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Aberdeenshire interior designer turned artist wins award at major exhibition for work inspired by Western Isles

Artist Susan Macintosh has been awarded an RSW Watermark Award. Image: RSW.
Artist Susan Macintosh has been awarded an RSW Watermark Award. Image: RSW.

An Aberdeenshire woman who switched careers to become an artist has won an award for a painting inspired by the Western Isles.

Susan Macintosh was already celebrating after being made a member of Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) when she heard the good news.

Ms Macintosh, who lives near Bellabeg in Strathdon, has been awarded a RSW Watermark Award at the Open Annual Exhibition of RSW for her painting called Early Rain, North Uist.

The exhibition is a major showcase in Scotland for artists working in water-based media and is in its 142nd year.

Including over 300 paintings, the show is being hosted at the Royal Scottish Academy building on Princes Street, in Edinburgh this year until February 16.

Inspired by visits to the Western Isles

Susan Mcintosh won the award for her painting named after North Uist. Image: FLPA/Shutterstock

The artist admitted she was delighted at the news as the show is her favourite exhibition.

Ms Mcintosh said: “It was great to be admitted to membership, and winning a prize on top of that is fantastic.

“The RSW show is my favourite exhibition of the year, it’s really inspiring. I go round looking at lots of paintings and saying ‘I wish I’d painted that'”

The Moray College UHI graduate had previously worked in interior design and was put off from going to art college at the time by a career advisor.

She said: “I nearly went to art school when I left school, but the careers adviser said it wasn’t going to be a good idea.

“Studying at the University of Highlands and Islands was very good, we had small classes and very good tutors.”

In RSW’s exhibition this year, Ms Mcintosh has three “large-scale” paintings all inspired by visits to the Western Isles.

She said: “I love going out to the islands, the light there is especially good, and working with watercolour is the ideal way to explore that.

“I like putting all my ideas in a painting, landscape, philosophy, how I feel, what the light’s doing, all in one place.”

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