Work by Rosemary Campbell :: Poem by Gerda Stevenson
It’s Aye Sang wi Me
Carolina Oliphant – Lady Nairn, 1766 – 1845, Findo Gask, Perthshire; singer-songwriter; throughout her life she adamantly hid behind the nom de plume: `Mrs. B of B’. Many of her songs were long assumed to be by Robert Burns and Niel Gow.
From Quines by Gerda Stevenson
Artist’s statement
I chose the poem ‘It’s Aye Sang Wi Me’ as I do love the Scots tongue. It reminds me of my childhood when this was how we spoke in the small town I was brought up in. However, at this time using the Scots tongue was looked down on rather than celebrated. I researched where and when Lady Nairne lived, learned that the family supported the Jacobite cause, discovered she wrote the song ‘The Rowan Tree,’ my father’s favourite song! I decided to create a ‘portrait’ of her. I layered and embellished the background based on colour of a Jacobite tartan and made use of the information and imagery I collected and collated in my sketchbook.