photo credit Lucy Cox
Artist Statement
I create oil paintings on crafted wooden surfaces. Each is drilled, decoratively burned, and stitched with wire to form an integral frame.
My most recent work is filled with dark and glittering scenes linked with rippling grass and moss, motherhood, sacred histories and places, and references my past in rural Canada and life in Mid Wales.
I am captured by jewel-like objects imbued with a sense of magic, danger, and connection to another realm.
I do varied commission work accross many surfaces and forms. I am always interested in capturing something sacred for the centuries ahead.
About
I was born in 1989 in Canada to a Scottish mother and Welsh father. I was raised in Minden - a rural town in Central Ontario. I still feel inspired by the marshlands, lakes, diverse forest and unyeilding granite of my Canadian childhood.
At sixteen, I left home to live in Japan for a year via the Rotary Exchange Program. References from that transformative year continue to wash over my work. Later, I lived in the Midwest of the United States and in the South West of England working as a technical designer for international clothing brands.
In my mid twenties I moved permanently to the United Kingdom, and completed a year of mentorship at The Newlyn School of Art in Cornwall. I have exhibited my work throughout the United Kingdom, presented two solo exhibitions, and have been featured in international publications.
In 2021, I became a mother - and in 2023, a mother of two. The experience of motherhood has been a source of joy, growth, and inspiration. I am based in Builth Wells, Mid Wales.
CV
Selected Exhibitions2025 Cyfarthfa Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery: Juxtaposed (Currently)
2024 Velarde Gallery: Kingsbridge: Paradise: see more
2023 Mid Wales Arts Centre, Caesws: Open Exhibition Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy: Open Exhibition
2022 Darle and the Bear Gallery, Woodstock: "Brythonic Dreams" (Solo Exhibition) see more
2022 Birdwood House Gallery, Totnes: "Liminal Space"
2022 Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury: "Wiltshire Creative Summer Open"
2022 Kingshill House, Dursley: "Mind - be here, present / be here now"
2021 Mission Gallery, Swansea: "The Maker" (Solo Exhibition)
2021 Picton Castle Gallery, The Rhos: "Welsh Fables, Magic, & Halloween"
2021 Artizan Gallery, Torquay: "Gossamer Threads"
2021 Birdwood Gallery, Totnes: "Shared Spaces"
2020 Holt Festival Pavillion, Holt: Sir John Hurt Prize Shortlist Exhibition
2020 Jupiter Gallery, Newlyn: "From the Valley, and Beyond"
2020 The GAP Arts Project Space, Birmingham: "Self, Isolated"
2020 Jupiter Gallery, Newlyn: "Turbulent Times"
2020 North London Art Hub, London: "I have no idea how we grew up"
2019 Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens Gallery, Penzance: Summer Exhibition
2019 Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens Gallery, Penzance: "Sol Force"
2018 PZ Gallery, Penzance: "Aquarium"
Permanent Collections
Picton Castle Trust, Picton Castle Gardens: The Rhos: see more
Education
Artist Mentorship Program, Newlyn School of Art, 2018
Publications
SU4IP, TENSION Artist Book, April 2023
Forget Me Not Press: "In The Dark", November 2022 (Cover)
Texlandia 2022/23, October 2022
Yolk Literary Volume 2.2, August 2022
Epoch Journal No. 5 Unholy, August 2022
Self, Isolated: Self portraits from lockdown: The GAP Arts Project, August 2020
instagram @mhairi_treharne
mhairi.mhairi@gmail.com
mhairi.mhairi@gmail.com
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