Larks Gallery in Ballater highlights its associated artists every month, with March and April promising a special partnership: March is Patricia Sadler, to be followed in April by Patricia’s daughter Ann Cowan.

Patricia grew up in Selkirk and was taught by the artist John McNairn, who inspired her love for the Scottish Borders landscape. She went on to study at Edinburgh College of Art and Queen Margaret College, where she studied Dress and Design, then going on to study fabric collage and creative embroidery. When her children began school she took up painting full-time, with her work being accepted by the Scottish Society of Women Artists, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Scottish Artists and Artist Craftsmen, and appearing widely in exhibitions and private collections.

Based in Edinburgh, Ann’s work has been exhibited widely. She spends time walking and drawing, taking inspiration from the capital’s architecture and cityscape, and she has created a series of concertina sketchbooks featuring the harbours of East Lothian and Fife. She says that the linear form of these books lends itself to representing the walks she takes exploring these places: ‘I’m able to show different perspectives, jump from one spot to another and pick out compositions that catch my eye’.