Samantha Burns is a Fine Art graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, and is from West Dunbartonshire, near Loch Lomond, where her love for landscape and scenery started.
Burns’ art practice involves the use of photography and processes like mark-making and printmaking to produce digital collages using Photoshop. Memories of places that have induced comfort, joy and any other positive feelings are the inspiration for her artwork. Bringing that experience to others, by creating a safe space through these images to evoke the same feelings, is an important aspect for her. The natural world is the main inspiration for her work; she also has an interest in photographing pathways, staircases, synthetic or natural pathways and footpaths. These bring a sense of wonder at what lies beyond while simultaneously taking one on a journey through the natural environment. Although nature is her primary influence, Burns also combines it with man-made aspects such as houses, bridges or doorways that appear in the natural environment, which shows a gentle hint of human presence furthering the relationship between nature and humans. She has also been working on making artwork that is more painterly, creating pieces that might come across as a singular place but are combinations of multiple places, to suggest an ‘idealised’ environment.
