Craig Coulthard is an artist based in Fife whose paintings draw together archaeology, landscape, historical images and popular culture. Working from places that hold personal significance, his paintings bring together visual material from sources as diverse as Pictish stones, Japanese woodblock prints, Renaissance paintings, cinema and comics. Rather than reconstructing the past, his work explores how images survive across centuries, allowing unexpected conversations to emerge across time between people, places and objects, even when the people themselves are absent.
The paintings exhibited here reflect an ongoing interest in landscapes as repositories of memory, where different histories, images and ways of seeing coexist. Ancient monuments, saints’ legends, roadside advertising, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roman sculpture and contemporary experience are brought into the same pictorial space, creating places in which history remains active rather than fixed. Through copying, adaptation and juxtaposition, the paintings invite viewers to draw their own connections between these disparate references.
Winning the RSA Sir Robin Philipson Memorial Medal in 2002, while I was in the final year of my undergraduate degree, had a lasting impact on me. At that stage I was still trying to work out whether becoming an artist was a realistic ambition. Receiving the award gave me confidence that the work had value beyond the studio and encouraged me to persevere. Looking back, that belief was more important than the prize itself.
Three years later, receiving the RSA Sir William Gillies Bequest Award reinforced that encouragement. Over the years, the Academy has continued to provide opportunities to exhibit my work, and I remain grateful for that support. Early recognition cannot make a career, but it can provide the confidence to continue making work throughout the many years in which the path ahead is uncertain.
