Paintings from The Glenburn Series by Lorna Sinclair

I love to study the depths of an artwork. Its history. The personality of the creator. The layer upon layer of talent and message. But what I love most, is for an explosion of colour and form to take me by the heart to a magical other place. And so it is with the paintings of Lorna Sinclair whose tiny, light-filled studio I first visited in May 2023.

Glowing in Glasgow

I’d heard about Lorna. I knew she had studied with the brilliant Derrek Guild whose botanical paintings I greatly admire. I knew she had won a range of awards since graduating in fine art. But I wasn’t ready for was the sheer enormity of her talent. It simply can’t help but shine out of her. She is kind, gentle, chatty. And her paintings are a riot of joy and love for nature.

A Jewel of a Studio

The sun was shining when I took the opportunity to visit her studio. It was as if I had stepped into a jewel box. There was visual treasure everywhere – in the way she used and kept her paints, her collages of inspiration, her studies and then her canvases. Her space burst with colour and the sway and swing of plants captured in paint. There it was - layer upon layer of talent calling from floor and walls and every shelf.

Glenburn

There is a 200-year-old walled garden in the Scottish Borders I knew Lorna would want to soak up. My husband Robert and I have renewed and tended it for the last eight years. It is our heaven-on-earth and being its custodians is an honour, which is why we share it with people who love plants or need space to heal. And so I invited Lorna to become Glenburn’s first Artist In Residence.

From Studies to a Series

Lorna met the garden in early summer just as the plants were beginning to party and wave for attention. She stepped into the gathering, merged with it and almost immediately began to paint. Free-flowing, beautiful studies were born from Lorna and her paint. Quickly she captured the garden’s mood and personality – forces of nature and talent combined. I felt proud to have acted as matchmaker and was excited to see where the collaboration would lead.

Now, in the spring of 2024, Lorna has shared the result. A series of stunning paintings, each large and vibrant, has been born. Plants and stems are playful in their party frocks and ready to take a cocktail of creative magic to spaces beyond Lorna’s studio. Like a proud parent, I look forward to hearing how they fly.

To purchase a painting from the Glenburn Series, contact Lorna Sinclair.
Lorna has pledged a percentage of each purchase to The Super Power Agency. The charity works to improve literacy levels by inspiring and enabling young people in Scotland to write their own stories.

With thanks to Murray Headrick for Lorna’s in-studio shots.