KATIE FOWLIE

C.V. / Contact

I am an independent art specialist with a strong interest in education, a commitment to the natural environment and a keenly developed ability to foster creativity in others.

I strive to make visible the generation and germination of ideas, moving away from the notion that the artists’ studio need only be a closed-off or solitary space. I want to underline the freedoms of art in a playful, energetic way - accessible for all – a change from often controlled gallery settings.

Plants have played a significant role in my work for many years; both in terms of Floriography, the hidden language of plants, alongside their many physical alternative applications.

I support a holistic way of learning, engaging with wider audiences, cultivating a deeper sense of place and have a leaning towards co-creating with communities.

I enjoy exploring the photosensitive properties of plants and seaweed. I use Kelp as a medium to illustrate its role in our socioeconomic history, how it’s shaped our landscape, and how it could mitigate our perilous future. My current interest lies in applying my knowledge of the Anthotype and Chlorophyll photography processes in ways that support this narrative.

If you would like to contact me to discuss a potential project, please email me at: kefowlie@gmail.com

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT & Co-creation PROJECTS

PROCESS : REMEMBERING TOGETHER FIFE | Appointed role of Lead Artist for ‘Fife’ as part of a Scotland-wide project funded by the Scottish Government, co-creating memorials with communities in each Local Authority in response to the Covid Pandemic. Appointed by Greenspace Scotland and supported by Fife Contemporary, OnFife and Fife Coast & Countryside Trust (Fife, August 2022 - November 2024)

NATURE WORKSHOPS | Devising and facilitating a series of outdoor community art workshops along the River Leven, exploring landscape through the creation of a cyanotype ‘hive’ book and making botanical inks. Commissioned by the Green Action Trust (Fife, July & August 2024)

CYANOTYPE WORKSHOPS | Devising and facilitating a series of outdoor public art workshops along the River Leven, exploring landscape through the cyanotype process. Commissioned by the Green Action Trust (Fife, July & August 2023)

BOTANICAL INKS | Creative outdoor workshop exploring mark making with botanical inks, created from locally foraged plants. Autumn Festival, Silverburn Park (October 2022)

DANDELION: UNEXPECTED GARDEN | Devising and facilitating 15 public art workshops for all ages to encourage creative engagement using foraged, natural and home-grown materials. Exploring co-created collaborative photographic applications, botanical inks and natural pigments, ‘green’ photography, cyanotypes, bookbinding, printmaking, dandelion cordage, ’sewing’ gardens and mosaics (Fife, July - Sept 2022)

INTO THE OCEANIC | Lead artist, public engagement project, supporting a commissioned documentary and public art installation by artist Elizabeth Ogilvie and Rob Page for COP-26, devising and facilitating a programme of public engagement projects along Fife’s rugged coastline. Coastal art project exploring sustainable ‘green’ photography techniques and alternative camera-less photography with secondary school students across Fife. Into the Oceanic is part of a larger Global project Ogilvie & Page are involved in called We Are Ocean, overseen by ARTPORT_makingwaves (Aug - Oct 2021)

FOREST BATHING | Several bespoke therapeutic artworks within East Lothian Community Hospital exploring the landscapes of East Lothian, aimed to soften the clinical environment and steep the new hospital in creativity to support a patient-centred approach to care. A site-specific body of work was created exploring and combining alternative photography techniques, the hidden language of plants (Floriography) and photograms using foraged plants from East Lothian’s landscape. Commissioned for Mental health inpatient ward & also public circulation areas, (2019)

BY LEAVES WE LIVE | Lead artist, devising and facilitating a programme of public engagement projects with around 100 primary school pupils in response to the public art installation, MEANDER, by Elizabeth Ogilvie and Rob Page. This resulted in currating an exhibtion at the Civic Hall in Perth’s City Centre, Perth (2019)

TIDEMARKS | Workshop exploring mark-making and creating natural pigments and brushes using sustainable, plant-based materials foraged along the area of coastline where Robert Callender lived. City Art Centre, Festival of Museums, Robert Callender Exhibition, Edinburgh (2018)

LEAD ARTIST | Merchant City Festival, ‘Year of Architecture, Design & Innovation’: devising & facilitating a week of public engagement workshops, approximately 2000 participants, Glasgow (2016) 

WORKING THE BORDER | Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington (2015)

LEAD ARTIST | Merchant City Festival, ‘Year of Green’: devising & facilitating a week of public engagement workshops, approximately 2000 participants, Glasgow (2015)

GENERATION | Camera Obscura Workshops, commissioned for GENERATION: 25 Yrs of Contemporary Art, GoMA & Tramway, Glasgow (2014)

WIND MAPPING | Public engagement project for artist Elizabeth Ogilvie’s OUT OF ICE exhibition, Ambika P3 Gallery, London (2014)

APOTHOCARY | Halloween Inspired Workshop, Tramway, Glasgow (2014)

LEAD ARTIST | Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, ‘The Big Draw’: devising & facilitating public engagement workshops for the duration of The Games with approximately 20,000 participants, Glasgow Green (2014)

WIND DRAWING | Devising & facilitating an open-air public engagement workshop for Cupar Arts Festival, Fife (2013)

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR | Various public engagement projects, Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington (2007 - 2014)

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR | Public engagement projects across East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council Kilmarnock (2005 - 2007)

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR | Public engagement projects, specifically working with marginalised teenagers out-with formal education, Dick Institute, Kilmarnock (2005 - 2007)

RESIDENCIES & EDUCATION

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE | Warp & Weft - Artist in Residence at StAnza Poetry Festival, St Andrews, Fife (2024)

GROW YOUR MIND | Creative outdoor engagement to help support a group of veterans reach their full positive mental wellbeing and encourage personal growth on behalf of FEAT (September 2022)

HEAD OUTDOORS | Engagement with supported secondary school pupils in the outdoor setting of Silverburn Park in Fife, on behalf of FEAT, Fife Employment Access Trust (Aug 2022 - )

FOCUS | Alternative photography project with students at Fife College, online workshop due to Covid-19 Restrictions (2021)

DRAWING MACHINES | Art workshop, Lundin Mill Primary School, Fife (2019)

TIME TO SCALE BACK | Blueprint Photography Workshop responding to coastal pollution, Lundin Mill Primary School, Fife (2018)

LANDMARK | Art project responding to the coast, Parkhill Primary School, Fife (2013)

GREEN GRAFFITI | Viewforth Nursery, Fife (2013)

VISITING RESIDENT ARTIST | Pinhole Enterprise Project, Parkhill Primary School, Fife (2012)

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE & ART TUTOR | Senior School, Edinburgh Academy, Edinburgh (2006 - 2007)

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE & A-LEVEL ART TUTOR | Senior School, Repton School, Derbyshire (2003 - 2005)

LIFE DRAWING TUTOR | Weekly life-drawing tutor, Repton School, Derbyshire (2003 - 2005)

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR | Public engagement projects, Repton School, Derbyshire (2003 - 2005)

PRIVATE ART TUTOR | Dairsie Castle, Fife (2001)

Academic Qualifications

2003                MFA Drawing & Painting, Edinburgh College of Art

2002                Postgraduate Diploma in Drawing & Painting, E.C.A.

2001                BA (Hons) Drawing & Painting (First Class), E.C.A.

1997 CSYS: A, A Higher: B

1996 Highers: A, A, B, B, C

Commissions/Private Collections

‘The Orchard’ Mosaic | Dandelion, Unexpected Gardens | Large scale (4m wide) outdoor mosaic using foraged sea pottery collected over 10+ years along Fife’s coastal path to mark a community productive growing space (2022)

Lumens | Forest Bathing | East Lothian Community Hospital | Mental health inpatient ward & public circulation areas (2019/20)

Hide| Forest Bathing | East Lothian Community Hospital | Public Circulation Areas (2019/20)

Pinhole Photography | Permanent Collection, Edinburgh Academy (2007)

Pinhole Photography | Permanent Collection, Repton School (2005)

Film | Permanent Collection, Edinburgh College of Art (2003)

Installation | Public art commission, Art of Saving Energy Exhibition, City of Edinburgh Council (2002)

Photography |Permanent Collection, Edinburgh College of Art (2001)

Drawings | Private Collection, Scotsman Hotel, Edinburgh (2001)

Painting | Private Collection, Naim Attallah, Bond Street, London (1998)

Drawings | Permanent Collection, Edinburgh College of Art (1998)

Recent Local Community Involvement

Treasurer | Victoria Rd Park Development Group, raising funds to replace and develop a run-down play area in Lundin Links, Fife. A fully inclusive Park was installed in May 2019.

Member of Largo Communities Together (2017/18), a charity we set up with the aim of developing community enterprises and outdoor recreation space on the Largo Estate, Fife under new land use laws.