. The ‘curious journeys’ are however more about the period of time and the way in which all these pieces were created. The making of the artwork was a curious journey and the needle point mark making became a means of staying sane during a dark time.

Louise has been a printmaker first and foremost since graduating with a BA Hons in Printmaking in 1980s. Along with an interest in conservation and the natural world she developed her own unique style of creating copper plate etchings with a fine needle point. Following on from an artist residency at Inverewe Gardens in 2020 (which was cut short by Covid) her work moved away from almost pure illustration to more abstract themes still based very much on the 16th century methods of producing copper plate etchings. A second residency in 2023 saw her work take on a number of more defined abstract themes.