Top prize at prestigious Edinburgh exhibition for Fife artist

Margaret Smyth, from Pittenweem, has received the W Gordon Smith & Mrs Jay Gordonsmith Award at the 142nd open annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW).

She shared the £4000 prize with Perth-based artist Claire Harkess.

The show, currently at the Royal Scottish Academy building on Princes Street, Edinburgh, is the major showcase in Scotland for artists working in water-based media, including more than 300 paintings.

Margaret said: “I was really surprised when I found out I had won. It’s a lovely boost to the confidence.”

She said her whimsical painting of a woman in a hooped dress being hoisted up by a hot air balloom was inspired by a number of different things.

“I suppose I’m a bit of a magpie, collecting things from different places. In this case the original inspiration was from a bit of street theatre we saw in Edinburgh during the festival, but I developed it and changed things.

“I liked the idea of her travelling through the sky over Tuscany, migrating south with the birds, or going to Venice for carnival. I think I was thinking about Tuscany because I wanted to go there!

“There are things in the painting which have certain associations for me but I’m happy for people to bring their own associations, make up their own narrative.”

You can see Margaret’s artwork at the exhibition which runs until February 16.