Ishbel Murray studied Fine Art from 1976 to 1980 at Glasgow School of Art specialising in Drawing and Painting and Mixed Media. Born and brought up on the island of Lewis she is now based in Glasgow where she currently combines a career as a lecturer in Gaelic Language with her activities as an artist.
As well as being a regular contributor to group exhibitions at the Lanntair in Stornoway and at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye, Ishbel has participated in exhibitions held by a variety of organisations in Glasgow including the Royal Glasgow Institute, Project Ability and Lloyds TSB. In recent years her work has also been shown at private Scottish galleries across Scotland including the Mansfield Park Gallery in Glasgow, the Randolph Gallery in Edinburgh and the Rendevous Gallery in Aberdeen.
In 1991 she took a break from teaching Art in schools to spend a year in Italy as an English language tutor and this experience prompted a change in direction. The challenge of learning a foreign language inspired a desire to regain fluency in her own first language, Gaelic. She now works with adult learners who are aiming to become fluent Gaelic speakers. Some of the experiences which have come about as a result of this change in career have included working in the States as a Gaelic tutor in North Carolina, presenting the Gaelic television programme “Cuairt nam Blog” on location in LA and Alaska and also developing and presenting a pilot for a Gaelic language learning television programme titled, “Gaelic Guru”.
Teaching however, despite the obvious restrictions involved in meeting the demands of the profession, has been a means of maintaining the stability required in order to be able to develop as an artist.
“A commitment to being involved in keeping the Gaelic language and culture alive informs many aspects of my day to day activity but this focus on the language has also helped to shape the direction of my work as an artist. Strong emotional ties to landscape expressed in Gaelic song and poetry has an important influence on my work.
The impact on the psyche of being constantly close to water is something that can be universally appreciated. As an islander now living in an urban setting it is easy to see why water is often the dominant feature in my work; harbours, riverbanks, coastal stretches, the open sea, canals, lochs or reservoirs all provide inspiration. Making use of photography and video to track the constantly changing patterns created by light and movement on water, I try to represent my interpretation of that single moment in time in paint.
The contrast between the solid structures above the waterline and the dissolved fragmented forms below act as a metaphor for me for the radical changes which have taken place in the many communities whose lives have been shaped in the past by their relationship with the sea”