Biography

Brigid studied Illustration as an undergraduate in Dublin and as a post-graduate at Edinburgh College of Art. On graduating and basing herself in Scotland she worked for many years as a commercial illustrator, with clients from around the globe and was represented in London and New York by Arena Illustration Agency. Brigid was awarded a Gold Medal in the Irish Illustration Awards in 1995 and represented Ireland as illustrator for the official calendar of The European Commission, celebrated with illustrators from eleven other countries at a reception in Brussels, hosted by The European Commission. Her artworks have also graced the QM2 Liner and were created for its inaugural voyage in 2004, sailing from Southampton to New York.

Brigid continually exhibited alongside forging her career as an illustrator and has won several awards and prizes for her work including two awarded during annual exhibitions of The Society of Scottish Artists and Visual Arts Scotland. She was awarded the Juliet Gomperts Scholarship in 1997 to study for two weeks at The Verrocchio Art Centre at Colle Val D’ Elsa, a hilltop village in Tuscany under the English painter, Oliver Bevan and has been the recipient of a number of grants, including from The Hope-Scott Trust, The Templeton Religion Trust, The Art & Spirituality Research Project of New College at the The University of Edinburgh, The Wellcome Trust and The Centre for Medical Humanities at The University of Durham. She has worked in a broad range of media—encompassing drawing, painting, three-dimensional work using tissue, wire and collage and in porcelain, with materiality being central to her practice. She has exhibited both in the UK and internationally, with work held in a number of public and private collections.

As an arts educator, Brigid has devised and facilitated creative workshops for various clients including The Drawing Room and Kitchen Table Workshops for The National Galleries of Scotland,  collaborating with The Art Collection at The University of Stirling on literacy projects in HMRC Cornton Vale  and with displaced women from Syria and a short course, Watercolour from The Winter Garden, in The Oranagerie at West Dean College, in West Sussex. For ten years (2016-2026), she was the lead tutor for The School’s Programme at Leith School of Art, a funded programme offering classes to pupils from High Schools in Edinburgh who would otherwise have been unlikely to aspire to the pursuit of a career in the arts.

Brigid is also an experienced public speaker, having travelled to and presented papers at international conferences as part of her academic role at Duncan of Jordantsone College of Art & Design, The University of Dundee, several of which have been published in respected Journals and her creative collaborations with poets have resulted in a catalogue of publications.

During her career to date Brigid has had the good luck and pleasure to work with a range of inspiring individuals and groups, particularly enjoying collaborative discourse, from which can emerge such surprising treasures and new directions. The nature of her practice has shifted very naturally and gradually, away from commercial illustration and gravitating towards authoring and co-authoring books which explore creative discourse between art, poetry and the natural world.