Erin Thomson is a Dundee-born painter based in Edinburgh with a practice informed by historical and scientific research. She studied painting at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, graduating in 2021. She was awarded the VAS Graduate Showcase Award, the SSA New Graduate Award and is also a recipient of an RSA John Kinross Scholarship to Florence.
With a particular interest in journals, Thomson explores obscure moments or events in history through painting and drawing. She encodes information such as writing, music or data points into ciphers, created based on imagery, patterns or numbers relevant to each project.
1st May 1681 is based on the journals of two 17th century pirate explorers, William Dampier and Lionel Wafer. Together they trudged through the region historically known as the Isthmus of Darien in Panama for 10 days until an unfortunate accident meant Wafer could no longer travel, and they went their separate ways at a Kuna village. With the Kuna people’s help Dampier left Panama 24 days later, while Wafer was stranded for some months. He was later able to travel north and board an English sloop where he reunited with his crewmate, Dampier.
