Wetlands Wonders are a series of seven decorative ground artworks created as part of the Perth Transport Futures infrastructure project. 

I was one of five Scottish artists commissioned to create artwork that would punctuate the active travel route. My aim was to have pausing points along the wetland area that encouraged curiosity. 

Zooming in and highlighting different aspects of the abundance of nature in the area. ‘Wetland Wonders’ is inspired by the harmony and richness of the natural environment, reflecting the vibrant habitats teeming with wildlife and plantlife that the new wetlands area aims to attract.

Consultation and Research

Through creative consultation workshops and conversations with Apple Tree Nursery in Perth and families at the site office, I gained valuable insights that directly shaped my thinking and the imagery.  

The children loved exploring maps and imagining animals and their journeys, chatting about where they might go, what they might eat, and who they might meet along the way.  They had fun creating textures and footprints, sparking conversations about animal clues and habitats – flowers, ladybirds, dragonflies, snails, heron, butterflies, moths, worms, centipedes, bats, frogs and toads. Their ideas were endless and some good random things in there too! (I didn’t manage to squeeze in the bear!) The consultation sparked so much creativity I could’ve made a hundred artworks on so many different themes! With all this input, plus research data into local wildlife, planting schemes, and site visits, I began to develop the designs through a mix sketching, collaging and slowly building a cohesive plan that would tie it all together to create the final designs.

“Louise led the children on a journey of creativity and discovery using open-ended questions to explore the children’s ideas and interests. The children enjoyed the freedom to mark make and imagine themselves as different animals and insects by imitating them while moving around the garden and were encouraged to create their own stories, pathways and patterns using their animal or insect of choice on paper. The children thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the session. Louise was incredibly engaging with the children and the team. From stamping with ink to movement and exploring outdoors, chalk drawing to jumping like a frog,  story telling of bears and ducks to bug hunting under logs“ Jo Machray, Appletree Nursery Director

Development

Abundance

Filled with  ox-eye daisies, common knapweed, elder, marsh marigold, cows parsley, loosestrife, field scabious part of the planting scheme all encouraging pollinators, ladybirds and butterflies.   I had an interest in looking closely at the oxeye daisy floret texture and created patterns and repeated elements. A full bloom abundance medley!

Wetland

Patterns and movement of the water encapsulating the activity of the wetland waterlife – frogs looking and catching flying bugs, heron standing still and flying off, dragonflies playing.

Journeys

Clues of footprints following the trails leading to worms, moths, slugs, snails, frogs, centipedes,  and slaters.   I had lots of fun creating the colourful trails with the broken mosaic tiles.

Blooming

With clues of footprints of ladybirds and snails dancing in circles and trails hinting at the next piece.

Collective Nouns

I had a lot of fun with the zooming in on nature and love all the collective nouns. I played with creating multiples of the animals to enhance the feeling of abundance with a pattern feel and encouraging you to look closer. Creating a Lovelyness of Ladybirds, Knot of Toads, Colony of Bats. featuring common pipistrelle bats flying and catching bugs over the wetlands and I enjoyed creating patterns to suggest echolocation, to spark curiosity of what might be there at night.

The trencadis (broken tile effect) was to add more texture around the pops of colour, pattern and imagery. I had a ‘smashing time’ doing this!

Combination of skills

This commission gave me the chance to bring together a whole mix of my skills, from delivering engaging consultation workshops, to developing concepts, refining designs, planning and turning a vision into reality. It also gave my brain a good work out using Pi (π!) to work out surface areas and project management skills.

Winning this type of large scale outdoor artwork commission allows me to create artwork that feels so aligned to me and my values – thriving, wellbeing, connection, highlighting the positives in life! 

Group Effort

There are so many people to thank who helped bring everything together. Nichol Wheatley for his expertise and guidance throughout the project. My fantastic freelance team supporting the prep and installation — huge thanks to the amazing Rio for her can-do attitude and problem-solving, Theresa and Pamela for getting properly stuck in and Jonathan for delivering the pieces and Sam for working on the files with me.

Thanks also to the BAM Nuttall team for the groundwork and Sarah for her brilliant coordination. Grateful to Mark for the tiles, Katie for the cosy blankets and Jean Oudney for the feedback on the bat concept. And of course, a big thank you to all the children from Apple Tree Nursery and the families who took part in the site office consultation. Your input and enthusiasm were so valuable.

I have a strong interest in supporting wellbeing and I truly believe that artwork can play a role in encouraging people to get out and about. It was lovely to hear cyclists telling me “they’re going to bring their grandkids”, this is exactly the kind of response that makes what I do count. Art and design installations can be a gentle invitation to explore, to play and to connect with a place in a new way. I hope these pieces encourage more people to slow down, notice the beauty in the everyday and enjoy the amazing world we have right on our doorstep.

Thanks to the commission funded by Perth & Kinross Council, BAM Nuttal and Cross Tay Links, and Nichol Wheatley for the initial works to include artwork in this large scale infrastructure project. The other pieces include: The Living Bench, by artist Louise McVey, The Souterrain project, led by artist Kate Robinson, Two mural projects by Shona Hardie, Stone carved bench, by artist Lucinda Wilkinson. Wetland Wonders project, by artist Louise Kirby.

You can read more about my projects on my website.