Edaphic Plant Artist
TINA SCOPA
Working with the natural materials of the Scottish landscape
ScotLand Plant Art (SCOPA)
I believe the sensory experience of the land holds a deep wisdom and nourishment for us that we respond to on an energetic level.
Wild plants, meadows, and 'weeds' are what I am particularly drawn to, and the soil in which they grow. I want to bring these to prominence, to show the beauty of their forms and their pigments. Through experimentation with ways of printing, I encourage the plants to ‘draw’ themselves.
Underlying the beautiful plant ‘drawings’ are the questions of how we label the world around us and ourselves – what we deem worthy or unworthy, loved or despised, encouraged or dismissed. The plant prints are a metaphor for different aspects of ourselves.
MY WORKING PRACTICE
Working with plants that generate spontaneously without our intervention and the soil that supports them I have coined the term, Edaphic Plant Art.
Experimental printmaking, ceramics, and photography play a large part in the work I make and the final work is exhibited in a gallery setting. In my prints I consider that the plants have 'drawn' themselves. The simple techniques I have developed I call, The Pigment Print, The Graphite Print, and The Ink Print.
My recent academic dissertation, 'A Living Understanding of Nature' explores the space between contemporary art and the natural sciences to hone our senses and experiential understanding of our natural world, to see it as it is and to contemplate our place within that. It considers Goethe's intuitive scientific approach in his own plant studies and the work of Land/Earth/Environmental/Ecological artists who allow us a sensory experience of plant growth.
You can read it on the following link, http://artdotearth.org/tina-scopa/
See the following links for more details about my practice:
https://artplantaetoday.com/2018/03/14/can-contemporary-art-reconnect-society-to-the-natural-world/
Makdome
Dundee, 2018
An old Scottish word for 'form' that incorporates a sense of beauty and elegance and suggests the harmony that underpins natural life forms.
Plant Prints & Earth Paintings
March 2018
Exhibition at the An Tobar Gallery of Comar, Isle of Mull
Weeds
Dundee, Autumn 2016
Duncan of Jordanstone 3rd Year Fine Art studio practice
Soul, Spirit, Land
Dundee, Spring 2016
Duncan of Jordanstone 2nd Year Fine Art personal project
Duddingston Field Flowers
Edinburgh, Spring 2014
Leith School of Art General Foundation final project
Seafield site
Leith, Winter early 2014
Leith School of Art General Foundation personal project
WORKSHOPS, TALKS & SALES
Plant Printing Workshop
I run plant printing workshops for all ages and abilities which include a walk and site visit.
Materials are supplied.
Talks & Exhibitions
I am available to give talks on my work to community groups, businesses, schools, institutes, etc., for events and festivals.
My work is available for exhibition.
I can also undertake bespoke work if you have a suitable site and/or artists' residency opportunity.
