For Clipped-in, the group of artists behind Castle Park Art Centre's upcoming exhibition, Beyond Landscape, this has been a very strange year.

The five friends and colleagues, who work across a variety of media, from textiles to ceramics to charcoal, are united by their love of mountaineering, an activity which inspires many of their pieces.

Usually, therefore, the artists would immerse themselves in the landscapes of Britain, Europe and beyond, drawing from mountain and seascapes in the creation of their work.

However, earlier this year, just as the group decided on Beyond Landscape as the theme of their latest exhibition, the Covid-19 pandemic promptly put paid to any hope of interacting with these natural environments in person.

In this series of articles, I speak with Clipped-in's artists about the effect of lockdown on their work, as well as their vision for the Beyond Landscape exhibition.

Phoebe Marsden

Phoebe is the youngest member of Clipped-in, and was just finishing her degree in Textile Design at the Glasgow School of Art when the Covid lockdown hit.

"So I missed out on my degree show, but when I heard that Clipped-in were doing this exhibition, it linked really well to the project I had been doing, which was inspired by the landscapes I saw in Lisbon and Sintra in Portugal," she tells me.

"We started off in Sintra, which was really rural, and then we moved into the Lisbon cityscape, with all its famous patterns and tiles. So I guess I thought of Beyond Landscape being about how humans have come in and how we've melded with the landscape."

While the patterns of her textiles are based on the azulejo tiles she saw in Portugal, the colour palette of her work is influenced by a trip to the island of Burano, near Venice,

"It's an amazing place. It was such a sunny day the day we were there and it was just so inspiring. I've got probably a thousand pictures from that trip and I still have loads of stuff that I want to do with them," Phoebe says.

"For me, these photos capture how I was feeling, the weather, all of my senses. That comes through within the texture of my weave."

After taking her photographs, Phoebe prints them off and uses their shapes and patterns to

inform her initial sketches. "That's when the actual ideas start to flow," she explains, and she is able to begin weaving a piece, whether it be a wall hanging, a cushion cover, a bag or an item of clothing.

For this project, Phoebe was especially motivated by a desire to make her work as sustainable as possible.

"I really wanted my graduate collection to be as zero-waste and environmentally friendly as possible. So, all of my materials are second-hand yarns and climbing ropes donated by the Karabiner Mountaineering Club, which all the Clipped-in members are part of," she says.

Using these thick, unyielding climbing ropes, with their bright patterns, "definitely led the direction I took the material in and the type of weave structures and patterns I created.

"Originally I thought that I would create wearable pieces, but then once I started using the materials I realised that they were actually much more suited to an interior use, like wall coverings or outdoor seating."

"A lot of it was trial and error. I would weave something up and then see how it hung after it had come off the loom, and then would move with it in that way."

As well as considering the look of her pieces, Phoebe also concentrates on how they feel to touch, as she creates three-dimensional layers of surfaces and materials.

"It's important that my pieces are tactile. I really don't want them to be behind glass. When I make them I really want people to be able to touch and feel the different textures that I have included."

It is this attention to detail that makes Phoebe's material tribute to Burano and Lisbon a bright, almost tangible evocation of sunshine and warmth.

Phoebe is now looking forward to being able to travel again, so that she can bring new places and experiences into her artwork.

"I've also got about 50 ropes left over that I want to work from!" she says.

[I]The Beyond Landscape exhibition will run from Wednesday 16th September – Wednesday 28th October at the Castle Park Arts Centre gallery. Entry is free and the centre is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm.

You can find out more about Clipped-In, including commissions and previous exhibitions, here.

Phoebe can be contacted at: [email protected]