Celtic heritage expressed in art

• Published date: 01 December 2022

In her teens, she studied with noted New Zealand water-colourist HV Miller, before going on to the Canterbury School of Fine Arts at Ilam

She tried many different mediums over the years but always returned to watercolours.

Piper has an exhibition opening this evening at Eade Gallery in Clyde that combines her fascinations with the West Coast, or Te Tai Poutini, with research into her own Scots Celtic heritage and broader Celtic imagery.

Weaving Celtic Art into Te Tai Poutini consists of seven watercolours on paper, which have also been printed in a smaller format and mounted together with hand-cut Celtic symbols.

‘‘The Celts were originally pagan and their philosophy was that nature was to be nurtured and revered,’’ Piper said.

There was an ancient Gaelic term for that concept — duthchas — that meant a unity between land, people, nature and culture.

Celtic symbols and knotwork were first recorded...