Thurso glass artist wins ‘big prize’
Thurso glass artist Ian Pearson recently collected one of his biggest awards for his glass sculpture on display in the Big Art Show at Paisley.
The Big Art Show is one of Scotland’s largest open-entry art exhibitions. Launched in 2022 the first exhibition featured nearly 1000 artworks from all over the UK as well as artwork from Europe and Asia. The 2024 show has over 1500 artworks from 586 artists.
Ian explained that he submitted six of his glass sculptures and all were accepted with the winning piece being an abstract design which was one of two of his works sold during the first few days after the exhibition opened.
His award is for the ‘Best Emerging Artist’ and was given by the Clutha Trust.
“At first I was very surprised to win this award in this category as I have been working with glass for over fifty years,” Ian said.
“Then it was explained to me that I was a first-time exhibitor and that my artistic glasswork was regarded as emerging from my scientific glass background.”
Even more surprising for Ian is that he exhibited an earlier version of his winning abstract sculpture with the Society of Caithness Arts annual exhibition in 1984 which was then held in the Thurso Art Gallery within the town’s library.
Unfortunately, Ian could not collect his award at the time of the opening of the exhibition since he was teaching a masterclass at the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge.
He managed to pick it up a couple of weeks later when he was travelling to another glass event, the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers symposium, taking place near Cumbernauld.
Ian added: “It’s been a very busy time for me as I am exhibiting two works of glass with the Scottish Glass Society’s exhibition in Glasgow taking place until September 25.”
The show is situated in the Art Department, a former department store, and can be found at 10-2 Causeyside Street, Paisley. It runs for three months, closing on November 30 with upwards of 15,000 visitors expected.
