A Bit About The Aberdeen Artists Society

Amanda is a creative who started out as a watercolour painter, and whose work captured scenes of the coastal towns around Moray and Northern Scotland. During her Fine Art degree at Gray’s school of art, her practice evolved into dry media work that uses oil sticks, charcoal and chalk, with a flash of spray paint to create large, works that are both figurative and landscape based. Her work includes an ongoing portfolio project, ‘Art is cheap’ which aims to bring affordable art into the everyday and raise awareness of the production costs associated with the development and creation of artwork. To create instant access to art, she makes time lapse diaries of her production work and there are occasional releases of these demo’s and performances via TikTok @just4artsake. Amanda’s work is produced in her Aberdeen studio, Frauhaus, which she offers as an exhibition space to local and emerging artists. www.amandahirst.art

Amanda volunteered to take on the responsibility of being the administrator for the society as she felt she could give quality time to the role. Her professional background as a project planner, risk manager and cost controller is a skillset that is extremely useful in the duties of administrator. She’s the person who sends out the emails and passes on your queries to the dedicated project teams in the council. She’s also an active member of some of those project teams. Being on the project teams is an excellent opportunity to gain experience of designing and coordinating exhibitions and other events, and to build a network within the art scene in Scotland. AAS has members throughout Scotland, and beyond, so the interaction with like minded and talented folk is a real gift.

Bruce is an artist and jewellery maker based in Aberdeen. Following a career largely outside the world of art he began a full-time art practice in 2015 and completed a Master’s degree at Grays School of Art in 2018.

His creative practice centres on jewellery-making and it encompasses drawing, painting, printmaking, digital making techniques and walking. His work is project based with each topic informed by research gained from explorations on foot; experiments in the workshop and studio, and by delving into archives and museum vaults. European prehistory has been a major influence on his work – reinterpreting the traces our distant ancestors left behind.

Bruce has been a member of the AAS Council since 2015 and served as President from 2018 to 2020. He has been involved with exhibition planning, leading and participating in AAS Council teams to produce exhibitions in the Aberdeen Art Gallery, online, at Duff House, Haddo House and in commercial galleries in Aberdeen City and Shire including the recent COLOURS exhibition at Milton Gallery and Squaring Up at Gallery Heinzel.

Kathryn is a Scottish contemporary abstract artist who uses colour as a means of self-expression. Kathryn’s artistic vision is shaped by her fascination with the interplay between colour, shape, pattern, and texture. The influence of her early training as a designer is evident in her work.

After graduating with an Honours Degree in Graphic Design from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, she began her career in graphic design and scientific illustration. Following a subsequent career change into the field of International Trade, her true passion for painting finally led her to become a full time artist.

Kathryn has been a council member of the AAS for the past two years and is the main contact for Culture Aberdeen. She was also part of a team involved in organising the recent COLOURS exhibition at the Milton Art Gallery. Additionally, she is currently helping with the preparations for the AAS stand for the upcoming Aberdeen Art Fair.

Mel is the AAS Treasurer. She decided to join the AAS Council in August 2023 after hearing from a friend that they were a lovely bunch to work with. She is a painter and graduated from Grays School of Art in 2021. Mel loves hillwalking, a dip in cold wild waters, foraging and nature. She has recently trained as a volunteer councillor for Childline.

Having exhibited with the AAS and served quite a few years looking after their finances, Ann now focuses on the general work of the Council and several of their active projects.

Her fine art degree (Grays School of Art, 2008) specialised in printmaking, however her practice ranges through drawing, painting and digitally-based work. Ann’s fundamental inspiration comes from both individuals and the much wider collective human behaviour.

Rita is a visual artist living and working in Aberdeen. She joined the AAS in 2018 when she was studying at Gray’s School of Art. This is her second time as a co-opted member of the council.

Her work explores the geological heritage of Scottish landscapes. Rita’s projects are based on fieldwork and often consider environmental issues. She expresses her ideas by using experimental methods and materials that allow her to mimic the morphological processes in the landscape. She is particularly drawn to monoprint collage and copper oxidisation.

Doug graduated with a Dip A.D. in Drawing and Painting from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Dundee in 1977. Following this he has worked in a variety of jobs latterly as a civil servant continuing to paint and create images whenever possible and exhibiting in group shows including Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual at the Mall Galleries and the London evening Standard London artists at the Southbank. Since moving to Banff in 2019 his work has focused on the natural recycling of matter using compositions created by natures wind and tides which he converts digitally to images to be printed as Giclee or physically reworked in paint on canvas.

He joined AAS in 2021 and became with the AAS Council participating with teams to review the constitution and produce exhibitions taking over the role of membership administrator in 2023.